Courier specialist DPD has announced plans to deliver to 25 of the largest towns and cities in the UK with zero- and low-emission delivery means by 2025. The move is part of a Europe-wide drive by the group involving 225 urban areas in 20 countries, and is based on a delivery model trialed in cities including London. The company says it has rethought the way it operates last-mile delivery by implementing micro and urban depots as well as other appropriate alternative delivery solutions.
The result of the UK and European projects will be, the company hopes, that more than 260 million parcels or 17% of the Group’s volumes should be delivered by zero- or low-emission vehicles by the end of 2025, with CO2 emissions decreasing by 89% and pollutants by 80%, compared with 2020 in the targeted towns and cities. To achieve this, DPD says it will deploy 7,000 new alternative vehicles, 3,600 charging points and 80 new urban depots across Europe.
New alternative fleets will comprise various vehicles, depending on the town or city center, delivery needs and regulation constraints. In the UK, DPD already has more than 700 EVs including MAN eTGE, Nissan e-NV200 and 7.5t Fuso eCanters and has recently announced trials with LEVC and Volta Trucks.
Dwain McDonald, DPD’s CEO, commented, “This is a hugely significant announcement from DPDgroup and we are very proud to be playing such a key role here. We’ve led the way on EVs in the UK parcel market, first with our all-electric micro depots in London and then with the scale of our nationwide investment. We are very conscious of our responsibility to the planet and its people, and we aim to be the most sustainable delivery company in the UK and Europe. We were among the first to put our hands up and acknowledge our part in climate change issues and since then we have put our hand in our pocket and started investing in the solution.”