DPD to pilot 'world first' electric delivery truck in London | Hacker News Reader

DPD to pilot 'world first' electric delivery truck in London

businessgreen.com

16 pointssefrost22 comments

A large proportion of the UK had milk delivered by electric vehicles 'milk floats' when I was a child in the 1980s... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_float

They're still around, though not as common. I got a slight childlike excitement last time I saw one drive up my street.

So that's what they are called! There's a green one in Tufnell Park, in very good condition and I can't help but stare when it drives by.

DPD have plenty of Nissan NV200 electric vans doing the rounds. They make a lot of sense and not a lot of noise. These are the right vehicles for dropping off Amazon orders and other online purchases, even in hilly areas.

London has a lot of businesses sending stuff out and getting stuff in. Some are close to the M25 where pallets are the order of the day. Normally this needs something bigger than a Nissan van - a big lorry. Seems that DPD have the right tool for the job. I don't blame them for grumbling, routes near to their depots on the M25 need vehicles where you can pick up several pallets of small parcels from many warehouses. This far they have not been able to do that the EV way.

We often get deliveries from a DPD electric van out here in the sticks of Gloucestershire hadn't realised it was a Nissan though

> the world's first purpose-built full-electric large commercial vehicle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StreetScooter

Probably not technically a Large Commercial Vehicle, but a couple other ones do come to mind.

>> Volta Zero was specifically designed to deliver parcels and freight in inner city locations

Really? Setting aside the switch to electric motors, the thing is huge. The cab looks like the first 1/4 of a bus and it is 10-feet wide. Good luck with that on in the back alleys of London. How exactly is this designed for urban "parcel" delivery? It looks like any other flatbed meant only for work only at loading docks.

> How exactly is this designed for urban "parcel" delivery?

It doesn't look that much bigger than a UPS truck - and plenty of shops in urban areas receive deliveries on 7.5 tonne trucks.

The real thing that makes this designed for urban delivery is the 100-mile range and 56 mph maximum speed which mean it ain't designed for much else :)

Streetscooter seems a more practical design, since they are narrow enough that most cars can pass them even in narrow streets.

> The cab looks like the first 1/4 of a bus and it is 10-feet wide.

That style cab is called "low entry" and designed for frequent entrance and egress just like a bus. They can be spec'd with both sitting and standing configurations as well as steering wheels/controls on both sides. The primary market is municipal trash trucks where the operators have to exit the vehicle to load trash. And its not 10 feet wide but most likely the nearly world standard 8-8.5 feet/2400-2600 mm truck/bus width.

I looked at the spec's it's 2.55 meters wide or about 8 feet 4 inches. Definitely not over wide compared to a lot of delivery trucks. Also about 30 feet long.

Looks the same size as bin lorries (what other countries might call a refuse truck or a waste collection lorry), and they get around most of London just fine.

Amazon have ordered 100k EVs from Rivian, and it'll be interesting to see what sizes and shapes they turn out.

To be fair bin lorries cause havoc and regularly block double-parked residential streets for several minutes, which is fine because it's essential and happens once a week, these things might not be tolerated as much.

'World first'... Perhaps for the size.

Certainly not world's first electric delivery truck.

Electric milk delivery trucks ("milk floats" [1]) were a common sight in the UK from the 1950s until the 1980s, when doorstep delivery of milk started to decline.

There are still a few around.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_float

Yeah we still have a milk float doing its round (England) and it is electric (and quite beat-up, looks old). When we hear that "wizz" sound in the morning we know it's the guy.

Edit: Our local one looks like a "Dairy Crest Smith's Elizabethan milk float" in the Wikipedia page's pictures.

Yeah Deutsche Post was first I think.

I’ve seen a electric DPD truck in my town in NL for a couple of years at the least.

It is pretty small and only used in the inner city for supplying shop it seems. I live 50m from the center and DPD always shows up with a normal van here

What exactly are they claiming is 'world first'? There are already examples of previous electric delivery trucks in this thread. I will add one that I don't see listed - the Navistar International eStar - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navistar_International#eStar_e...

"early next year" : or maybe another year later, or never.

Or someone beats them to it, making it not 'world first'.

Great PR ( submarine ) though.

Yeah these things can take forever to produce especially when it's a small company with no prior manufacturing experience and they have to build up a whole supply chain. A small defect in the manufacturing of a single component can push the build back months. I would reckon on around two years from rolling prototype to introduction to fleet. And I don't think they have a rolling prototype yet, I see a lot of nice renders instead.

also https://metro.co.uk/2020/07/29/waitrose-john-lewis-introduce...

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