Parcel delivery company DPD Ireland will start rolling out its first electric vehicles from its new Dublin city centre depot in January, Bisnow can reveal.

Speaking at Bisnow’s Dublin Retail & E-Commerce Revolution event, DPD Ireland Managing Director Des Travers said the EVs will initially be used for delivery runs within the city centre.

“But we’re going to mushroom this out,” he said. “I honestly believe in 10 years’ time we won’t have anything other than electric vehicles in our business.”

The decision to go electric was motivated by the desire to reduce both emissions and costs, according to Travers. “By being in the city centre and delivering with those vehicles I’ll get a substantial reduction to my final mile costs,” he said.

Travers said the company also plans to launch a new customer portal next year that will effectively give retailers a live time view of exactly where each of their dispatched parcels is, down to the last mile.

“We’re moving to a completely seamless open platform,” he said. “If we do it wrong, we’re going to show you we do it wrong. But we’re so committed to getting it right that we’re going to take that risk and make sure we deliver on time, every time as best we can.”