Global parcel delivery company goes all-electric in Oxford

The French-based global parcel delivery service DPD group has announced that all deliveries in the British city of Oxford will now be made by electric vehicles, the first of 10 UK “green cities” to be confirmed this year.

DPD is now one of the two largest parcel delivery networks in Europe for parcels weighing under 30kg and claims to have lowered the average CO2 emission per parcel delivered to 0.786 kg CO2e – 18.8% less than in 2013.

The Oxford initiative began on July 27 and is part of the company’s Vision 25, which aims to deliver “green” to 25 major UK towns and cities, covering 25% of the UK’s entire population, by 2025.

The Vision 25 initiative is backed by a £111 million investment in electric vehicles and is expected to avoid 42,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions by the end of 2025.

“This is a landmark day for us,” said Olly Craughan, DPD’s Head of Corporate Social Responsibility. “To be able to say we can now deliver to a city the size of Oxford, using only electric vehicles, is a huge leap forward not only us, but for the sector as a whole.

“And we are on track to repeat this in nine more cities this year.

“We’ve been working with electric vehicles for the past three years and we have learned a lot in that time.  As well as investing in the vehicles themselves, we’ve created a whole new smart delivery system around them, including the charging infrastructure.”

All parcel deliveries in Oxford will be made from the company’s new Bicester “eco-depot”, a new 60,000 square-foot hub at Symmetry Park which is DPD’s first ‘net zero carbon in construction’ building. With a fleet of over 40 electric vehicles, DPD UK expects to make over 15,000 deliveries a week across Oxford.

Vision 25, which was announced in October 2020, is part of a Europe-wide effort by DPD involving 225 urban areas in 20 different countries. In the UK the targeted towns and cities include London, Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Leeds, Leicester, and Southampton.

In June, DPD signed a supply agreement with vehicle manufacturer Maxus for 750 e Deliver electric vans, which will take DPD UK’s total EV fleet to over 1,700 on the road by the end of 2021.