DPD Germany is expanding its B2C services for private customers in response to the e-commerceboom that helped boost its volumes by 6% last year.
In 2011, DPD Germany recorded solid growth of around 6% to 320 million parcels in total, withsimilar volume growth during the fourth quarter and the Christmas period. As the German B2B marketleader, DPD still considers this to be its core competence. However, B2C deliveries are increasingfast and it now delivers every fifth parcel to a private recipient. DPD sees itself as the thirdlargest B2C parcel operator in Germany behind DHL Parcel and Hermes.
DPD CEO Arnold Schroven told CEP-Research that the individualisation of the delivery processesis a decisive trend in the development of the parcel market, especially in the B2C sector. Inresponse, the parcels company launched new delivery notification services in 2011 providing maximumflexibility to customers.
“With the new delivery services, DPD creates a win-win situation for retailers and recipients:it increases the delivery accuracy and customer satisfaction and optimises shipping processes atthe same time. This can result in fewer returns and complaints,” Schroven emphasised.
The first new service notifies the recipients interactively via SMS or e-mail the day beforetheir parcel is due to be delivered. The recipient can either confirm the planned delivery date orpostpone it to one of the following three days. The second solution, “FlexDelivery”, offerscustomers a delivery ‘time-window’ of 2-6 hours on the day of delivery. “Through this service, therecipient can adjust to the time of parcel delivery thus avoiding waiting for hours. This year, thedelivery window will be reduced by two hours,” he added.
In other European markets, DPD is also recording strong growth in the B2C segment and isoffering special delivery services for private recipients, for example in the UK, Czech Republic,Hungary and Poland, DPD Germany spokesman Peter Rey told CEP-Research. This year, DPD wants todeliver even more B2C parcels at the first delivery attempt than before, for example throughannouncing a delivery time window.
Another trend is the strong growth in international shipping which DPD has profited from inparticular, Rey stressed. In the last few years, it has established itself as the German leader incross-border shipping of standard parcels. This development is based on its strong position in manyEuropean markets as it ranks among the top three market leaders in most of its markets and has themost efficient road network in Europe, he claimed. Over the last decade, DPD has grown faster thanthe overall market and is now the second largest provider on the European parcel market, headded.
“Looking ahead, we expect further growth in parcel volumes in 2012 despite rather cautiousbusiness activity forecasts. We plan to invest more than €90 million to expand capacity andoptimise our network,” Rey pointed out. In summer 2012, DPD will open its new depot in Erftstadt,located next to Cologne, which is expected to become the most modern and efficient parcel hub inits whole network with around 18,000 parcels per hour to go through the sorting chain with a speedof 2.5 meters per second.
Another important topic for DPD is sustainability. The company is working hard to further reduceits CO2 emissions per parcel. Thereby, DPD is active at various levels and initiated and developedimportant projects in 2011 such as the delivery and pick-up of parcels in city centres with thedeployment of goods bicycles and electric vehicles, with trials in the metropolitan areas ofStuttgart and Hamburg. In intercity transport, DPD ships some parcel volumes by rail and is testingfuel-efficient trucks.
