The Dutch Post ‘PostNL‘ will replace 20 daily car journeys in Utrecht by diesel-powered delivery vans with a more sustainable way of supplying electric bicycles and small electric vehicles. The focus of use of electric vehicles initially concerns business mail to companies. In addition, the more than 150 letterboxes in the city will be ‘cleanly emptied’ in the future. In the evening, some of the packages are delivered by electric bicycles.

The aim of these changes is for PostNL in Utrecht to contribute to a cleaner city centre and at the same time to improve accessibility.

560 green delivery kilometres a day in Utrecht
PostNL has opted for the electric carrier wheel in order to make its transport movements more environmentally friendly. The electric carrier wheel is emission-free and often faster than cars or other delivery vehicles in busy city centres.

With the help of electric bicycles, PostNL replaces 20 car journeys per day. This means 560 emission-free delivery kilometres per day and a reduction in CO² emissions of around 35,000 kg per year. A special transfer location was created in the centre of Utrecht from where deliveries will be made.

Clean deliveries to the city centres

PostNL is considered to be particularly advanced among delivery services in Europe. Like other postal services, the Dutch use delivery vans to empty letterboxes and to collect and deliver large quantities of business mail. The diesel versions of these delivery vehicles will now gradually be phased out. Utrecht is not the start of a conversion, it is already the third city in which electric vehicles will be used.

In 2016, a test was carried out in downtown Amsterdam to replace delivery vans with electric carrier wheels and small electric vehicles (stints). In 2017, PostNL began delivering 60 electric bicycles to replace 100 car journeys a day in the Dutch capital.

In downtown Leeuwarden, PostNL delivers both letter mail and parcels completely emission-free with electric cars and small electric vehicles.

Only in May PostNL announced that two new Renault Master Z.E. were put into operation. The electric delivery vans enable PostNL to deliver parcels emission-free in the city centres of Utrecht and Leeuwarden. Later this year Amsterdam will be added, so that the PostNL 2018 will have put a total of 17 Renault Master Z.E. models into operation.

Following Utrecht and Leeuwarden and Amsterdam, PostNL is planning the use of electric bicycles in around ten Dutch cities in 2018. In addition, parcels are increasingly being delivered by green gas and electric cars. As an advanced logistics e-commerce service provider, PostNL aims to achieve completely emission-free delivery in 25 city centres by 2025. To this end, PostNL has signed the Zero Emission City Logistics Green Deal together with various government agencies and other companies.

Image rights: PostNL

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