The Business
DPD is one of Europe’s leading parcel delivery services and is wholly owned by France’s La Poste, which is the second largest postal service in Europe. DPD is the UK’s favourite parcel delivery company – providing innovative, high quality, express parcel delivery. Indeed, the DPD UK team exceeds 22,000 people, operating over 10,000 vehicles from 84 locations and delivering over 260 million parcels every year.
The Challenge
In January 2021, the UK found itself in a third lockdown; meaning that all schools were forced to close. DPD recognised the challenges this presented to many people, including their own employees. In particular, children’s learning was being impacted by the need to share devices with their siblings or parents.
DPD recognised the challenges of homeschooling. Tim Jones, Director of Marketing at DPD recalls, “We wanted to make a difference in a practical way and provide our peoples’ children with access to their own devices. The last 12 months has been unprecedented and our team has done an incredible job throughout. This was one great way to provide further support to them.”
However, rolling out so many devices in such a short turnaround was no mean feat…
The Solution
A demand for Chromebooks
DPD made £200,000 available to support staff who had a child being home-schooled, but who didn’t have their own device. Staff were invited to apply for a new Chromebook if they had a child who would benefit. The response was overwhelming with 1,000 applications within the space of a few days.
Why Chrome?
“It was the specification and availability ” Tim explained when he was asked why they chose Chrome. “It was practical for kids to use for their homeschooling. Chrome devices have everything they need, they’ve got all the software whilst being cost-effective to ensure we can give as many out as possible.”
After asking CTS for their guidance and recommendations on the best Chromebook options, DPD made the decision to proceed. Furthermore, recognising the positive impact that the initiative would have during this difficult time, CTS were able to offer a discount on the devices, allowing DPD to roll out devices to even more people.
Relationship with CTS
When considering their experience with CTS, Tim recalls, “There’s a desire to help through good communication. We were really pleased with the speed from the get go. From sending the internal email out, to getting the Chromebooks delivered; it was a very short space of time, the turnaround was really quick. We will work with them again.”
The Outcome
There was widespread agreement from the DPD UK Senior Management Team to the Communications Team that this rollout was a success.
Tim explains, “The goodwill this has created has been incredible. Many people just couldn’t believe that they got a device like that for free. We hope that the Chromebooks go on to provide years of help with their child’s learning. We’ve had some of the best feedback for this initiative and we were just happy to give something back to our people, who have undoubtedly given so much throughout this pandemic.”
Emerging out of this post-pandemic world may be hard to navigate. CTS is eager to contribute to ensure a hybrid work set up is as easy as possible, whether you’re fully remote, or returning to the office.