Do you dream of electric vehicles?

We do. Well almost.

We have an electric van and have used it for nappy laundry deliveries since June 2005.

Nappy Ever After van

We were one of the first companies to switch to a no-emission delivery vehicle; it made sense for us to preserve the London air quality alongside reducing landfill and waste with the laundry service. Because of our enterprising, we’ve even been used as a case study by Source London (Boris’ project to make London the electric vehicle capital in Europe). This week we were thrilled to read that the government has announced subsidies for those wanting to switch to using an electric van.

We’ve had some ups and downs along the way – and now, we’re unfortunately in a down. The van’s suspension has failed, ostensibly caused by the stress of the weight of the batteries going over the many speed bumps we encounter every day in London doing the deliveries. We can’t go fast so speeding over them has not been the issue!

We’d love to go back to zero tail-pipe emission deliveries but the company just can’t afford the cost of the repairs or to replace the van. It’s sad as Nappy Ever After is completely committed to sustainability even when it does make running costs more expensive. It’s the planet and quality of life that counts for our customers – our babies are our future.

For those of you thinking about buying an electric van for your business, please do. It’s the right thing. My top tip is to get the specifications of the batteries and read them carefully. Don’t rely on what the salesperson tells you – get the actually spec yourself.  I was told to charge the batteries immediately after use. The battery spec said to charge the batteries below a certain temperature (ie when they had cooled down). They performed better and lasted longer after we found that out. Batteries are expensive and have high environmental impacts so treat them with care.  Enjoy!

Joy
Nappy Ever After, Director

(Apologies to Philip K Dick for the title of this article. :-))

Van woes

Our electric van’s brakes are unsafe – we found out on Thursday. No, there wasn’t an accident – thank goodness! – but they had begun to feel soft so we got the mechanics out to have a look and they said the van was unsafe to drive.

Cue panic, as we had nappy laundry service deliveries on Friday and as usual all next week (brake part not due for some time as coming from Italy…hopefully by Thursday this coming week though!).  Su and I did the round in my car on Friday and we have hired a van for Tuesday to do the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday rounds.

We’ve just had a service, some motor refurbishment and new batteries (effectively 2.5 years of fuel up front) so we don’t need anything else to go wrong – can you hear us??? 🙂

It was quite fun doing the round, though, I have to admit, although it did mess with my Friday.

Still at least no braking accidents and that’s all that matters. Will try to post a picture of the van tomorrow.