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Newspaper virtues gives dao an edge in the parcel business

Innovation often equates to a rejection of old habits. But that’s not the case for parcel distributor dao. In a short time, dao has moved from reliable newspaper distributor to heavyweight player in the parcel market in the Nordics. But although the original newspaper business is diminishing it is precisely the newspaper spirit that has created dao’s success.

“With us you can sit in the evening at 9 pm and order your item and receive it the next day. That comes from our newspaper spirit. We are brought up with the idea that time is of the essence and that our customers can trust that everything works every single night,” says Søren Rose Hansen, IT Development Manager at dao.

dao stands for Dansk Avis Omdeling (Danish Newspaper Distribution). That name derives from a time when newspapers had to arrive in the mailbox bafore the morning coffee. Today, there are fewer newspapers to distribute, but instead, dao has added parcels to the package. However, the newspaper virtues still permeate the organisation. Thus, every night - also on New Year’s Eve - daos’ 3,500 distributors drive 100,000 kilometers on electric scooters and in electric cars, delivering newspapers and packages in time for the morning routines.

“While others in the industry are doing everything they can to make customers pick up their parcels in centralised parcel hubs, we are doing the exact opposite. We try to get even closer to the receivers. That is the reason why we often hang the parcels on the door handles,” says Søren Rose Hansen.

In 2007, dao delivered 200.000 packages a year, but by 2020 the company will deliver 18 million parcels. At the same time, dao expects an annual growth of 20-30 percent, making the company an upcoming competitor in the market.

“There is no doubt that we want to become one of the big players in the industry. The goal is that our competitors will no longer look over their shoulder, but start looking at us in the back,” says Søren Rose Hansen.

The majority of dao’s customers are heavy on e-commerce. This way, dao has grown along with e-commerce and is now taking part in the explosive growth. At the same time, dao is launching several innovative initiatives to make dao the easiest and cheapest alternative to competitors. For example, dao customers can soon order parcel collection at their private address.

Innovative ideas like this are part of the reason why dao and Clearhaus are working together. Dao and Clearhaus started their journey as dao was searching for an acquirer for its C2C private package label platform. And Clearhaus’ innovative service made the choice easy.

“One of the most important things is that Clearhaus is at the forefront of technology. We need the best technology stack available, and we get that by using the platforms that challenge the market. Things have moved a lot within payments. Some are involved and others who are not. But we can feel that Clearhaus is fully involved in that development,” says Søren Rose Hansen and adds:

“Our slogan is: always on the go. And it says a lot about the culture. We are moving constantly. Both in terms of packages and technology,” he says.

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