Parcel service provider DPD has launched a direct linehaul service from the Netherlands toSwitzerland, cutting transit times by one day and reducing CO2 emissions.
The new service enables the delivery of parcels to any location in the Alpine country within twodays and in contrast to express transport by air, this direct road transport link offers majorbenefits with regard to cost reduction, lower CO2 emissions and reliability, DPD announced.
DPD Netherlands opened its direct linehaul to Switzerland to offer a daily service without stopsat intermediate depots, thus reducing delivery times for parcels destined for the Alpine country toonly two days compared to three days previously.
The operator is planning to launch similar linehauls to Norway and Poland later this year. DPDNetherlands already has direct connections to countries such as Denmark, Germany, Austria, France,Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom.
“At the end of last year we started a test run with a direct linehaul to this destination,”explained Robert van Straaten, Director of Marketing & Sales at DPD. “This proved so successfulthat we are now operating two vehicles a day on this road. A special feature of this service isthat transport within DPD’s road network is almost as fast as the express shipping by air freightwhich is offered by many service providers. The difference in delivery time is one day at most,because we can take advantage of our local DPD network which serves the whole country, whereasother operators generally only deliver to the main business centres,” he added.
Compared with express delivery by air the road link to Switzerland also has the advantage ofreducing the risk of damage or loss and of lowering CO2 emissions. “With the direct linehaul we paycustoms clearing costs only once for the entire load, in other words not per parcel. These costreductions, together with the benefits in relation to reliability, security and environmentalfriendliness are not obtained at the expense of speed of delivery. For many of our customers thisis of course highly attractive,” van Straaten concluded.
