DPD has announced it is the first UK parcel delivery company to roll out Ottonomy’s fully autonomous locker delivery robot.

Ottobot is a multi-compartment “locker on wheels”, larger than DPD’s existing autonomous delivery robots.

The new bot has a maximum payload of 70kg and eight different compartments that can carry parcels of varying sizes.

The autonomous lockers can both deliver parcels and accept collections.

DPD's first locker robot will be deployed in Milton Keynes where the company has been operating autonomous robot deliveries since July 2022.

The company also has robotic deliveries in Raunds, Bristol and Lincoln.

"This is the next chapter for us in terms of autonomous deliveries after a very successful roll-out across a number of different locations," said Tim Jones, director of marketing, communications & sustainability, DPD Group UK. "It's well over two years now since we began autonomous robot deliveries and the customer feedback continues to be incredibly positive."

Jones went on to say that the move could potentially give DPD a "massive uplift" in productivity, with the robot able to deliver up to eight parcels at a time before the robot needs to return to the depot to be reloaded.

The company is also looking at how Ottobot could double-up as an additional, mobile parcel drop-off point for customers.

The robot will be based at DPD's Milton Keynes depot in Knowlhill, where it will navigate the city's traffic-free Redway network to access nearby residential neighbourhoods.

Once the locker robots have completed the mapping process, they operate fully autonomously.

DPD parcel recipients will receive an SMS when the robot is outside their property and can use a secure one-time pin code to open the robot and access their parcel.

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