Vail e-delivery system gets first Town Council approval
Intent is to get as many big trucks as possible off resort village streets
Town of Vail/Courtesy photo
For nearly 50 years, people in Vail have been thinking about getting big trucks off the streets of its resort villages. That day may be coming soon.
The Vail Town Council Tuesday gave unanimous first-reading approval to an ordinance that establishes a system that dispatches small electric vehicles to businesses from the town’s six loading docks.
After a bit of fiddling with a proposal presented in July, Vail Police Commander Ryan Kenney presented an ordinance that does several things.
The town will cover fees once envisioned for businesses. Vendors will still pay dock fees.
The town will order a high-capacity refrigerator for goods that have to remain cool. But, Kenney said, those cool goods are already delivered as soon as they’re received in order to keep the temperature of those items below 45 degrees.
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Kenney said those goods get into businesses’ cold storage faster under the new system, adding that the current system is in compliance with state and county food safety regulations.
The new system will also allow private business vehicles into the village between 9 and 11 a.m. Ski shops can deliver items for tunes between 5 and 8 a.m. and between 5 and 6 p.m.
“High volume commercial carriers” including Federal Express, UPS and the U.S. Postal Service will be able to continue deliveries as they do now. That was good news for Adam Pena, who owns the Rocket Fizz candy shop in Lionshead.
Trash and recycling truck operations will also continue as they do now, although Kenney said he’s investigating how to get those large vehicles off the resort village streets. That’s going to take a bit more time.
