-
About Us
Related content
DP World in the UK
DP World is the only terminal operator to provide a choice of two deep water ports in the UK – DP World Southampton on the south coast and DP World London Gateway, on the River Thames estuary. Together we provide unrivalled, quick and easy access to the key consumer markets in the UK.
Read MoreThe Definitive Guide to London Gateway
This is your definitive guide to the UK’s most integrated logistics hub; a sustainable, strategically located, trade enabling centre of excellence on the River Thames. We accelerate growth through our market-leading container port and logistics hub.
Read More -
Port
Related content
About the Port
Learn more about the UK’s fastest growing deep-sea container terminal, located on the River Thames just 25 miles from central London.
Read MoreOpening Hours
Want to visit DP World London Gateway? Click here to view our port’s shipside and landside opening hours, including details on our bank holiday operational working hours.
Read More -
Logistics Park
Related content
About the Park
Learn more about our rapidly expanding port-centric logistics park at London Gateway.
Read MoreAvailability
See our current speculative and build-to-suit opportunities at London Gateway logistics park.
Read More -
Supply Chain
Related content
Port-centric warehousing
Find out more about our port-centric warehouse, located right next door to the UK’s newest deepwater port at London Gateway.
Learn moreRail access
Help reduce your CO2 emissions in line with Net Zero targets, with our highly efficient and reliable rail freight solutions in the UK.
Learn more -
Sustainability
Related content
Our World Our Future
We believe that working in a sustainable and responsible way is essential to us building a strong business for our customers, our people and our society. Our World, Our Future is our global programme to bring sustainability into every aspect of our work.
Read MoreCommunity Investment
We are committed to our employees and our community. We run a programme to support local initiatives and activities, raising the aspirations of local youth through education specifically in STEM and related subjects and raising awareness of logistics and the career opportunities it provides
Read More
- About Us nav
- Port nav
- Logistics Park nav
- Supply Chain nav
- Sustainability nav
Enabling E-Commerce: The good, the bad and the possible
Date: 24/09/2020
In 2021, 2.1 billion shoppers will order online. They will contribute to an incredible boom in e-commerce, growing from £2.7 trillion in 2019 to £5 trillion in 2023; that’s 22% of all anticipated retail sales the world over, according to Statista.com. The UK alone contributes £688 billion per annum to this total, which is only set to rise.
This seismic shift in consumer behaviour brings with it an ever-increasing demand on the logistics sector – immense pressure on efficiency where fractions of a pound saved on parcels, pallets and even containers can add up to game-changing competitive advantage for shippers. Where order-to-fulfilment timelines are shrinking to next-day or even same-day on an exponentially wider variety of items, a simple swipe on a smartphone will collectively have profound knock-on effects for how truckloads move, warehouses function, shipping lanes and ports are managed.
In this emerging landscape, trillions will be invested in the coming decades to keep pace with shifting consumer behaviours and re-shape the face of logistics at large. And as with any generational shift, there will be good and bad as we move collectively towards an incredible future of possibilities.
Good
To look at the good, we must recognise we didn’t get to our incredibly interconnected and “on-time” world by accident. The global logistics sector we have now represents one of the foremost benchmarks of collective human accomplishment. In the past decade alone, our ability to process vast amounts of freight has got better as technology integration allows for improved tracking across complex global supply chains in real-time.
Just look at DP World London Gateway: it didn’t even exist a decade ago. Now it is the UK’s most integrated, sustainable and technology-advanced logistics hub, home to industry-leading retail brands such as Made.com and Dixons Carphone. The proximity of London Gateway’s logistics park to its on-site port allows retailers to work to shorter lead times and gives them a level of visibility and flexibility, up to the very last moment, that cannot be achieved anywhere else.
The level of visibility and integration we have been able to achieve is laying the groundwork for a new generation of automation. Systems like smart order routing allow better management of fulfilment across geographies, as warehouses utilise increasingly sophisticated robotics to pick and pack packages, and move pallets, at vastly increased speed and lower cost. Soon, increasingly sophisticated AI systems will sit over these operations. These systems will integrate human and machine through augmented reality realising efficiencies in fractions of a second that can collectively add up to thousands of hours, and millions of pounds, each year.
Automation at DP World London Gateway comes via its gate system, truck handling, stack management, shuttle carrier management systems (and potential to one day fully automate shuttle carriers) and through optical character recognition on quay cranes. What’s more, automation is not replacing jobs. Rather, we are leading a shift in skill-sets for our staff and creating new roles in IT, planning, engineering and control.
Bad
Arguably the worst aspect of all this progress is the underlying carbon footprint of increased freight movement on the planet. Freight is anticipated to grow from 2108 tonnes of CO2 emissions in 2010 to 8132 in 2050, according to the International Transportation Forum. Such a carbon impact is also bad for business, undercutting demand by increasingly eco-conscious consumers, and driving up costs.
But the bad here also speaks to a broader opportunity. Advancements like smart order routing and multi-location inventory can combine with lighter, reusable packaging to lessen the carbon impact of moving freight – while additive manufacturing of key components can, in certain cases, remove it altogether.
By locating a logistics park on the same site as a container port, DP World London Gateway has been able to cut unnecessary road miles from hauliers moving goods from point of import to storage and distribution centres. Along with sea freight as a preferential alternative to air cargo, DP World in the UK is committed to reducing carbon emissions and minimising its impact on the environment.
By investing hybrid mobile equipment and fully electric vehicles as well as ensuring all new warehousing facilities meet the BREEAM standard for sustainability, we’re building a safe, secure and vibrant society through strategic investment. In addition, we’ve removed 12,800kg of single-use plastic – equivalent to the weight of 9 whales – from our supply chains since September 2018.
Possible
While the near-term potential for efficiencies are significant and critical to competing in an increasingly unforgiving e-commerce ecosystem, the potential to drive continued efficiency over the long term is nearly limitless. Within our lifetimes, expect seismic shifts in how freight moves including evacuated tunnels connecting directly to ports, whizzing containers at near the speed of sound across continents, directly to last-mile drone delivery points – all controlled by AI.
As AR, smart speakers and a wave of new technologies continue to find new ways to engage consumer buying and drive the growth of e-commerce, the efficiencies needed for brands to compete and win will be found in logistics - and the possibilities with DP World in the UK are limitless.
