Striving to achieve Net Zero by 2040, Royal Mail Group is delivering more than just parcels
Royal Mail Group Ltd (Royal Mail) is the leading provider of postal and delivery services in the UK and the UK’s designated universal postal service provider. With the capability to deliver to around 32 million addresses in the UK, six days a week, Royal Mail manages an extensive supply chain including more than 30 mail centers, integrated mail processing, an extensive fleet of road vehicles, and the UK’s distinctive and iconic red pillar post boxes.
International Distribution Services plc is the parent company of Royal Mail, which comprises UK and international parcels and letters delivery businesses operating under the Royal Mail and Parcelforce Worldwide brands. Through the Royal Mail Core Network, the company delivers a one-price-goes-anywhere service on a range of parcels and letters products. Parcelforce Worldwide operates a separate UK network which collects and delivers express parcels. 
To learn more about the organization’s impressive supply chain operations, we speak with Nick Dunn, Royal Mail’s National Distribution and Fleet Director. With responsibility for around 6000 road movements, a handful of domestic flights, and 30 sea crossings on any average day, Nick also manages vehicle fuel supply, fleet specification and purchase, and oversees the company’s 117 vehicle workshops, which maintain its 50,000 vans and trucks.
Royal Mail currently boasts the lowest reported carbon emissions per parcel of any UK delivery company and has established an ambitious ‘Steps to Zero’ environmental strategy to reach Net Zero by 2040. In just two years, Royal Mail has reduced its Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 18 percent, with a target to achieve a 50 percent reduction by 2030.
Given these goals, Nick plays a key role in transitioning the fleet to electric vehicles (EVs). “EVs are a huge part of our progress towards Net Zero,” Nick confirms. “While just over half of our delivery routes are purely or largely on foot, our people still drive hundreds of miles every year to deliver to the UK’s 32 million addresses. We’re currently in the process of rolling out 2100 new EVs, all of which will be in place over the next year, taking us to a fleet of 7100 EVs.
“Operating the UK’s largest commercial fleet in all corners of the country presents its own EV integration and infrastructure challenges, meaning electrification can’t be a one-size-fits-all policy and we must instead navigate any issues at a local level. We currently charge our EVs at local depots, but given the number of vehicles in our fleet, the resilience of the grid and costly substation upgrades can prevent us installing more than a handful of EVs at any one site. Grid capacity and costs can also vary significantly between locations, making it hard to estimate the time and money needed for each rollout.
“There are some issues with the electrification process that Royal Mail cannot fix alone,” he continues. “We need increased public investment in a smart, flexible energy system so that charging infrastructure can be installed easily and for a reasonable price. To supplement our depot-based charging, we’re looking to work with local authorities on their infrastructure rollout plans. Large fleet operators like us can help to improve consultation and coordination for authorities’ plans, so collaboration is mutually beneficial.”
Embracing electrification
Similarly, the scale and diversity of Royal Mail’s property portfolio has thrown up some issues. “Our regional mail centers and delivery offices are in a mixture of owned and rented buildings, and where we rent a property, gaining landlord consent to install electric vehicle chargers can be difficult and time-consuming,” Nick explains. “We’re very much aware of the challenges of charging EVs at home, particularly in cities where grid capacity issues and a lack of off-street parking mean it can be difficult to find an appropriate location. We want to encourage EV uptake for all employees, but this will require greater charging availability and flexibility.”
Aside from EVs, Royal Mail is adopting Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) as an alternative fuel. “We first used HVO as an alternative to diesel in June last year at our parcel hubs in key locations like the East and West Midlands, Manchester, Sheffield, and Warrington,” Nick shares. “I’m proud to say that we hit our first milestone of ten million liters used in May 2024. HVO reduces up to 90 percent of direct greenhouse gas emissions compared to diesel, and we’re now aiming to use 27 million liters of HVO by May 2025, which we estimate will save around 44,000 tons of carbon dioxide.”
In the summer of 2024, Royal Mail also reduced the number of domestic flights it operates by half, leaving only flights that are essential to deliver the universal service obligation. “This is the biggest step we have ever taken to reduce our air travel,” Nick states. “Reducing flights is not only a crucial step towards our net-zero goals, but also makes our services more reliable for customers, as road vehicles are less likely to be impacted by weather conditions or capacity issues. This means we can transport more during our busiest times and better meet demand for next-day delivery.”
As our conversation ends, Nick explains how the company continues to place customers at the heart of its operations throughout the net-zero journey. “Our customers expect a reliable and efficient service from us at all times,” he says. “We closely manage our EV rollouts, considering factors like site layout, training, and charging safety to make them as smooth as possible.
“Working towards our net-zero goals will continue to be a major part of our work as we enter 2025 and beyond, with next year seeing the rollout of an additional 2100 EVs and the end of an era for four of our flights,” Nick concludes. “We’re also preparing for the coming challenges and opportunities around local parcel expansion as we strive to make sending and receiving parcels as convenient as possible for our customers.”