DPD Ukraine has shown good growth by tripling its shipment volumes in the last quarter of 2008while further expanding its network and the geographical coverage of its express delivery services
with increasing investments.Between October and December 2008, the company has dramatically increased its shipmentvolumes by 300%, compared to the same period in 2007. More than 3,000 parcels are now handled everyday, the company announced.
“To maintain the growth rate of the customer base and shipment volumes, DPD Ukraine has takenmeasures to improve operational activities. First of all, we have upgraded our transport routesenabling us not only to improve transit times but also to extend the geographical coverage whilereducing tariffs for our customers,” said Oksana Yakovleva, managing director DPD Ukraine.
During 2008, DPD Ukraine opened three new depots in Donezk (eastern Ukraine), Kharkiv(north-east Ukraine) and Odessa, in the south of the country. This adds to the head office in Kiev,Ukraine’s capital, and 24 regional offices.
Last year, the total company’s investments amounted to about €700,000. In 2009, investmentsof around €1 million are planned, especially for expanding DPD’s delivery network in the country.For example, five more depots are expected to be opened in the regions this year.
Moreover, the company extended its product range with two new services in addition to itsmain parcel delivery solution DPD Classic. The new option DPD Letter is designed for documentswhereas the service DPD Max provides delivery of freight and heavy parcels. With this serviceexpansion, DPD Ukraine today offers a complete range of express delivery solutions, the companysaid.
“In addition, we are expanding the model range of our vehicles together with our transportpartners. This allows us to keep the delivery times agreed with the customers. As a result, suchsteps not only enabled us to save money but also to offer an even better service to our customers,”Yakovleva further explained.
Tatyana Ustyushanina, Director Sales and Marketing DPD Ukraine, added: “Thanks to the upgradeof our control systems for products movement in the terminals (including additional bar coding ofshipments and pallets as well as marking of parcels and cargo), we nearly reduced to zero the riskof parcel loss or damage. We can thus increase our financial guarantees and make our offers evenmore attractive to customers. To provide more convenience to our customers, we plan to launch aseries of online services in 2009 that will help to record data and trace shipments in real time.In addition, we also plan to expand our service range with the launch of international deliverythis year.”
DPD Ukraine started operating in the country in 2007. It now covers 16,000 communities in 25regions. Armadillo Holding, which is a joint venture between the GeoPost Group and the Turkishexpress operator Yurtiçi Kargo, holds a 51% stake in the company, while 49% of the shares belong tothe domestic courier operator UVK (Ukrainian Cargo Couriers).
