Dachser achieves emission-free deliveries in 25 city centres

Dachser has now established designated inner-city areas in 25 major European cities and metropolitan regions across ten countries, where unrefrigerated general cargo shipments are delivered locally with zero emissions. To achieve this, 60 electric vehicles and 13 cargo bikes are deployed.

Dachser duesseldorf e lkw lastenrad logistik — Image: Dachser

Dachser’s initiative operates under the ‘Dachser Emission-Free Delivery’ banner; combining battery-electric trucks and electrically assisted cargo bikes with micro-hubs near city centres to ensure locally emission-free deliveries. Since its launch in 2018, Dachser has expanded this concept to 25 European cities and metropolitan regions. Over the past three years alone, the number of locations has doubled, now including: Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Dortmund, Düsseldorf, Dublin, Freiburg, Hamburg, Cologne, Copenhagen, London, Madrid, Malaga, Munich, Oslo, Paris, Porto, Prague, Rotterdam, Stockholm, Strasbourg, Stuttgart, Toulouse, Warsaw, and Vienna.

Across these 25 cities, a total of 60 electric vehicles and 13 cargo bikes are currently in operation. “In 2025, around 1.8 million kilometres were covered without greenhouse gas emissions within this framework – an average of approximately 7,000 kilometres per day,” Dachser reports. Just recently, the company announced the deployment of two battery-electric trucks from the Chinese manufacturer BYD in Spain for the first time. These are the ETM6 model, a 7.5-tonne truck designed for last-mile delivery. However, this is just an aside.

Dachser developed this innovative delivery concept in 2018 at its Kornwestheim branch and subsequently rolled it out in Stuttgart for the first time. “Even then, we began integrating climate protection into our daily logistics operations rather than just discussing it,” says Stefan Hohm, Chief Development Officer (CDO) at Dachser. “We implement measures that work under realistic conditions and contribute to the decarbonisation of logistics.”

In early 2023, Dachser launched its ‘Mission Doubling’ with twelve cities. The expansion to 25 cities (‘one more than originally planned’) was based on a modular toolbox principle, “which is applied by individual branches according to local conditions,” as the company explains. Numerous suggestions from employees, gathered through a global climate protection ideas campaign, were incorporated into the development of this toolbox.

Dachser also emphasises that its concept for locally emission-free deliveries provides a solid foundation for addressing the expected increase in bans on conventional vehicles in European cities. The company monitors, across all locations, which vehicles are used within the defined emission-free delivery zones and ‘documents all unplanned deviations, which overall occur only to a limited extent.’ For 2025, a reliability rate of 95% for emission-free deliveries was achieved across all cities.

The size of the covered area varies from city to city. “Typically, busy inner-city areas such as shopping streets or historic districts are included. In Freiburg, the emission-free delivery zone now extends across the entire city following several expansion phases,” states Dachser’s headquarters. The selection of vehicles also differs depending on local conditions.

“A key factor for further implementation was the increasing availability of series-produced vehicles, particularly battery-electric trucks with sufficient payload capacity and reliable service and maintenance offerings,” explains Alexander Tonn, COO Road Logistics at Dachser. “At the start of the project, this range was significantly more limited.”

Over time, Dachser formed a project community comprising all participating branches. They exchanged experiences and further developed local solutions. “Integrating Dachser Emission-Free Delivery into our existing network processes was a crucial step in embedding the concept into daily operations,” Tonn adds. “Through the modular toolbox and close support from experts at the head office and within the project community, branches can select the elements best suited to their location. This makes it possible to implement emission-free deliveries practically and integrate them into existing workflows.”

For the family-owned company, the further expansion of emission-free inner-city deliveries and the broader transformation towards net-zero emissions remains a long-term and continuous task. Dachser CDO Stefan Hohm comments: “For us, decarbonisation is part of our corporate responsibility – fact-based, technology-neutral, and with a focus on process and energy efficiency. We see ourselves as a driver of sustainability in logistics and reject symbolic announcements without robust implementation. Sustainable logistics must also make economic sense and be planned according to realistic operational profiles, supported by reliable framework conditions, and understood as a learning curve within the company. We are staying the course on decarbonisation with the clear goal of gradually reducing emissions while securing our competitiveness.” However, the manager does not yet specify further precise targets.

dachser.de