IT COULD soon be the end of pedalling posties in Colchester, as Royal Mail scraps bikes and brings in vans to deliver parcels.

The rise of internet shopping has led to an increase in parcels and a reduction in letters, making the delivery of them on bikes unsafe.

From this autumn, Royal Mail, with the backing of Communication Workers Union (CWU) members, plans to phase out the bikes and replace them with vans.

However, deliveries to rural areas, where the volume of mail is lower, are likely to continue to be carried out on bicycles.

Kevan Pugh, Colchester and district branch secretary for the CWU, said the rise of parcels meant bikes often had to be accompanied by large vans on the rounds.

Smaller vans would replace the bikes and large vans, resulting in a safer and “more environmentally friendly” service.

He said: “They are making a transition so two people might go out in vans, rather than two cyclists. That doesn’t sound very environmentally friendly, but we wouldn’t need the support vehicle any more.

“Although customers will see more smaller vehicles, they will see fewer larger vehicles.

“There are a fair amount of our members who don’t want to move away from the cycles, but the packages are increasing as the letters diminish. There is the safety element there as well.”

The changes are part of a national agreement between the union and Royal Mail to modernise and speed up the way post is sorted.

At the moment, certain amounts of post are pre-sorted in Chelmsford before they arrive at the Colchester office.

Under the changes, more mail will be sorted in detail in Chelmsford, before it reaches Colchester.

Postmen in the town will then have more time to go out on deliveries.

Mr Pugh explained: “People will spend less time indoors. In order to compensate for that, and fill eight hours of the day, we need to rebalance the workload by spending more time outdoors. In order to spend more time outdoors, we need to make sure they can do that safely.”