DPD UK announced the deal at Fully Charged Live, the clean energy and electric vehicle show at Farnborough, where a DPD liveried Ford E-Transit was centre-stage on the firm’s eco-exhibition stand.
DPD UK has purchased the 3.5t, 135kwh, long wheelbase version with 12.4 cubic metres of load space. The vans will operate from depots right across the UK network and DPD will take delivery of the first E-Transits in May.
The Ford E-Transit order is part of DPD’s pledge to be ‘the greenest delivery company on the planet’. In addition to running over 2,500 electric vehicles in the UK, DPD has also invested in a series of innovative recycling and circular economy initiatives that resulted in the company being named ‘Sustainable Business of the Year’ at the Business Champion Awards in London recently.
Olly Craughan, Head of Sustainability, DPD UK commented,
“Getting our hands on the electric Ford Transit feels like a really big moment. 3.5t vans are the workhorse of any delivery fleet, and we are no different. We’ve said all along that we need the main commercial van manufacturers to step-up with affordable models and largescale production of right-hand drive vans to really get the EV revolution going in the UK. And Ford have done just that. The E-Transit is well priced, has a good range and comes with all the support you would expect from Ford.
“We had a fantastic response from everyone at Fully Charged Live – from the debates in the conference hall to discussions on the exhibition stand. People really appreciate what we are doing with electric vehicles and all our other green initiatives. It is the same with our big retail customers too. They want to see their parcels delivered on green DPD vans, because they know their customers really appreciate it too. This order is a big step forward in terms of electrifying our whole fleet and becoming ‘the greenest delivery company on the planet’.”
Details of all of DPD’s sustainability initiatives can be found on its dedicated green website: https://green.dpd.co.uk/
About DPD UK
DPD UK was awarded the Queen’s Award for Enterprise 2015 in the Innovation category, for its unique one-hour delivery service, Predict.
In 2018, DPD opened the UK’s first all-electric parcel delivery depot in Westminster. DPD currently has over 1,500 EVs on the road in the UK and in October 2020, announced plans to deliver to 25 of the largest towns and cities in the UK with zero and low-emission delivery means by 2023. In July 2021, Oxford became DPD’s first all-electric city in the UK. Details of all of DPD’s sustainability initiatives can be found on its dedicated green website: https://green.dpd.co.uk/
DPD UK is a member of DPDgroup, the largest parcel delivery network in Europe. DPDgroup is the parcel delivery network of GeoPost, a holding company owned by France’s La Poste.
The company operates more than 10,000 vehicles from 84 locations and delivers over 400 million parcels a year.
