New electric vehicles offer greater capacity for parcel deliveries in a boom period
Australia Post is taking a new approach to its mail and parcel delivery, unveiling plans to trial the use electric delivery vehicles.
Already being used in New Zealand, Germany and Switzerland, the e-vehicle has three times the capacity of the traditional postie bike – up to 100 small parcels and 1,200 letters at one time – and looks set to arrive across Australia’s major cities in early 2017.
Australia Post Group CEO and managing director Ahmed Fahour says the growth in online shopping and the company’s switch in focus from letters to parcel delivery, which saw a $41 million before-tax profit this year, built a strong business case for the new vehicles.
“Last year, parcels generated over half of our total revenue,” he says. “Ten years ago parcels contributed less than 25 per cent of our revenue.”
“As our business transforms so too are the jobs that our workforce are doing.
“A few years ago we equipped our posties so they can deliver small parcels and this latest initiative will allow them to deliver even more – helping to ensure their roles remain meaningful well into the future.
“Since the full acquisition of StarTrack we have been working to integrate and optimise our parcels capability to build Australia’s leading eCommerce and logistics business.”
The move is about keeping the postie doing the rounds, Fahour says, creating a more diverse workforce that can “meet the changing needs of our customers as the structural decline in letter volumes continues.”
“While letter volumes have nearly halved, Australia Post is looking at ways to keep our posties delivering for Australians,” he says.
“We’re also trialling other jobs our posties might be able to do on their daily rounds – including welfare checks and meter reading – as a way to keep the much-loved postie around for years to come.”
Depending on the success of the new e-vehicles in capital cities next year, Australia Post says a broader roll-out will be decided upon later in the year.