Australia Post to phase out iconic red motorcycles by 2025

The traditional red postie motorbike will soon be a relic of the past as the national post service looks for ways to improve driver safety.

Australia Post representatives told a parliamentary inquiry into road safety the company was on track to have all motorbikes phased out of the fleet by 2025.

The vehicles can only reach 45km/h and are allowed on footpaths.

Australia Post safety and wellbeing general manager Rod Maule told the inquiry the motorbike fleet was involved in the most accidents out of all delivery vehicles.

He said since beginning of the replacement program there had been a significant drop in incidents.

One of the challenges of introducing the new vehicles has been changing the culture of posties who joined the service because they love riding motorbikes, Maule said.

But drivers trialling the vehicles found they were less fatigued at the end of their shifts and felt much more visible to other drivers on the road, leading to more advocates.

An unforeseen benefit of the electric fleet is the opportunity for more women to join the male dominated postal delivery workforce.

Maule said motorbike licences were traditionally more skewed to men, but as most states were allowing electric delivery vehicles to be driven by people with motorbike and car licences, the company was able to recruit more widely.