DPD Group is one of the leading courier service providers in Europe. They provide a wide range of products both on the domestic and international markets. With around 500 depots in 38 countries, more than 22,000 employees and 15,000 vehicles, they are truly a global organization. DPD started operations in China in 2006, and now owns 14 branches located in major economic centers across China.
Mr. Girard said that DPD provided door-to-door transportation for the global logistics communities and also offered tailor-made solutions to their clients. Their main mode of transportation is road-based, provided by their fleet of trucks. They are specialized in pickup and delivery of parcels for medium-to-large-volume shippers, even for long distance needs, which is over distances greater than express delivery. They provide track and trace for shipments during transit and offer information and consultation services to their customers.
DPD offers a high quality service in Europe with 98-99% of their deliveries completed successfully on time. Mr. Girard said that they provided the same quality of service here in China and that they would not compromise on service quality in order to compete on price. He also said that they needed to adapt to the Chinese market to sustain company growth and development, but this would be done through improving their mode of operations and finding good solutions with competitive prices, rather than by downgrading their products. In this way they hope to provide an effective and cost efficient service to their local clients.
Mr. Girard said that the advantages of the company over their rivals are reliability, flexibility and the ability to adapt to their customer's needs. They can also offer outstanding value for money especially on large volumes of cargo. He said that they were flexible because they can offer customized solutions to their clients by using agents and other networks, whereas other companies only work within their own networks. Due to the fact that China is so large, it is difficult for one company to provide total coverage for the entire region. DPD currently covers around 90% of the large economic centers in China through their 14 local branches and further use of 21 different agencies. To keep these agencies in line with the reliability and operating procedure offered by DPD, Mr. Girard insists that the flow of information is the key. They keep a close watch over their partners through the tracking of shipments at each step of the supply chain. This not only guarantees their clients quality of service, but also provides them with track and trace services to keep them fully informed as to the location and estimated time of arrival of their shipment.
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