Dwain McDonald, CEO of DPD, has called on vehicle manufacturers, energy providers, and national and local government to start working together now to reduce emissions and congestion for the benefit of current and future generations.
The call follows the launch of a white paper from DPD, entitled Delivering a Zero-Emission Future, which includes an eight point plan to accelerate the development of electric vehicles (EVs). The paper encourages manufacturers to make more right-hand drive EVs available in the UK and to develop more zero emission zone standards. The paper also calls for new regulation to ensure the safe and responsible operation of e-cargo bikes.
DPD also announced that it is to grow its current EV fleet of 139 vehicles to 500 by the end of 2020. However, according to McDonald there are still major barriers holding back more widespread EV adoption and investment.
McDonald said, “The decarbonization of transport fleets is challenging, both operationally and financially. DPD has already made large financial commitments to purchase commercial EVs and change operating models to help reduce emissions and congestion for the benefit of the society we live in. But it isn’t happening fast enough, so we need to remove the barriers that are slowing the pace of change. We want to invest but we can’t get the vehicles we need fast enough, while warehousing and distribution space is being pushed out of our city centers and there is limited financial support for new and innovative green vehicles.
“We cannot do this alone. We need stakeholders from across a range of industries to work together in a holistic way to create an infrastructure that makes large scale EV deployment feasible,” he added.
The DPD whitepaper can viewed here: Delivering a Zero-Emission Future.