DPD is responding to the very strong European growth in parcel deliveries, particularly via e-commerce, and will step up its investments in both its distribution network and its human capital. By the end of 2020, DPD wants to significantly increase its parcel delivery capacity in Belgium. This entire operation represents a total investment of €60m euros and will create approximately 500 new jobs this year, including 200 at the operational level and 300 new drivers.
e-commerce exceeded all expectations during lockdown and continues to grow. In April and May 2020, months in which many European countries were “blocked”, DPDgroup delivered up to 7.5m parcels per day in Europe. This is almost 30% more than last year. In Belgium and Luxembourg, during the first six months of 2020, the number of B2B parcels delivered by DPD increased slightly, while an increase of more than 70% was recorded in the B2C segment.
DPDgroup has seen a strong shift towards B2C volumes during containment, where specific services such as food, toys, sportswear and healthcare have experienced significant growth. Compliance with mandatory security measures such as social distancing has resulted in inefficiencies and additional costs in operations.
DPD’s services offer flexibility and transparency to the end recipient and have certainly proven their worth. Thanks to the Predict service, the final recipient receives, by e-mail or SMS, a time window of one hour during which the delivery person will pass. myDPD offers the final recipient several options for modifying the delivery up to 30 minutes before the driver’s arrival.
The coronavirus crisis accelerates three-year plans: new establishments in Lummen, Saint-Nicolas, Asse-Zellik and Puurs. In order to be able to respond to this enormous growth and the upcoming holiday season, DPD is opening new depots in Lummen, Saint-Nicolas and Asse-Zellik. These establishments will be operational by mid-October 2020. At the same time, a new HUB will be put into operation in Puurs.
“While we are investing heavily in B2C, B2B also remains very important for DPD. For the B2B sector, we use the strong innovation deployed in B2C in order to further increase the flexibility and experience of recipient companies, which is very important in the SME segment,” said Silvio Mestdagh, CEO of DPD Belux.
Source: DPDgroup
