DPD opens diesel-free depot in London

DPD has opened a new sorting centre in London’s Docklands that uses only electric and HVO-fuelled vehicles.

The site is expected to deliver up to 80,000 ‘green’ parcels each day, in the capital.

As part of being a diesel-free operation, the site has solar panels on the parking canopy to help charge the 500 electric delivery vans and a 40,000 litre HVO tank to enable the fleet of LGVs and 7.5T trucks to fill-up with the renewable biofuel. 

DPD plans to install solar panels on the main roof in the new year, which could generate up to 1m kWh per annum to help power the entire building. 

The new facility, which is the size of 8.5 football pitches, will create 650 new jobs when fully operational early in the new year and will mean that DPD's delivery service within London's north and south circular area will be all-electric.  

In addition to the parcel delivery operation, which will be DPD's greenest in the UK, a 430 metre long conveyor system will automatically sort all intra-London parcels for next-day delivery on-site, instead of them being trunked to the Midlands and back for sorting, as currently.   

Docklands will also see DPD achieve its pledge to deliver to 30 of the largest towns and cities in the UK with zero and low-emission final mile delivery vehicles. 

Elaine Kerr, DPD UK CEO, said: "This investment represents another huge step towards our net zero goals and, I believe, demonstrates the new gold standard for a green parcel delivery operation in London, or any city. It is also great to be able to share our vision with so many of our retail partners, who have backed us on this journey to create genuinely cleaner and greener solutions for their customers.  

"This represents a major milestone in our green journey. We opened the UK's first all-electric parcel delivery depot in Westminster almost exactly five years ago. Now Docklands demonstrates what is possible, on a much bigger scale.  But this is far from the end.  We are constantly looking for new and smarter solutions, as we demonstrated earlier this year with the roll-out of autonomous robot deliveries, and we will continue investing in green innovation to accelerate our decarbonisation pathway."