Australia Post Pleased With Volvo Electric Truck Trial

Deliveries originating from an Australia Post distribution centre on the outskirts of Brisbane have been bit greener lately with the addition of a Volvo electric truck.

Australia Post is putting a Volvo FL Electric through its paces under a 6-month trial. FL Electric trucks have already racked up thousands of kilometres on Australian roads in other trials, include one undertaken by Linfox subsidiary BevChain.

“It’s very rewarding seeing these vehicles go into service after so much hard work ensuring they are the right fit for both our market and the applications they are being put into,” says Tim Camilleri, E-mobility Manager, Volvo Group Australia. “These vehicles are proving themselves day in and day out around the globe.”

Some basis specs of  Australia Post’s Volvo FL Electric:

• Battery capacity: 265 kWh, 4 batteries
• Range up to 300 km
• Payload up to 5,500kg
• Single electric motor, 2-speed automated transmission.
• Performance: 130kw (174hp) continuous
• 425Nm of torque

Australia Post Divisional General Manager South James Dixon seems pretty happy with the trial to date.

“The truck has been in service for a couple of months now and is performing well,” he said. “We will continue to push electric vehicles into our fleet where we can to help reduce emissions wherever we can.”

Australia Post And Emissions Reduction

Australia Post is aiming to reduce its absolute Scope 1, 2 and 3 carbon emissions 15% from an FY19 baseline by 2025. As part of this effort, it began utilising electric vehicles in 2019. Today, the service has around 4,635 EVs in its fleet – although the vast majority of these are three-wheeled electric delivery vehicles (eDVs) and electric bikes.

The eDVs are replacing the service’s traditional red motorcycles. They can carry 1,200+ letters a day, and three times as many parcels. It looks like they would be more comfortable for posties as well.

Beyond electric vehicles, Australia Post is also taking other measures such as sourcing 100% renewable electricity by 2025 across its sites; including processing and delivery centres, corporate post offices and support offices. Already in its renewable energy mix are a bunch of on-site solar power systems – more than 23,000+ panels across 71 sites so far.

Among the installations is a monster 2.1MW rooftop PV system at its parcel sorting facility in Chullora, New South Wales that was completed back in 2017.  But what about Redbank Plains – where the FL Electric truck is reportedly based according to Volvo? I’m a bit confused as I can’t find an Aussie Post distribution centre in Redbank Plains; just a couple of licensed post offices. But there is a humungous one in Redbank (not far away) that has 3,244 rooftop solar panels.

Australia Post was also a founding member of the Melbourne Renewable Energy Project (MREP), which is buying clean electricity from Crowlands Wind Farm under a long term power purchase agreement.

Looking beyond 2025, Australia Post became the first Commonwealth Government Business Enterprise to target net zero emissions by 2050 in October last year.

You can learn more about Australia Post’s emissions reduction and other sustainability efforts here.

Original Source: https://www.solarquotes.com.au/blog/australia-post-electric-mb2853/