DPD UK hits electrification targets earlier than expected
The parcel service DPD is making faster progress than planned with the electrification of its UK fleet. DPD currently offers an all-electric delivery service in ten UK cities and aims to do so in 30 locations by the end of 2023. This is five more than originally planned and two years earlier than previously expected.
In October 2020, DPD vowed to decarbonise operations across the UK and Europe, saying it would aim for only electric vehicles to deliver shipments in 25 UK cities by 2025. With around 5,000 electric vehicles across 30 cities by the end of 2023, this target is to be surpassed much sooner.
The first city with an all-electric DPD delivery fleet was Oxford in July 2021. Elaine Kerr, DPD UK CEO has now confirmed that only electric vehicles are now also being used in Bradford, Bristol, Cardiff, Hull, Newcastle, Nottingham, Reading, Southampton and Stoke. In other cities – including much larger cities such as Liverpool, Manchester and London – work towards whole fleets with zero tailpipe emissions is well underway.
CEO Elaine Kerr went on to say, “One of our big aims is to be the UK’s most sustainable delivery company and by the end of 2023, we will have over 5,000 EVs on the road and 30 urban centres delivered on all-electric vehicles.” She expained that, “despite some of the issues that have held us back, such as the lack of righthand drive EVs for the UK market. We are now seeing improved availability of larger electric vans, which is what we need.”
To date, DPD says it has invested over £90 million (105 million euros) in all electric vehicles in the UK. This has already included 750 electric delivery vans from SAIC brand Maxis, as well as an enormous order of 1,000 Ford E-Transits in May 2022. When the Ford vans are delivered, DPD UK’s electric vehicle fleet will exceed 2,500 vehicles. DPD UK has so far also used the Nissan e-NV200 and the MAN eTGE as part of the fleet in the UK.
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