Royal Mail is wheeling out a new bicycle to replace its 33,000 strong fleet – the largest in Europe.

The new bike, called the Millennium, will be lighter and more comfortable than the existing model, with better road-holding and improved safety features. It was designed after close consultation with postmen and women throughout the UK.

Royal Mail’s Head of Delivery, Garry Phillips, said:

"We have built into the Millennium the features our staff say they want most: better suspension – provided by fatter tyres and alloy wheels instead of steel – a strengthened frame, a stand and a lock, and reflective material for greater visibility.

"For more than 100 years we have taken great care to provide our postmen and women with rugged, serviceable machines. But we now need a new, versatile design using latest technology to replace bikes as they come to the end of the road.

"The Millennium is a first class bike for today’s conditions, but we are continuing our research to find ways to make cycling safer, more comfortable and more efficient for our postmen and woman."

The new bicycles will be made by WR Pashley of Stratford-on-Avon, main supplier to The Post Office since 1977.

Each working day Royal Mail uses trains, planes and 29,00 vans and trucks to distribute 75 million letters, cards and packets (nearly double that at Christmas). But for many of the UK’s 26 million addresses, it is a postman or woman on a bicycle who delivers their mail to the door.