Review: One year of Corona

A brief review

Numerous companies and sectors were affected by the Corona crisis last year 2020. Many service companies - where possible - sent their teams to the home office. For us, this was a challenge, as was handling the unexpected parcel volumes. At peak times in April 2020, we had up to 50% more volume every day! We repositioned ourselves and in some cases took on different roles. We captured these internal happenings in a video, which you can find at the bottom of this post. For us, #dpdstong is not just a hashtag, it is much more a kind of motivation that runs through the entire company.

Our interventions around the new situation

• New drivers hired

The increase in the number of parcels has enabled our contractors to create 300 new jobs. On average, the number of tours has increased by over 50%, so that each driver has a stable number of stops.

• Investments and infrastructure

As a responsible company, we support our contractual partners so that they can carry out their activities in full compliance with their contractual obligations:

1. Local optimisations at the various depots, such as pre-sorting of parcels, better check-in processes, faster unloading processes, etc.
2. Provision of legally verified model contracts and a portal for recording working time
3. Providing new, simpler and lighter scanners with a SIM card
4. Introduction of the new DPD PARCELBOX & DPD PARCELLETTER services to reduce average weight and make it easier for our drivers to operate
5. Continuous adjustments of the tours to the increasing parcel volumes together with our contractual partners

• Security

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the health of our employees, drivers and customers has always been our top priority. The cantonal authorities regularly reviewed our protection concepts and successfully approved them. One of the lowest absenteeism rates in the industry (less than 1% in 2020) has confirmed this concept of security.

• Contactless delivery

We also developed contactless delivery (also for signature services) to ensure the safety of our drivers and recipients. We still offer this option for all our services. The demand shows that this was and still is a need.

• Service promise

A figure to illustrate our progress: In five years, our NPS has gone from -18 to +50. We see this as the result of optimal cooperation between our teams, our contractors and the drivers. Such a high quality of service can only be achieved with motivated and satisfied employees and partners.

• CEP + Mail Association

All our drivers benefit from the CLA signed by DPD, which regulates working conditions such as working hours and wages. Although this CLA was terminated at the end of 2020, it is still valid and negotiations with the social partners and the association are ongoing. This CLA applies to DPD Switzerland, our contractual partners and the other private parcel providers who are members of the CEP+Mail association.

Our mission

All our employees, contractors and their drivers have the same goal: to satisfy you by delivering what you value most - your products.
To achieve this, we are on the road for you every day and strive to exceed expectations and convince you of our service with every delivery.

A brief outlook

We at DPD Switzerland have learned a lot and gained a lot of experience in the past year and the year in particular. In addition, we were able to reorganise ourselves in some areas and have grown together even more as a team. This has also become clear in the first quarter of 2021. In addition, last year we were named a "Great Place to Work" employer and are proud to have such great and committed employees in Team DPD.

We look forward to continuing to work with you, dear customers, and thank you very much for your loyalty and trust in us and our services.

Your DPD Switzerland Team