Liesbeth van Tongeren, The Hague’s City Councillor for Sustainability, Environment and Energy Transition, comments: “The Hague’s city council is doing a great deal to ensure that parcels are delivered in a cleaner way, for instance by introducing a green zone that won’t allow in heavily polluting trucks. Holland’s nationwide Green Deal encourages moves to ensure that suppliers will soon only be able to get into the city using their cleanest trucks and vans. Increasingly, I note excellent sustainability initiatives in our city and am pleased that, between us, we’re creating a clean and liveable city.”
Barry Nieuwland, a PostNL driver, adds: “I’m really happy we’re now using LEVs to deliver parcels in The Hague’s city centre. These narrow little vehicles make it much easier for cyclists to ride past and we’re able to take them into every single alley to deliver. I like driving them, as they’re easy to manoeuvre and I get lots of positive responses. Plus which, they’re electric, which makes them cleaner and quieter. That’s good for our environment and climate, and makes this kind of delivery especially suitable for The Hague’s city centre.”
Emission-free delivery
PostNL is always working on innovations and solutions that help facilitate the transition to a sustainable economy and society. These LEVs are among PostNL’s over 2,100 electric vehicles, while 50% of its own fleet is more sustainable through usage of biogas, bio-LNG, renewable fuels and electric vans. Our sustainable sorting centres ensure 100% carbon-neutral sorting of mail and parcels, and 96% of addresses in the Netherlands now receive their mail and letterbox parcels emission-free. Meanwhile, city centre deliveries are increasingly done by small, sustainable vehicles such as cargo bikes and LEVs. The Hague is the third city in the Netherlands – after Arnhem and Groningen – to see PostNL doing its delivery rounds in LEVs. These LEVs are made in the Netherlands and have been especially developed for parcel deliveries by PostNL.
City hubs for combined business transport
PostNL also offers other smart solutions to help make cities cleaner and more accessible. One great example is the hub in The Hague, opened in 2020. From here, PostNL City Logistics delivers combined shipments to some 220 locations across town for central government, the city council, other government locations and businesses. Suppliers drop off their business-to-business deliveries (non-perishable office supplies and sanitary products) at the hub on the edge of town, where deliveries are combined. This saves on logistics movements and carbon emissions in the city, as the goods are then shipped in a single drop by small electric trucks.
Sustainability at PostNL
PostNL ranks among the top 1% of a total 75,000 companies rated globally on their sustainability performances, as reported by EcoVadis. Read more about PostNL and sustainability here.
