River mail is coming to Paris suburb in 2026
New electric barge aims to cut congestion and emissions in Boulogne-Billancourt
Electric bikes will be used for the final stage of delivery
Andrey Vyrodov/Shutterstock
Work is underway on a new boat which will be used by La Poste to deliver 3,000 packages a day to the Paris suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt.
The double-decker, electric-powered barge will take packages from La Poste’s Colissimo sorting office in Gennevilliers (Hauts-de-Seine) and transport them 24km to Boulogne-Billancourt in 2026.
The journey is expected to take two hours 30 minutes and is designed to relieve traffic congestion in Boulogne-Billancourt.
Also on the boat will be a fleet of electric-powered delivery bicycles, with their own charging points, ready to deliver packages when the boat docks.
The boat will have its own crane and equipment so that it can load and unload the packages and bicycles without relying on specialist docks.
“In 10 years we have already reduced by half the carbon emissions from delivering Colissimo packages, and this is part of our drive to continue our work in the 80 communes around Paris,” said Jean-Yves Gras, managing director of Colissimo.
Financial details about the new boat, which will be owned and operated by logistics company Fludis for La Poste, were not given.
Work on the barge started in autumn 2024, and the first deliveries using it should be made in early 2026.
Read more: Cost of sending letters and parcels to rise in France: see new rates
In another effort to use less fossil fuel, Colissimo experimented this autumn with the Strasbourg tram network.
Around 100 parcels were given space at the front of trams for delivery from an outlying suburb to the city centre, departing at 09:00.
The parcels were moved in containers and attached to poles usually used for passengers to grab on to.
In the city centre, a second postman helped with the final sorting of the parcels before they were loaded onto electric cargo bikes for the final stage of delivery.
A second, afternoon run was also trialled.
The experiment ran for six weeks. La Poste did not say how long it would take for the results to be analysed to see if trams could become a regular part of its urban delivery network.
