Contributing to more sustainable cities
Could you please explain why is smart urban delivery the way forward?
The last mile delivery market is growing and is expected to continue to grow exponentially: e-shopping is exploding; in 2017, 57% of the European population was identified as e-shoppers . Among them, heavy shoppers make an average of 45 online purchases per year (around one per week), while in the UK, the most mature market in Europe, they make 82 online purchases per year. Looking for goods not available in their country, or for better deals, more than 50% of them have already bought from a foreign website, especially from the UK, and increasingly from China .
As a consequence, by 2025, the total parcel volume delivered to individuals will have doubled in Europe: almost 15 billion parcels per year will be delivered, mainly in cities. At the same time, cities are implementing a growing number of initiatives to drastically reduce congestion and pollution.
From this perspective, the challenge for a delivery company such as DPDgroup is to contribute to more sustainable cities: permanently innovate to provide a better and smarter delivery service to customers, optimize city center delivery processes, and develop ever more agile urban delivery vehicles.
How is DPDgroup making a difference?
DPDgroup’ urban logistics initiatives aim at improving everyday urban life by giving customers greater delivery choices, while reducing the impact on the environment.
The way DPDgroup would like to tackle urban logistics with local authorities would be to work together to rethink pragmatically urban mobility, improve transport efficiency incrementally and allow dynamic business life in city centers.
There is no “one size fits all” solution, as each city has different geography, capacity, strategic objectives and needs: innovative solutions and regulation, need to be adapted to each case.
DPDgroup is attentive to the needs of each city and gear its offering of micro-depots and alternative fleet accordingly. Implementation of micro-depots and urban depots close to high-density areas. Alternative, low-emission delivery fleet that relies on natural gas, electric vehicles, cycles, and walking. Measurement of the impact of the conventional fleet, reduction of the CO2 footprint and offsetting of the remaining emissions through dedicated offsetting programmes
Our objective is to make every parcel being delivered carbon neutral, at no extra cost to its customers. Between 2013-2017, the CO2 footprint was reduced by 16% on parcel deliveries.
How do you think the last mile delivery will evolve in the coming years?
Thanks to a comprehensive digitalization, last mile delivery in 10 to 20 years will be fully flexible and personalized. By using digital interfaces, consignees will have access to various delivery options – the doorstep being one of many possibilities, while alternative delivery options will be far more numerous and frequent than today.
Future delivery fleet will consist of a vast range of alternative vehicles: trucks, vans, cargo bikes, e-scooters, completed with rolling and flying autonomous vehicles.
This being said, DPDgroup is always trying to keep one step ahead, and in this prospect, developed a partnership with Groupe Renault in order to lay the groundwork for the future of last mile delivery; by creating new delivery scenarios with the concept car EZ-PRO, a fully autonomous and electric vehicle.
This project is part of DPDgroup innovation & CSR programmes, which ease the daily work of the drivers and meet the expectations of citizens as well as public authorities regarding smart cities.
As a service provider, how can you take part in shaping tomorrow’s urban life?
DPDgroup is strongly in favour of smart urban mobility plans, which are key to make the cities more sustainable in the future. Transition to a more sustainable operating mode can be driven by enhanced R&D plans, low-emissions fleet and microdistribution sites that reduce the last mile distance and allow same-day delivery.
- Eurostat
- DPDgroup E-shopper barometer 2017 conducted by Kantar TNS with 24,871 participants across 21 European countries
DPDgroup is the second largest international parcel delivery network in Europe. DPDgroup combines innovative technology and local knowledge to provide a flexible and user-friendly service for both shippers and shoppers. With its industry-leading Predict service, DPDgroup is setting a new standard for convenience by keeping customers closely in touch with their delivery.
With more than 68,000 delivery experts and a network of more than 32,000 local Pickup points, DPDgroup delivers 4.8 million parcels to over 230 countries each day through the brands DPD, Chronopost, SEUR and BRT.
DPDgroup is the parcel delivery network of GeoPost, which posted sales of €6.8 billion in 2017. GeoPost is a holding company owned by Le Groupe La Poste.
