Fast Despatch Logistics launching service in India with 680 EVs

One of the major last-mile delivery service providers in the UK, Fast Despatch Logistics is set to launch its service in India on May 14. The company claimed that it will start its operations in India with 850 vehicles initially, among which 680 will be electric vehicles.

Initially, the company plans to launch its service in cities such as Bangalore, Delhi-NCR, and Hyderabad. Later, it plans to expand services pan-India with an aim to increase the fleet of vehicles to 15,000.

Talking to HT Auto, Gurvinder Birk, Director, and owner of Fast Despatch Logistics, said that the last-mile delivery solution provider will employ only local people from the cities, where it will be operating its services in India in an attempt to boost the employment during the current crisis situation due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Guidance and training to the workforce in India will be provided by the company's UK team, as it claims.

The company is in talks with several automakers in India for the procurement of vehicles that will be deployed in its fleet of delivery vehicles. However, Birk didn't reveal the names of the automakers with which the company is going to partner for the delivery vehicles.

Speaking about the electric vehicles and their charging facilities, he said that the company is in talks with its suppliers to arrange for sufficient charging infrastructure. Also, FDL plans to invest and install its own electric vehicle charging infrastructure in near future, as Gurvinder Birk claimed.

FDL currently has a presence in countries such as Bulgaria, France, Germany, and Romania alongside the UK. In the UK, the FDL is claimed to have a driver network of 3,000.

In the last few years, India has become a lucrative market for last-mile delivery solution providers. The trend has been accelerated during the Covid-19 pandemic. Also, in this growth story, electric vehicles are playing a key role, which is also boosting the oveelectric mobility in the country.