DPD Austria goes fully electric across city of St. Pölten

Although purely electric delivery has been in operation in St. Pölten for two months, it’s only now that DPD Austria has announced it. Seven Mercedes-Benz eSprinters are in use locally, departing daily from the depot in Pöchlarn. An average of 20,000 parcels are delivered each month using the electric vans.

In order to comply with access restrictions, electric cargo bikes from DPD partner, ‘Der Fahrradkurier’, are also used in the pedestrian zone of St. Pölten. The company states on its website that its cargo bikes can transport loads of up to 250 kg.

“We consider delivery by electric vehicles to be a significant contribution to reducing CO2 emissions and an important signal to the outside world in terms of environmental protection. In addition, the alternatively powered delivery vehicles are particularly quiet, offer delivery drivers a high level of driving comfort, and impress with significantly reduced maintenance and repair costs,” explains Rainer Schwarz, Managing Director of DPD Austria.

DPD Austria first began delivering customer parcels exclusively with electric vans in Bregenz in 2023. At peak times, this involves up to 1,000 parcels per day, which were delivered at the time of the announcement with a Fiat E-Ducato and three Mercedes-Benz eSprinters. DPD Austria has a total transport fleet of 1,600 vehicles, which moved around 62.3 million parcels in 2024. Unlike in Germany, DPD’s Austrian business is not exclusively owned by the French company Geopost; the freight forwarders Gebrüder Weiss, Lagermax, and Schachinger also have a stake.

However, DPD Austria is a relatively small player compared to Austrian Post, which already has around 5,000 electric vehicles for mail and parcel delivery. Recently, 100 all-wheel-drive delivery vans were added for deliveries in mountainous regions. By 2030, Austrian Post’s entire delivery fleet of 10,000 vehicles is to be converted to electric vehicles.

ots.at (in German)