Parcel delivery company DPD has confirmed that all future parcel deliveries in Oxford will now be made with only electric vehicles.
From 27 July, Oxford will become DPD’s first all-electric city, with nine further UK ‘green cities’ to be confirmed this year.
All Oxford parcel deliveries will be made from DPD’s new Bicester eco-depot. The new 60,000 sq ft hub at Symmetry Park is DPD’s first ‘net zero carbon in construction’ building, as regulated by the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC). The depot has a fleet of 40 EVs, and they will deliver over 15,000 parcels a week right across the city.
DPD’s head of CSR, Olly Craughan, said: “To be able to say we can now deliver to a city the size of Oxford, using only electric vehicles, is a huge leap forward not only us, but for the sector as a whole. We’ve been working with electric vehicles for the past three years and we have learned a lot in that time. As well as investing in the vehicles themselves, we’ve created a whole new smart delivery system around them, including the charging infrastructure.”
This is part of the company’s wider Vision 25 pledge, which includes a £111m investment in EVs. According to DPD, its initiative will deliver 42,000 tonnes of CO2 savings for the UK, or the equivalent of planting 170,000 trees by the end of 2025.
Vision 25 was announced in October last year and is part of an Europe-wide drive by DPDgroup involving 225 urban areas in 20 different countries.
Craughan, added: “Our whole approach to sustainability is about joining up the dots beyond just buying electric vehicles. And that means working with others on initiatives like city centre emissions schemes and measuring air quality. With this approach, we will be helping reduce emissions one city centre at a time, starting with Oxford.”
