Enlarge image
Post transport by plane: trucks would be more environmentally friendly
Photo: Ulrich_Perrey / picture-alliance / dpa
In order to generate less CO2, Deutsche Post would like to forego domestic flights for mail delivery.
There are still three aircraft that are on the road every night from Monday to Friday and whose use in terms of climate protection is questionable, said the Post & Parcel Germany boss Tobias Meyer in Bonn.
According to the manager, the prerequisite for the abandonment of domestic flights is that the legislature takes action and changes a requirement for fast transport.
"As long as we are obliged to deliver at least 80 percent of all letters on the next working day, there is no avoiding night flights." Without this obligation, the Post would shift these long-haul shipments to trucks, which have a significantly better carbon footprint per shipment than on a plane, says Meyer.
On the long haul I prefer trucks
According to the Post Universal Service Ordinance, Deutsche Post DHL has to deliver at least 80 percent of the letters that are thrown into the mailboxes on one day on the next day - this rule is called "E + 1" (posting day plus 1 working day). "E + 2" applies to 95 percent of letters, so they have to reach the addressee no later than two days after being posted. Swiss Post suggests lowering the “E + 1” minimum value to 50 percent, but maintaining the 95 percent target for “E + 2” - then the time pressure would not be so great and the letters could also be transported by truck over long distances be transported. There are three return flights on the Hanover-Munich, Hanover-Stuttgart and Berlin-Stuttgart connections.
Last year, according to Swiss Post, 88.7 percent of letters reached consumers on the next working day and 98 percent on the next but one working day. The number of letters that would be transported domestically by air is currently in the mid-single-digit percentage range. "It is not feasible to cover the long distance from the mailbox to the recipient with trucks or even with freight trains overnight," says the manager, who is due to move to the top of the Post's executive board in spring 2023. If some letters did not reach the recipient until a day later, this would be acceptable from his point of view with a view to avoiding unnecessary emissions. Many customers would certainly accept this if it made transport more environmentally friendly.
In the coalition agreement, the federal traffic light coalition stated that it wanted to further develop the postal law to include socio-ecological standards. The Federal Ministry of Economics, which has now been run green, also refers to this in its answer to the question of what it thinks of lowering the E + 1 target. "Questions about the future universal service will be discussed in the context of the already necessary discussion about the amendment to the postal law announced in the coalition agreement," said a spokeswoman. "Social-ecological aspects will also flow into the discussion and have to be taken into account."
The economic policy spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group, Reinhard Houben, is not very enthusiastic about a weakening of the E + 1 target.
The Liberal points out that many letters would not reach the addressee until a day later.
Even in the digital age there are many people for whom the fastest possible delivery of letters is important.
"In order to forego domestic flights, Swiss Post could use other innovative ways that do not harm the consumer," says Houben.
For example, the Post could cooperate with Deutsche Bahn so that long-distance letters can be transported on trains.
mik / dpa-AFX