Royal Mail has deployed a fleet of 190 Mercedes-Benz eVito and Peugeot Partner electric vans; all liveried in new green branding, instead of its usual red, with the help of Mediafleet.
Ordered last year, the vehicles will deliver letters, parcels and cards to the doors of customers across selected areas in London and the south east of England and join 100 other electric vans already deployed by Royal Mail, which has a fleet of more than 47,000 vehicles, including 41,500 vans.
The vans are being deployed as part of Royal Mail’s involvement in the Ofgem-funded Optimise Prime project, which started last year and is billed as the world’s largest commercial electric vehicle project.
The vehicles have been branded using Mediafleet’s WrapidCoat colour coating system; a spray-vinyl application said to deliver savings of up to 40% for a fleet considering wrapping or spraying vans to achieve a base colour, with branding subsequently applied. It also takes half the time to remove than a vinyl wrap on a mid-size van, according to WrapidCoat.
Explaining the benefits of the technology, Mediafleet managing director Barnaby Smith Smith said: “We can take large volumes of commercial vehicles straight from a factory and colour-coat them at speed and to a standard that is indistinguishable from paint.
“A liquid at application stage, WrapidCoat also gives a quality finish beyond that which can be achieved through conventional vinyl wrapping processes. Once coated with WrapidCoat a fleet will have an ‘as painted’ finish but with all the removability of a wrap.”
He concluded: “Royal Mail is the most recent high-profile fleet to utilise WrapidCoat for new vehicles and I anticipate more will follow.
“The vehicle branding market is transitioning rapidly. Companies are recognising that vehicles have a critical role to play in overall brand strategy.”
