Hundreds of van drivers hired to cope with popularity of next day delivery

Tuesday, May 1, 2018 - 13:04 by Simon Crisp

Courier company, DPD, has added an extra 700 drivers to its staff so that it can keep up with the number of deliveries it is having to make during the weekend.

This is as a direct result of the impact that safe shopping online is having on the market in which it operates, especially now that more major outlets are offering next day delivery, according to Internet Retailing.

In the past 12 months alone the number of weekend deliveries that DPD is handling has risen by 40 per cent, which reveals the extent to which habits are changing across the UK.

The firm revealed that the most popular product categories which are typically delivered on Saturdays and Sundays are consumer electronics and clothing.

In addition to the hundreds of new drivers who are joining the company, initially on a part time basis, there will also be more positions opening up at its distribution centres in many parts of the country.

By 2019, DPD predicts that it will need to add further drivers, bringing the total number of new employees to more than a thousand as demand for safe shopping online and next day delivery shows no sign of slowing.

Company spokesperson, Dwain McDonald, said that he had been taken by surprise by the surge in interest that had been garnered by the availability of weekend delivery slots. They have only been offered for the past four years but already they are changing the way that the business operates and forcing it to expand.

Many online outlets are also moving towards offering same day delivery to customers in many urban areas, which will surely result in yet more changes as courier companies adapt to make sure that such promises made by retailers are fulfilled efficiently.