Parcel firm DPD has won the Queen’s Award for Enterprise 2015 in the Innovation category, for its one hour delivery notification service, Predict.
Predict, which was launched in 2010, gives parcel recipients advanced notification of their precise one hour delivery slot via SMS or email.
DPD claim it has been “directly responsible for over £178m of new business wins making the company the fastest growing major delivery firm in the UK, and helping DPD leapfrog traditional home delivery players such as Yodel and City Link, by growing both profitability and turnover year on year.”
There are three categories of Queen’s Awards for Enterprise for organisations – International Trade, Innovation, and Sustainable Development. The criteria for the Innovation award stipulates organisations must:
- have an innovation that has not been done before
- have had your innovation available on the market for at least 2 years
- have recovered all the investments made in your innovation
- show outstanding commercial success as a result of innovation over 2 years – or continuous commercial success over five years
The Queen’s Awards for Enterprise debuted in 1966 and are granted each year on the Queen’s birthday, 21 April. This year there are 141 winners of Queen’s Awards, with just 41 sharing the Innovation category with DPD.
The Award recognises not only the quality of the innovation itself, but also the contribution Predict has made in the transformation of the company and the growth DPD has experienced in the last five years.
DPD’s CEO Dwain McDonald said: “This is a tremendous day for DPD and fantastic recognition for all the hard work, from so many people, that went into developing Predict. Our strategy all along has been based on investing in technology, people and service to create the best delivery experience possible for our customers.
“Creating over 1,000 new jobs a year off the back of a recession and a prolonged economic downturn is a hell of an achievement, and we aren’t done yet! 2015 is set to be our biggest year so far, with the opening of our fourth sorting hub which will give us capacity to grow our business even further.”
The Predict service includes a full range of ‘in-flight’ options allowing the customer to divert their parcel at any time to a specified neighbour or arrange the delivery for another day if they can’t be at home. It was developed in the UK by DPD’s internal IT department and operations team in close association with local depot managers. It uses a bespoke route optimisation system which is fully integrated with the driver’s handheld device.
Earlier this year, DPD also announced it was backing investment in last-mile solutions for the future, and partnering with retailers such as Halfords to build a nationwide PickUp store network.
