Delivery firm DPD is now providing an all-electric delivery service to 10 UK towns and cities and is aiming for 30 all-electric locations by the end of 2023.
DPD announced plans to create 25 all-electric towns and cities in the UK by 2025, in October 2020.
Oxford became DPD's first ‘green' city in July, last year, with a fleet of 40 electric vehicles based at the new DPD Bicester depot, delivering more than 15,000 parcels a week across the city.
DPD has now confirmed that nine additional UK locations have achieved the same all-electric delivery status.
The ten ‘green' towns and cities are, Bradford, Bristol, Cardiff, Hull, Newcastle, Nottingham, Oxford, Reading, Southampton and Stoke.
Elaine Kerr, DPD UK CEO, said: "I'm absolutely delighted to confirm that we now have 10 UK towns and cities being delivered by an all-electric DPD fleet.
“One of our big aims is to be the UK's most sustainable delivery company and by the end of 2023, we will have over 5,000 EVs on the road and 30 urban centres delivered on all-electric vehicles.”
Progress is well underway at the remaining 15 original green delivery locations - Birmingham, Brighton and Hove, Cambridge, Coventry, Derby, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Plymouth, Portsmouth and Sheffield.
DPD now expects these locations to achieve all-electric status two years earlier than planned, by the end of next year.
In addition, the firm is now planning for five more towns, Birkenhead, Gateshead, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Rotherham and Shipley to become all-electric by the end of 2023.
To-date, DPD has invested over £90 million on all-electric vehicles in the UK, including the most recent order of 1,000 Ford E-Transit vans in May 2022, which will take DPD's electric vehicle fleet to over 2,500 in total.
Kerr said: "Since opening the UK's first all-electric parcel depot in Westminster in 2018, we have grown our electric fleet year on year, despite some of the issues that have held us back, such as the lack of righthand drive EVs for the UK market.
“We are now seeing improved availability of larger electric vans, which is what we need. As a result, it is fantastic to be able to extend our original pledge to 30 locations and two years earlier than planned.
"By targeting major town and city centres with our electric vehicles, we can make a significant difference to emissions in those locations and help improve air quality where it is most needed.
“In addition to buying the vehicles, and investing in charging infrastructure, we continue to optimise our routing and operation, to create the smartest possible delivery system and reduce our overall miles per parcel."
The company, which hasn't bought a diesel van since summer 2020, expects to deliver 26 million parcels this year on electric vehicles, a saving of 7,200,000kg of CO2.
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Gareth has more than 20 years’ experience as a journalist having started his career in local newspapers in the 1990s. Prior to joining Fleet News in 2008, he worked in the public sector as a media advisor and is currently news editor at Fleet News.
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