Last Mile Brief 24/01/2023: Romanian Post upgrades fleet with 200 new vans
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In today's Last Mile Brief, we have news of a major fleet upgrade for the Romanian Post, plus the latest on the Royal Mail saga as well as Amazon's plans for a dedicated air cargo network in India.

Today’s headline story: Romanian Post upgrades fleet with 200 new vans
The Romanian Post has announced it is has purchased 200 vans as part of a €3.86m fleet upgrade.
“With this investment, we took another step towards the modernisation and further scaling of the company’s mobility. The 200 vans represent approximately 20% of the Post’s car fleet. We are continuing to renew the old fleet, which will help us to optimise the quality of our parcel services.”
Europe round up
- Last mile logistics property firm Urban Logistics REIT has continued its acquisitive growth, buying five new assets for a total cost of £48 million.
- The CEO of UK-based Packfleet has explained why his company is not using the gig economy for the hiring of its drivers.
- Consultant Anderson MacGyver has laid out how new digitalisation and tech processes were introduced at PostNL.
- The Royal Mail has reached a new milestone after deploying its 4000th electric delivery van from its Blackpool office.
- Royal Mail’s CEO could face further questioning by MPs.
- Hove MP Peter Kyle claims Royal Mail staff have told him Portslade is one of the ten worst performing sorting offices in the UK.
- Taxpayers are on the hook for more than £50billion of Royal Mail workers’ pensions, it has been claimed.
North America round up
- Amid Amazon’s change in parcel returns policy, other players in the industry are seeing returns as a possible business opportunity.
- Smaller parcel carriers made big gains during the pandemic handling packages that the larger players couldn’t deliver, writes the Wall Street Journal.
- USPS has increased the cost of the forever stamp by 3 cents from 60 cents to 63 cents.
- Grubhub has partnered with reusable packaging management platform Topanga.io to provide integrated zero-waste takeout services on college campuses across the US.
News from the rest of the world
- Amazon has launched its dedicated air cargo network in India.
- Predictability, convenience and customizability are still online shoppers’ top priorities, writes Nishith Rastogi, founder and CEO of Locus.
- Zomato is shutting down its 10-minute food delivery business.
- Deepinder Goyal, CEO of Zomato, has also admitted to being aware of a scam deployed by some of its delivery drivers.
- Ethiopian Airlines is to offer an air transport service for carrying goods across its wide network.
- Nigeria’s Postal Service has resumed its clampdown on illegal courier operators in Lagos.
- The Supreme Court in the Philippines has recognized the services of motorcycle riders delivering goods as regular employees, and ordered their employers to provide them with full benefits.
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The Last Mile Experts team, together with partners Parcel Pending by Quadient, SwipBox and Sameday Romania, all invite you to participate in a project that aims to share good practices and prove that Europe’s green initiatives and actions meet the highest sustainable development standards.
The goal of the 2nd edition of our Green Last Mile Europe report is to present a vast variety of projects that support an environmentally & socially friendly approach. Everyone from large to small is very welcome, as diversity is key from an educational and cognitive perspective.
If you know someone who has such initiatives either running or planned, please share this invitation.
For those who have not yet had the opportunity to read the previous edition of the report, you can do so here and become acquainted with its concept and what it strives to achieve. You can also find more information via LinkedIn.
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