Ukraine's state postal service to purchase 5,000 electric bikes
Summary
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) redistributed part of the loan allocated to Ukrposhta in November 2020 to increase the companys operational sustainability. However, Russias war against Ukraine changed priorities, the EBRD explained.The new investment meets the initial goals of the project and will allow the company to maintain the postal fleet and improve delivery services.Last year in December, the EBRD provided Ukrposhta with a grant in the amount of 4.5 million for the purchase of equipment for satellite access to the Internet and electricity generators. This was supposed to help create "points of invincibility" at Ukrposhta branches in remote and rural areas.On March 7, 2023, Ukrposhta CEO Igor Smelyansky announced the launch of the pilot program "Postmen on Electric Bikes". The company will provide postmen with electric bicycles to serve customers in hard-to-reach areas. And considering that we plan to provide all postmen with laptop computers and POS- terminals, they didnt forget about USB charging either," Smelyansky said at the time.Later it was reported that Ukrposhta had bought 20 electric bicycles for UAH 1.4 million ($37,902) for the pilot project.