subject: Local Posties To Ditch Push Bikes As Parcel Deliveries Become More Popular [print this page] In the UK the iconic image of the local postman or woman is a red bicycle with their basket of letters on the front, this sight has been what many people waiting on deliveries or letters have kept a watchful eye out for in the mornings for decades. Well as the postal service changes and more importantly our buying preferences change the humble push bike is no longer able to handle all our online orders of DVDs, electronics and other items bought online.
These days we are more likely to get a DVD or book ordered off of the internet than a letter through our letter box and so bicycles used as delivery vehicles are sadly being slowly phased out by the Royal Mail in the UK. The bicycle has been the best use of energy efficiency by the postal service for many years, since there are no fuels being burnt, just the postmans calories. Whilst the company wished it could keep to this age old tradition of a postman riding the bicycle as the customers needs evolve and change so too must the way the postal service handles our deliveries.
In recent years postal workers have been helped by drop boxes that are filled by delivery vans in the morning and later visited by the postman to get mail for that local area that they have not been able to carry. Even these which are not very large in the first place are now being stuffed with all of our home deliveries that are taking up a lot of the postal workers time and pointing towards a greater need for them to move back to larger delivery vehicles.
Does this mean that the green work done with using bicycles will be undone? Well if the latest changes by some parcel delivery firms have shown us anything it is that we can use eco-friendly hybrid vehicles for deliveries as many couriers now use these vehicles that give off much less harmful gases and carbon emissions so using larger vehicles to carry all our deliveries.
With some people choosing a courier instead they are able to not only use these companies that are already using energy efficient delivery vehicles but all of the other features such as a less congested delivery system and detailed tracking system can also be a major draw for people and businesses looking to send a parcel quickly and securely.
