DHL is a global logistics company that provides a range of shipping and delivery services to businesses and individuals around the world. Founded in 1969, today it operates in more than 220 countries and territories worldwide. 

For the purpose of our project, it was important to identify that DHL’s business is organized into four main divisions:  

  • Express 
  • Global Forwarding 
  • Freight 
  • Supply Chain 

eStation currently work with two of these divisions within the Irish market: 

The Express division provides time-definite delivery of documents and parcels worldwide, with options for express delivery within one to two days or economy delivery within three to five days. This division also offers specialized services such as temperature-controlled shipping for healthcare products and secure delivery for valuable or confidential items. 

The Global Forwarding division handles air, ocean, and road freight shipments for businesses of all sizes. It provides end-to-end logistics solutions, including customs clearance, insurance, and warehousing, to help companies manage their supply chains efficiently. 

Project Brief 

The challenge for DHL was unique to their large-scale transition of delivery vehicles from ICE to Electric Vans.  

This would initially involve 60 No. Electric Ford Transit vehicles, but eventually their entire delivery fleet of 280 vehicles will be electric, across multiple hubs. They also provide charging facilities for staff and visitors to use throughout multiple locations around Ireland. 

The most fundamental requirement in this transition was the need to charge the delivery vehicles, at each depot, overnight but only during a relatively narrow time frame window. 

DHL approached eStation to design a solution that would ensure a smooth transition from ICE to Electric vehicles.  

In simple terms, this meant every EV must be fully charged each day and ready for all daily delivery activities, without the risk of any vehicle “down time” due to unforeseen daytime charging needs. 

Our Solution 

eStation had to consider and manage a multitude of variables in order to deliver an effective solution to the brief. This included, but was not limited to: 

  • Quantity, Range & Charging characteristics of the pending & future EV Van fleet. 
  • Typical usage, range requirements and payload of EV Van fleet 
  • Time parameters when EV’s were not in use and thereby available to be charged 
  • Quantity & Output capacity of EV Charging infrastructure 
  • Blend of AC (slow) and DC (Fast) Charging infrastructure to meet DHL needs 
  • Assessment of existing electrical infrastructure and its ability to “feed” EV Charging requirements. 
  • Design the upgrade requirements of existing electrical infrastructure to meet current and future Charging requirements 
  • Introduction of Dynamic Load Management to balance the need/cost of electrical infrastructure upgrades with the practical utilization of electric vehicles and the charging infrastructure 
  • Continuous remote monitoring of the EV Charging infrastructure, via our connected software services (SaaS), to ensure all vehicles are ready to go at the start of each day 

After full project scoping, we combined several key elements to create a turnkey solution to match DHL’s brief.  

  • All Electrical Design engineering 
  • All electrical installation works 
  • All Dynamic Load Management systems and controls 
  • All Civils works 
  • Fully connected Services offering: 
  • 24/7 Monitoring 
  • Remote Support  
  • On-Site support 

This successful project has already been rolled out across four key locations throughout Ireland, with others to follow as DHL move through the phased deliveries of electric Vans.