DHL goes green in Manhattan and Rhine-Ruhr area

DHL is rolling out an all-green fleet of commercial delivery vehicles in Manhattan to help reduce its impact on the city’s environment.

By September 2011, DHL Express will operate thirty battery-powered electric vans and fifty hybrid trucks that will reduce fossil fuel use and cut CO2 emissions by more than 50% a year compared with conventional vehicles.

The multi-million dollar investment in the environmentally-friendly vehicles is an integral part of the Deutsche Post DHL Group’s global GoGreen strategy, which aims to improve the company’s carbon efficiency worldwide by 30% by 2020, compared with 2007 base levels.

In the past year, DHL has upgraded its delivery vehicles worldwide, including in several European and Asian countries as well as in Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador and Paraguay in the Americas.

In the second quarter of 2011, DHL Express US will also launch GoGreen carbon neutral shipping service, joining more than thirty other countries in the DHL network that already offer this service.

In other news, Deutsche Post DHL is road testing twelve new Renault Kangoo ZE electric vehicles for combined deliveries.

As part of the "E-mobility in commuter traffic" pilot project, the vehicles will transport letters and small packages in the Rhine-Ruhr area until end-2011.

By using these electric vehicles, Deutsche Post DHL and Renault are trialling the operational suitability of electric vehicles for commercial fleet operations.

The Renault vehicles have a range of up to 160 km fully loaded, and charging stations have been installed at the delivery centres in the Rhine-Ruhr area where the batteries can be recharged overnight.