Parcel delivery giant DPD is building on plans for an all-electric fleet with the deployment of a smart charging network.

DPD opened the UK’s first all-electric parcel depot in Westminster in October 2018

The firm, which is aiming to be the most responsible city centre delivery company and the leader in electric vehicles in the UK, has plans to add over 100 more EVs to its fleet in 2019 and more than 550 by 2021, making up 10% of its fleet. This includes deploying 10 Mercedes-Benz eVito vans, initially for service in London with further vehicles to be added nationwide.

The business also opened the UK’s first all-electric parcel depot last October in Westminster and announced in April 2019 that it’s working with Oxford-based start-up, Electric Assisted Vehicles Limited (EAV), to develop a new eCargo bike, called the P1.

In line with these plans, DPD has now appointed Rolec EV to design and provide a smart electric vehicle charging network across over 60 of its sites nationwide, bringing in excess of 600 EV charging points to coincide with the arrival of its new fleet.

Rolec will provide its EV GroupManager; a cloud-based back-office smart system that works in conjunction with the firm’s SecuriCharge charging units, and the pre-issued EV driver RFID keyfob. This system then enables DPD to monitor and record all EV charging activity, historical data, and vehicle migration across its 60 sites – and feed this information back to its HQ for analytic evaluation.

Mark Wilkes, director of technical services for DPD UK, commented: “DPD has always had a strong and focused environmental philosophy and the introduction of hundreds of EVs into our fleet continues to emphasise the company’s desire to minimise its impact on the environment.

“The initial rollout of charge points across our network has gone very smoothly and we are now looking to significantly increase EV charge point deployment across the UK over the next 12 months to coincide with the delivery of our new EV fleet.”