Swiss Post has recently introduced fully electric delivery for letters and parcels in the Canton of Basel-Stadt and certain neighbouring municipalities within the Basel region.
As such, Basel has become the fourth city in which solely electric vehicles (EVs) are used.
Swiss Post’s new electric delivery vehicles have an additional green label – as an sign that the company no longer emits any CO2 during operation with these vehicles.
Swiss Post has been delivering letters and smaller parcels with electric three-wheelers for some time.
In Basel, all postal items will now be delivered in this way.
“We have made a commitment to deliver mail CO2-free throughout Switzerland from 2030. Electrified delivery in Basel is our first significant step on this journey,” says Johannes Cramer, Head of Logistics Services.
In addition to Basel, the company now uses its own electric delivery vans in the municipalities of Binningen, Allschwil, Schönenbuch, Riehen and Bettingen.
To enable this innovation, Swiss Post has installed charging infrastructure at its location at Basel SBB railway station. This meant that it also had to adapt the electrics in the building.
More than 1,100 electric vehicles
The number now stands at 1,100 delivery vans, and new vehicles are being added practically every day.
The goal is for all deliveries in Switzerland to use EVs from 2030 – from Geneva to Basel to Scuol.
As well as its electric delivery vehicles, the company uses around 6,000 three-wheeled electric scooters.
Combined with the delivery vans, Swiss Post has the largest electric fleet in Switzerland.
In January 2017, the company took its final petrol-operated letter delivery scooters out of service.
Since then, the majority of letters over the last mile have been delivered exclusively with certified eco-electricity from Switzerland.
Swiss Post has set itself the target of becoming CO2-free in its in-house operations from 2030 and reaching net zero from 2040.
The importance of the switch to e-vehicles for this goal is demonstrated by the following figures: Swiss Post has already saved 1,436 tonnes of CO2 since e-vehicles were introduced in Geneva, Bern and Zurich. This equates to 180 trips around the Earth in a car.
The switch to EVs in Basel is a significant milestone. From 2026, Swiss Post will perform all letter and parcel deliveries in major cities with e-vehicles.
Deliveries in Bern, Zurich and Geneva are already carried out using EVs. It is also planned that parcels and letters will be delivered exclusively with e-vehicles in Bienne, Lucerne and Winterthur from 2025, with Lausanne and Lugano to follow.
