DPD will expand its successful UK service offering consumers advance notification of homedelivery times to other European markets and take advantage of the growing B2C market, a senior
executive said yesterday.The service, known as DPD Predict, gives recipients advance notice of a one-hour time window fordelivery of their purchase to their home address. The parcel operator is the only carrier inBritain to offer such a precise delivery time window, John Acton, executive vice president GeoPostand joint CEO DPD Germany, told the World Mail & Express Europe conference in Copenhagen.
The service was launched in February after intensive testing over six months and has a successrate of more than 98% for deliveries within the given time window, Acton said. “It’s certainly acompetitive advantage,” he declared. Looking ahead, he disclosed: “We will roll this (service) outin other European countries. But the time windows could be two or three hours depending on localneeds.”
Once the early morning sorting and delivery round planning has been done, DPD UK sends an SMS ore-mail to the recipient informing him or her of a 60-minute period during which the parcel isexpected to be delivered. Customers who are not at home during the delivery time window can alsofix a new delivery time through the DPD online tool “New Delivery”, he pointed out. This tool isalready available in 17 EU countries.
DPD Predict is a win-win for all sides, Acton told an audience of European and internationalpostal managers. Recipients benefit from much more precise information about delivery times whilesenders have a lower rate of returns. DPD itself has a better first time delivery success rate,thus reducing its operational costs. In order to create the service, the company had worked hard onroute optimisation using real, current delivery data and cooperated with a GPS technology firm tobe able to predict the delivery times along the routes, he explained.
Looking at market trends, Acton forecast that B2C parcels would grow from 25% of the EuropeanCEP market in 2008 to 40% by 2020. There would be more ‘co-opetition’ and collaboration betweenplayers in Europe in future, and DPD would work more closely with postal operators for first-milecollections and last-mile deliveries, he said. The collaboration in the US market between the USPostal Service and the two parcel giants, UPS and FedEx, is an example of this, he added.
DPD Predict has already won an award in the UK. DPD was named as ‘UK and European ExpressDelivery Company 2010’ by the Institute of Transport Management (ITM) for the Predict service. ITMstated: “DPD has really taken the fight to its rivals by introducing ‘Predict’ earlier this year.Predict provides a superb, customer-orientated service, and on top of the benefits to the customer,Predict helps reduce fuel consumption and emissions, thus providing economical and environmentaladvantages.”
DPD UK CEO Dwain McDonald commented: “We are thrilled to have won the ITM’s prestigious awardfor the UK and European Express Delivery Company 2010. Each year DPD strives to be a leaderin the field, and it’s good to know that our hard work and commitment has been recognised by theindustry. This award is a great achievement for everyone at DPD.”
