DPD Germany begins providing Saturday delivery as standard
Parcel carrier DPD has now launched its standard Saturday delivery service in various cities and regions around Germany.
The company currently aiming to double its business-to-consumer delivery market share in the next few years said this week that it is providing delivery on Saturdays as standard for about 30% of the German population.
The service, where e-commerce consumers or merchants are not charged a premium fee for deliveries on Saturday, is now available in cities including Hamburg, Bremen, Essen, Dortmund and Nuremberg.
It is also available in rural areas in Saxony-Anhalt, Franconia and Saarland.
The service is being steadily rolled out to more areas in Germany, with the aim of extending nationwide by May 2015.
Boris Winkelmann, the DPD Germany chief executive, said: “Regular Saturday delivery is an important requirement to achieve our growth targets in the B2C market.
“Saturday delivery is actively requested by customers and parcel recipients, and has proven itself very well in practice: our carriers can reach people on Saturday who are aware from home Mondays to Fridays.”
Previously DPD delivered Monday to Friday as standard, with Saturdays only available on request through an express service. DPD said this situation was a legacy of its roots as a business-to-business parcel operator, when its commercial sector recipients were only available to receive items on weekdays.
The new Saturday delivery service is mainly delivering items to private consumers, and DPD itself is now delivering one in three of its parcels to consumers.
Winkelmann said making Saturday a standard delivery day was relatively complicated, in that operational processes and work schedules had to be modified.
“I’m getting more and more pleased with how smoothly the introduction of Saturday delivery dates is going, and in many places it is already part of everyday life.”
Same Day
DPD Germany launched same day delivery services in select cities last November, after buying a stake in same day delivery specialists tiramizoo.
This week the company said it has now fully integrated same day delivery into its portfolio, called DPD Now, which is available in 19 German cities.
The service works with 1,200 couriers, and provides many deliveries within 90 minutes or a requested two hour window.
Michael Knaupe, DPD director of B2C products and services said: “This is another step in our strategy in making package delivery easier and more flexible.”
