DPD UK is tackling the enormous logistics challenges during the 30th Summer Olympics Games inLondon starting this Friday with a special action plan costing £1.3 million (€1.6 million, as it
aims to ensure smooth delivery and high service levels during the event.A special DPD ‘Olympic Project Team’ has been working since last year on concepts and solutionsto deal with security zones, lockdown venues and additional traffic congestion due to the influx ofvisitors, athletes and functionaries.
Among the measures within DPD’s action plan, the company has set up a temporary hub near London’s Tower Bridge to reduce the pressure on the remaining DPD locations in the Greater London area. Inaddition, the depots within the impacted region have each appointed an ‘Olympic Project Manager’who will coordinate all the relevant measures with the central Olympic Project Team.
Drivers will also be supported by assistants that will the final part of the journey to thedelivery destination, if necessary, for example in the case of road closures or congestion.Additional routes have been set up, and the company has also increased the number of deliveryvehicles available.
During the Olympic Games, parcel deliveries will also take place early in the morning and in theevenings, in addition to regular delivery times, while additional staff hired for the event willenable more customers to collect their parcels themselves. In the event of any delays despite allthe measures, DPD UK said it will publish information about them in a transparent way in the formof daily updates on its website.
DPD said it will not be possible to absorb the whole amount of the €1.6 million investment inthe action plan internally, and that it had introduced an Olympic surcharge of £1.95 (€2.49) foreach parcel delivered to those postcode areas within the Olympic congestion zone with heavierdisruption.
Normal access to 49 ‘lockdown’ areas in London will not be possible, with parcels for theseareas needing to be transferred to the official logistics partner of the Olympic Games, UPS. Anadditional charge will be imposed for delivery within these areas, which DPD said it had noinfluence on.
The Olympic road network in London covers a total of 175 km, with temporary traffic disruptionsexpected, along with movement restrictions and partial road closures put in place as part oftraffic management and security measures.
