At Route 1 Print, we’re rather picky about who delivers our packages because we want to ensure they arrive at you or your customer on time and in perfect condition! Voted the UK’s favourite parcel delivery company, we use DPD to deliver the majority of our orders as we love that they keep us and you in the loop.

With DPD, you can track your order status in the ‘My Account’ section of the Route 1 Print website. DPD will also email you a tracking number and delivery details once the job is dispatched from our factory. This includes an email with a 1-hour delivery window so you’ll always know when to expect your order.

Aside from all the amazing benefits DPD offer, we’re pleased to let you know that they’re also part of our sustainability strategy! Keep reading to discover how DPD is ‘aiming to be the greenest delivery company on this planet.’

Electric Vehicles

DPD are on a mission to build the largest all-electric delivery fleet in the UK. They’ve already got over 1500 electric vehicles operating throughout England, Scotland, and Wales, and are invested in growing their green fleet even more! But it’s not just vans they’ve invested in… DPD have carefully selected a wide range of electric vehicles, from cargo bikes to 7.5t vehicles, with each vehicle type having its own special role to perform.

In 2021, DPD delivered 24,162 Route 1 Print Parcels on all-electric vehicles! AND…

So far in 2022, DPD has delivered 28,027 Route 1 Print Parcels on all-electric vehicles!

Combined, this has helped us to save over 14,000kg of CO₂, the equivalent of planting 56 trees!

With 10% of DPD’s fleet being electric, they’ve partnered with Pod Point, an all-electric vehicle charging supplier, to ensure that their drivers get access to an easy, fast, and affordable home charging point.

With only 10% of DPD’s fleet being electric, there’s still plenty of room to grow. They’re anticipating that 40% of their fleet should be electric by 2023. In the meantime, DPD is looking at other ways they can reduce their impact on the environment. Their drivers’ handheld units guide them to every address using the shortest possible route, this ensures your parcel is delivered more efficiently whilst also generating less CO₂.

Smart Green Delivery

Helping to change the urban landscape, DPD is looking to deliver emission-free in cities by creating a network of electric micro-depots. Micro-depots are smaller warehouses in busy cities and urban areas that ensure parcels and vans travel less which means that customers will receive their orders in a cleaner, quieter, and of course more sustainable way.

Aside from launching micro-depots, DPD has innovated the way they deliver, even more. DPD send a quarter of a billion Predict 1-hour delivery notifications each year. This has stopped 4.5 million extra journeys; that’s 3.5 million fewer miles travelled, and 1,255 tonnes of CO₂ not being needlessly generated. As you’re probably aware, they also offer alternative delivery options on their app to alter how you receive your parcel so that DPD doesn’t have to make additional journeys.

As we mentioned previously, DPD will send a notification of your delivery slot, but now, they’ll even send you a ‘green notification’ to let you know if your parcel is being delivered using an electric vehicle! In 2021 alone, they delivered 17 million parcels via their all-electric fleet. When you receive a delivery from DPD via one of their all-electric delivery vehicles they’ll keep count and when you reach 10 green deliveries, they will plant a tree on your behalf!

Green Packaging

At Route 1 Print, we’re super set on finding sustainable solutions that work for us like using paper tape on our packaging, we’re also super happy to share that this vision is also carried on at DPD. 

DPD provide 36 million plastic packages a year to protect their customers’ goods which is why they came up with an alternative. Bags that are 80% reclaimed material and are 100% recyclable!

Energy and Waste Management

Just like ourselves here at Route 1 Print, DPD are also champions of sustainability when it comes to power. They only buy their electricity from renewable sources. They’ve also been known to install LED lighting and solar panels as a commitment to reducing their carbon footprint.

Much like us DPD also hates waste. They make sure what little waste they do have is disposed of responsibly, which is why 100% of their waste avoids landfill.

In 2021 DPD recycled 410 tonnes of shrink wrap from their operations with all shrink wrap being bailed at their central hub before being reprocessed into raw plastic material. DPD then sells these bails and puts the money generated into the DPD Eco fund to support even more green initiatives.

And there you have it! At Route 1 Print, we take sustainability very seriously. We want you to know that when you choose us to be your trade print supplier, you can rest assured that we are doing what we can to make our factory environmentally friendly. If we’re going green, so are you! 

When you buy from us, you can be sure that your customers have access to quality print materials that are good for their business and the environment. Discover even more about what we’re doing to be more sustainable here or why not shop our 100% recycled product range?