Post Office goes green with battery-driven scooters

"Both scooters performed faultlessly during the whole tour over a distance of 520 kilometres," says Johan Prins, manager of the Post Office's fleet. "With one overnight battery charge the scooters can travel more than 80 kilometres with a top speed of 80 kilometres per hour."

The scooters operate solely on electricity, therefore they have zero direct carbon emissions. The Post Office has found them to be on cost and less on noise pollution. Compare this to the 270 petrol-driven scooters used by the Post Office for longer mail-delivery hauls which, in the 2011/2012 fiscal year, emitted 131 tons of CO2.

Reducing CO² contribution

Carbon dioxide is a major greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change and the SA Post Office is actively reducing its contribution by introducing alternative fuel technologies. To reduce direct carbon emissions, the Post Office bought five E-Max electric scooters in 2011.

The Post Office plans to procure 90 electric scooters by 2015. The intention is to buy 30 electrical scooters per year between 2013 and 2015 to help reduce the emissions of its delivery scooters by 67%, which is equivalent to 87.3 tons of carbon.

During 2013, the Post Office will plant 2,000 trees at schools to offset carbon emissions and create a better environment. This will help the Post Office reach its environmental sustainability goal of being carbon neutral by year 2020.