(ECNS) – China's State Post Bureau has drafted a national mandatory standard for electric tricycles used by the express delivery industry.
The draft rule confirms electric tricycles as basic infrastructure and an important "last mile" solution for the express delivery industry, and has set requirements for their size as well as restrictions on speed and payload.
The new standard will set technological bottom lines and thresholds with regard to safety, in order to lay the important technological foundation for improving production and management of electric tricycles and to help ensure road safety.
According to the draft rule, the maximum width, height and length of the vehicles are set at 1,000mm, 1,400mm and 3,000mm respectively, and the allowed maximum payload is 180 kilograms.
The vehicles should not exceed five km/h within four seconds of starting, and their maximum speed should not be higher than 15 km/h.
In addition, requirements are made on batteries, braking, gradeability, and appearance and logos.
It also suggests that strict rules be set on production, testing, use and management of the vehicles as well as personnel training. Local authorities are advised to make specific rules in accordance with the guideline. However, it does not say whether the tricycles will need to be licensed in order to be allowed on the road.
A lack of standardized transport solutions for end-user services has become a bottleneck restricting the growth of the express delivery industry, according to the draft rule.
Last year, China's courier industry registered 276 billion yuan ($42.73 billion) in revenue, up 35 percent year-on-year, and handled a total of 20.6 billion pieces of mail and packages, up 48 percent year-on-year, while serving 110 million users on a daily basis.
However, safety and management loopholes pose severe risks to electric tricycle production and operation as well as road traffic.
Shenzhen launched a crackdown on illegal motorcycles and electric tricycles in late March, seizing about 18,000 electric vehicles. The city's traffic police bureau said the campaign is not targeted at the courier industry, but rather at various offenders who break traffic rules.
