New Zealand Post plans to roll-out electric delivery buggies in Marlborough

Thursday, 20 July 2017

The council is working through a legal agreement with New Zealand Post to allow the fully-electric Paxster delivery buggies to drive on footpaths in Blenheim and Picton.

Move aside mobility scooters, a different kind of electric vehicle could soon be hitting footpaths in Marlborough as New Zealand Post rolls out its new delivery fleet.

The state-owned enterprise is working with the council on a legal agreement to allow it to use the distinctive red buggies, known as Paxsters, in Blenheim.

The vehicles, designed and manufactured in Norway, are already in use in several centres across the country following a successful trial in New Plymouth in 2015.

Councillors voted at an assets and services committee meeting on Thursday to enter into the agreement, subject to final details being worked out with New Zealand Post.

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Paxsters ran off an electric battery lasting 70 to 90 kilometres, they had a top speed of 45kmh, and could carry up to 200 kilograms of letters and parcels.

A New Zealand Post spokeswoman said there was growing demand for parcels. The vehicles were an investment to help the company adapt to this trend, she said.

Last June, New Zealand Post received the first shipment of 50 Paxsters as part of a $15 million drive to purchase 500 of the vehicles over the course of two years.

Councillor Mark Peters said at the meeting he was concerned about the safety of pedestrians, and wondered if there could be a trial period to test the vehicles.

'We're a community with a relatively old population, there's quite a lot of mobility scooters. If there's something on the footpath going 20kmh that worries me,' he said

The Postal Workers Union of Aotearoa had also expressed concerns about the safety of the Paxsters, for both postal staff and pedestrians.

However, the New Zealand Post spokeswoman said drivers received extensive safety training, and would give way to all other footpath users, including people on mobility scooters.

Council assets and services manager Richard Coningham said the legal agreement, which was still being finalised, would be reviewed after a year.

New Zealand Post limited the speed of Paxsters to 20kmh on the footpath, however research in places they were being used showed the average speed was 14kmh, he said.

The agreement was still being worked through to identify exclusion areas, which already included the Blenheim CBD, where the Paxsters would not be used.

Coningham said he and the chairman of the assets and services committee, Terry Sloan, would sign off on the agreement once all the excluded roads were agreed on.

The vehicles had also been lauded for their environemtally-friendly credentials.

Senior executives at New Zealand Post have made the claim that, once the 500 Paxsters are in use, it will be the largest fleet of road legal, fully electric vehicles in the country.