DPD Ireland marks its 1 Millionth sustainable parcel delivery in the New Ford E-Transit.
DPD Ireland Marks its 1 millionth Sustainable Parcel Delivery in the New Ford E-Transit.
DPD Ireland has reached the milestone of 1 million sustainable deliveries using electric vehicles, with the millionth parcel delivered to the office of An Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Leo Varadkar, using the new Ford E-Transit, the first fully electric version of Ireland’s top selling commercial vehicle.
The parcel-delivery company currently has 51 electric vehicles on the road in Ireland, and has ordered a further 110 E-Transit models, the largest order reported by Ford Ireland this year. The first batch are due to arrive in the Autumn, bringing the total number of electric vehicles used by DPD Ireland to over 100 by the end of this year.
The company is currently delivering more than 4,000 parcels per day by electric vehicle and estimates to have saved 72.65 tons of CO2 emissions in 2021.
The new electric vehicles are Ford E-Transits which will provide more range and cubic capacity than any electric van to date.
DPD Ireland sustainability manager, James Atkinson, said the delivery firm places huge emphasis on sustainability and is determined to decarbonise its fleet by 2030.
“As well as lowering emissions on journeys, we are heavily focussed on reducing journeys in the first place. Our flagship route optimisation project will enable depots to deliver more parcels with the same number of vans, meaning no additional emissions, while growing the business,” he said.
Mr. Atkinson said the challenge with electric vans is its range. The company expects the Ford E-Transit to do in excess of 250km on a single charge, adding that 20-25% of DPD Ireland delivery routes are over 200km.
“These hard-to-electrify routes will be supplied with a biofuel, HVO, which offers up to 90% emissions reduction versus diesel. We have already purchased our first tank of HVO and are currently trialling it on line haul trucks between Dublin and our central sortation facility in Athlone.”
Padraig Duane, Fleet Business Manager for Ford in Ireland said: ‘Congratulations to Des, James and the team in DPD Ireland on achieving the milestone of 1 million parcel deliveries in electric vehicles. We are delighted that the DPD team used our all new E-Transit for this momentous announcement. Our new E-Transit is a really smart workhorse that offers customers enhanced productivity enabled by its fully electric powertrain, software solutions, services and Ford Pro Power Onboard options. The vehicle targets an estimated WLTP driving range of up to 317km – roughly three times the average van driver would cover in a day – with lower maintenance costs helping to deliver an estimated 40 per cent saving in servicing cost of ownership versus diesel models. And there is no compromise in payload just because it is an electric vehicle – the new E-Transit can carry up to 1,758kg. We wish DPD many more successful EV deliveries using their new fleet of E-Transits.”
