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DPD Ireland to invest €3.2 million electrifying Irish fleet

Parcel delivery service to create 150 jobs over 12 months

Parcel delivery service DPD Ireland is to invest €3.2 million electrifying its Irish fleet.

The ElectriCity rollout was launched in Dublin today, and will roll out to other urban locations throughout the country over the next three years.

The company, which is predicting annual growth of 20 per cent this year, will create 150 new jobs over the next 12 months, bringing total employment to 1,300 within the company. Thirty of these new jobs will be part of ElectriCity rollout, and 120 as part of their country-wide services to facilitate its growth.

DPD Ireland chief executive Des Travers said DPD will be the first parcel delivery company to have an electric depot.

“Through ElectriCity, fifteen parcel delivery routes in Dublin will become all-electric routes. By the end of this year, as part of our bid to reduce our carbon output, DPD will have saved more than 20 tonnes of CO2 being emitted as a result of moving to an electric fleet,” he said.

He said DPD is committed to making every parcel delivered carbon neutral, and is doing so by measuring CO2 emissions, striving to reduce them, and by offsetting the remaining ones.

The first 10 vehicles of the new electric fleet have arrived and are on the road from today.

“Another 15 have been ordered but the problem is supply and getting them into the country,” Mr Travers said.

“While there is an urgent push to move to electric, from a commercial perspective, it is still difficult to procure appropriate vehicles. It is our intention to have electric vehicles stationed in all of our depots in three years,” he added.

The €3.2 million investment will include purchasing the electric vehicles, hiring personnel, employee training, acquiring the depots, and their refurbishment.

DPD operates 34 depots throughout Ireland with its central sortation hub in Athlone. The company, which recorded a turnover of €91.5 million last year expect to deliver 24 million parcels to their customers in 2019. Mr Travers cited “new business and also growth within their existing customer base” as the reason for the increase in deliveries this year.

The company currently employs 1150 people and routed more than 20 million parcels to their delivery destinations last year.  

Source: DPD Ireland