Royal Mail is trialling electric trucks in London

A one-year trial by Royal Mail in London will use nine prototype trucks developed by Banbury-based firm Arrival.

From today, three 3.5-tonne, three 6-tonne and three 7.5-tonne trucks will form part of the postal service’s 49,000-vehicle fleet. They will operate from the capital’s Mount Pleasant depot, moving packages between mail distribution centres across the city and south-east. The depot has also been fitted with charging stations.

Arrival claims its electric vehicles will beat conventional commercial vehicles on price, design and capability. The trucks will produce zero emissions for their first 100 miles, and have also been designed to comply with the Mayor of London’s ‘Direct Vision Standard,’ which states that drivers should be able to see cyclists without the use of mirrors or cameras.

These vehicles are the first to be produced at Arrival’s new factory in Oxfordshire. The company, which was previously called Charge Auto, was founded by the people behind autonomous racing series Roborace.  

“Royal Mail is delighted to be collaborating with Arrival and pioneering the adoption of large electric commercial vehicles,” said Paul Gatti, Royal Mail Fleet’s managing director.

Denis Sverdlov, the CEO of Arrival, said he was “thrilled” to partner with Royal Mail. “Cities like London will benefit hugely from a switch to electric, in terms of both pollution and noise. Most importantly we are priced the same as diesel trucks, removing the main barrier to go electric,” he added.

Other Arrival concepts feature 'autonomous ready' technology. In future, the Royal Mail trucks may have self-driving equipment built into them, but according to Wired it has not been included in these prototypes.