I heard it before I saw it: a large black van adorned with that all-too-familiar Amazon grin. It wasn’t the engine of the big van. No, I heard an unidentifiable ’80s hair band blaring from the main cabin of the van.
My wife and I, who were on one of our daily walks, stopped to stare at the van, one of the few that had turned up in my neighborhood over the past month or so. Despite being the size of a UPS truck, these Rivian-built vans silently navigate our streets and make deliveries a promise Amazon made in June to launch a fleet of 15,000 electric vans in the US (EV trucks are also on the road in Europe), with the ultimate goal of seeding at least 100,000 such vans. At least the company currently has 90,000 gas vehicles delivering your precious packages.
Amazon isn’t the only one committed to taking fossil fuel-guzzling vans off the road. The United States Postal Service unveiled its fleet of electric vehicles in January and planned to use them in Georgia. However, the rollout did not really get underway until September.
UPS, which claims to have been electric driving for almost a centuryreports that there are more than 18,000 alternative fuel and advanced technology vehicles on the road.
However, Amazon and UPS have reported that they have built out charging networks to support these growing EV fleets.
These efforts are important because some estimates determine the number of vacation packages deliveries run into the billionsand that’s just for the USPS.
A switch to electricity is unlikely to impact the speed of your Black Friday and Christmas gift delivery, but the long-term impact on the environment could be measurable. A 2015 study reported that medium and heavy vans are responsible for 30% of all pollution produced by vehicles.
A wise decision
I thought about this as I contemplated the still-gleaming van in front of us, admiring its tall, narrow design, low-slung chassis and surprisingly small wheels. We were about to continue when a voice behind us shouted, “Pretty cool, huh?”
We turned around to find a young, bearded Amazon delivery driver who seemed as excited about his truck as we were interested (and perhaps a little confused by his choice of music).
He told us it was electric and it was like he was driving into the future. “There are cameras everywhere.”
In addition to electric motors, these Rivian vans are packed with advanced features such as automatic braking, collision warnings, automatic doors that open as the driver approaches, and a nice large display next to the steering wheel as a viewing window for all those cameras.
I smiled and wondered how quickly he would jump back in and drive his music away from me, but it turns out there was a method to his madness.
I noticed how quiet these vehicles were, perhaps in part to indirectly tell him that his music was breaking that silence. The delivery person smiled back at me and said, “Yes, that’s why I blast my music.” Nobody hears me coming. I’ve been right behind the people, and they have no idea.”
With that, the driver waved goodbye, got back into his forward-looking van and quietly drove away (while his music was still playing, of course).