The Polish express company, DPD Masterlink, has opened daily road connections to Bulgaria andRomania, which it says is due to new demand following the accession of the southern European
countries to the EU.DPD Masterlink forecasts that volumes from Bulgaria and Romania will quadruple during thisyear purely as a result of EU membership.
Paul-Marie Chavanne, chief executive of DPD’s parent company, GeoPost, said the new servicewas part of its building a new transport network in central and eastern Europe.
“The new transport network set up by DPD gives our clients additional proof of our commitmentto following them in emerging markets but also towards destinations beyond the European Communityarea,” he said.
“We are once again showing our willingness to increase our quality of service to thesecountries by our capacity for adapting our organisation,” he added.
DPD Masterlink customers, as well as clients of partner subsidiaries belonging to the GeoPostgroup, owned by France’s La Poste, were showing “great interest” in sending parcels to Bulgaria andRomania, the company said in a statement.
“The free circulation of goods within the European Union has resulted in the creation of anew international road transportation market for parcel delivery,” it added. “This market did notexist before, because of the prohibitive costs of customs clearance.”
The former Masterlink Express is rebranding this year to identify itself fully as a DPDcompany.
DPD Masterlink delivered 12.2 million of parcels in 2006, up 50% on the previous year,according to the Polish News Digest. GeoPost estimates turnover to have been around EUR 3 billionin 2006.
