The UK’s favourite parcel delivery company DPD has launched a ground breaking app that will allow customers to take complete control over their parcel delivery, and ensure that missed deliveries become a thing of the past.
Called ‘Your DPD’, the app enables customers to create their own profile, set their delivery preferences and track deliveries. The app even allows customers to request that drivers always avoid certain times of the day, such as the school run.
Your DPD users can set-up a series of preferences for those occasions when they are not going to be at home for a delivery. These can include specifying their chosen neighbour to receive deliveries, a designated ‘safe place’ on their own property with a photograph, and their preferred DPD Pickup parcel shop for parcels to be taken to – all of which will be relayed to their driver.
And, in what is being described as an industry first, DPD is tackling the problem of missed deliveries by developing new, smartphone geo-location based technology that can automatically alert the DPD driver when an app user returns home. So if a parcel couldn’t be successfully delivered earlier in the day, the driver can now make another delivery before they finish their round. The app user is sent a notification to advise that the driver is returning with their parcel.
Your DPD was developed in conjunction with some of the biggest online shoppers in the UK. DPD worked with home shoppers who, in total, had received over 10,000 parcels in the last year from the UK’s biggest retail brands, to fine tune the features and usability of the app.
The new app is free to download from Apple and Android app stores from Monday 16th May and is compatible with Apple Watches.
DPD has produced a short film to explain how the app will work: click here
The app means that users can take control of their delivery and ensure they never miss a parcel again, thanks to the following key features:
Deliver to a safe place – the option to request a delivery to specific ‘safe place’ on your property if you can’t be home to accept the parcel.
Deliver to a specified neighbour – the option to divert a delivery in real time via your smartphone to a specific neighbour.
Deliver to a specified DPD Pickup parcel shop – you choose which of DPD’s 2,500 Pickup shops is most convenient for you to collect your parcel.
Change the day of your delivery – select a different day altogether for your delivery.
Parcel Tracking – allows you to track your driver in real time.
Preferences and push notifications – The Your DPD app combines all of the above features into one handy app so you can set your own delivery preferences, track your parcels and receive additional push notifications when your driver is 30 minutes away;
NEW – Second chance delivery – if the DPD app user was out when the driver attempted a delivery but returns home later that day they will receive a notification to say that DPD can see that they are now home and we will attempt a second delivery.
DPD’s CEO Dwain McDonald commented: “Our mission is to use the best technology available to put customers in complete control of their own deliveries. Our unique Predict and then Follow My Parcel services helped personalise parcel delivery. The Your DPD app takes that personalisation to a whole new level by letting you build your own delivery profile and dictate how you want to receive your DPD parcels.
“For the first time, customers can genuinely create their own parcel plan and be confident that whatever happens, they will have a range of choices, up to the minute information and real-time in-flight options to ensure they never miss a delivery again.
“Our drivers routinely go above and beyond what’s expected of them to get parcels to customers on the original day of delivery. The option to go back to customers who were out earlier in the day and make a successful delivery at the end of their round will be welcomed. The app is yet another example of how DPD’s technology is streets ahead of every other delivery company, and is the reason why our drivers continue to deliver a service that is second to none.”
In April 2015, DPD’s investment in technology was recognised with a prestigious Queen’s Award for Innovation, for its unique one hour delivery service, Predict. Earlier this year, DPD was ranked 22nd in The Sunday Times ‘Best Big Companies to Work For’ list.