Oxford this week became DPD’s first all-electric city, with all future parcel deliveries in Oxford to now be made using only electric vehicles. Oxford will be followed by nine further UK ‘green cities’ to be confirmed later this year.
The move is part of DPD’s pledge to deliver ‘green’ to 25 major UK towns and cities, covering 25% of the UK population by 2025. It has seen an £111m investment in electric vehicles and will deliver 42,000 tonnes of CO2 savings for the UK, or the equivalent of planting 170,000 trees by the end of 2025.
All Oxford parcel deliveries will be made from DPD’s new Bicester eco-depot, a 60,000 sq ft hub at Symmetry Park which is DPD’s first ‘net zero carbon in construction’ building, as regulated by the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC). The depot has a fleet of 40 electric vehicles, which will deliver over 15,000 parcels a week across Oxford.
The new facility was officially opened in June 2021 and once fully operational could create up to 250 new jobs.
DPD’s head of CSR, Olly Craughan, said: “This is a landmark day for us. To be able to say we can now deliver to a city the size of Oxford, using only electric vehicles, is a huge leap forward not only for us, but for the sector as a whole.”
“Bicester is the greenest and most sustainable facility in our UK network and it is right that we start the roll-out of our 25 green cities here, at a time when Oxford itself is taking a huge step with the Zero Emission Zone pilot due to be launched later this year.”
