Sponsored by
MD of sponsor The Cartwright Group Mark Cartwright (second right) presents the trophy to DPD UK CEO Dwain McDonald (holding trophy) and chief operations officer Justin Pegg
and lots of ways that we keep making things better. “We’ve always said we’ve got one thing to sell, and that’s service. To do that you’ve got to have operational excellence. People talk about innovation and the wow factor but you can’t do that without a sound operation. “You need the investment in the depots. We talk about the one-hour window quite rightly but we can’t deliver unless we’re continually investing in new depots. “When we launched Predict in 2009 we had 42 depots; now we have 65. At the time, we had two hubs with one under construction; now we’re looking at opening our fifth hub in the near future, plus building the network of all-electric micro depots in London.” When it comes to electric vehicles, DPD has made no secret of its impatience with the vehicle OEMs over the slow speed of their introduction. Alongside its largely Mercedes-Benz Actros trunking fleet, DPD’s workhorse remains the 3.5 tonne van, and it runs around 8,000 diesel Sprinters. When DPD opened what it claims was the UK’s first all-electric depot in Westminster in 2018, it had to rely on a variety of vehicle suppliers, including Mercedes-Benz Fuso (7.5-tonne eCanter), Nissan (eNV200s vans) and Paxster (200kg payload quads). It now has three allelectric sites, and plans a total of eight in central London, but is being held back by the shortage of suitable sites with adequate charging infrastructure as well as a lack of electric vans. “There’s a massive future for electric vehicles,” says Jones. “We’ve invested heavily and will have 140 electric vehicles by the end of this year. We’ll double that next year and double that again the year after. “We’d do a lot more with electric vehicles if the manufacturers were making more of them, if they were making more right-hand drive vehicles and if the charging infrastructure was invested in. “A lot of our retail customers and consumers want emission-free deliveries, especially in city centres.” Under DPD’s standard operating model most of its drivers are self-employed and run their own vans, but in London few homes have the infrastructure to charge electric vehicles so in Westminster they are all charged at the depot overnight. “The point of the microsite is that it has the charging facilities and that works because they have maybe only 15 vehicles in there,” says Jones. “Other depots have 200 diesel vans operating out of them every day, which results in a massive carbon footprint. 25.11.19
“We need more microsites but they are difficult and expensive to acquire. It’s compounded by the fact that vehicles are so expensive and in such short supply. “That’s why we’re calling for manufacturers to give us a more competitive price. Electric vehicles are typically three times the cost of a standard diesel and we’re buying as many as we can get. “We have created a new role, general manager of corporate social responsibility, filled by Rob Fowler, who has built a lot of expertise in this area. He and his team will continue to explore all the options.” Those options are unlikely to include driverless vehicles or drones any time soon. “Drone delivery has its place,” says Jones. “For me it would be in the Australian outback where somebody needs a repeat prescription every month and it’s flown in. “Other than that, if it’s raining, if there’s thunder and lightning, if it causes security panics when everyone sees drones near airports… a drone is never going to impact on UK deliveries. And the little robot that scoots along the pavement – same thing. A cyclist runs it over, a mobility scooter bumps into it, somebody gives it a good kick… “There’s security in knowing that a human being, hopefully a smart one in a liveried van and a uniform, is coming down your drive, getting your signature and handing it over to you. It’s part of the feel-good experience of ordering a parcel and it coming the next day.” ■
WINNING WAYS With 29 MT Award wins under its belt as DPD and its previous incarnations Parceline and Interlink, DPDgroup UK is hot on the heels of all-time record winner TNT. As a former TNT marketing manager, DPD marketing director Tim Jones is determined to surpass TNT’s 33 trophies. “Give us another couple more years,” he says. “[CEO] Dwain's [McDonald] strategic plan runs up until 2025, and written into it is that we want to retain our Queen’s Award [for Innovation, received in 2015 for developing Predict and the one-hour delivery window] and we’re committed to entering the Motor Transport Awards every year. “It’s all about recognition internally and externally. We see Motor Transport as the industry Oscars and as a way to benchmark ourselves against our competitors.” MotorTransport 31