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.

Last Mile Experts

24.01.2023

Photo: Romanian Post press materials

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.

The new vehicles, none of which are electric, now make up 20% of the company’s entire vehicle fleet.

The vans were purchased using Romania Post’s own funds, as well as a loan secured with state-owned EximBank some two years ago.

Commenting on the announcement, Valentin Ștefan, general director of the Romanian Post, said:

“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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