In the future, the parcel service provider DHL wants to greatly expand a popular offer.
This is how you respond to customer requests and also do something for the climate, it said.
Bonn - In all likelihood, thousands more parcel pick-up stations will be built at parking lots, train stations and apartment buildings in the coming years.
Deutsche Post DHL announced on Thursday that it would increase its expansion speed.
"We want to have at least 15,000 of the current 8,200 Packstations by the end of 2023," said Post board member Tobias Meyer of the German Press Agency.
For the systems where customers can pick up parcels around the clock, the Post had previously set itself the target of 12,000 locations by 2023.
Now it should be 3000 more than previously planned.
DHL packing stations protect the climate
The board of directors responsible for Post and Parcel Germany justified the accelerated expansion with high customer demand. In addition, the stations are climate-friendly, because unsuccessful trips to and delivery attempts to apartments are no longer necessary and many customers pick up their parcels on foot.
The Packstations are a success story for the market leader. The first yellow wall units were installed in 2003 and are now available across Germany. They can be found at supermarkets, petrol stations or train stations - in other words, where many people pass by. The expansion, which was accelerated only a year ago, is now being pushed again. In autumn 2019 there were only 4,100 packing stations - now there are already twice as many, and by the end of this year there should be 8,500. If Swiss Post achieves its expansion target by 2023, it would have almost doubled its size on the current basis.
The background to the expansion is the rapidly increasing parcel volumes for years, which in turn is due to the booming online trade.
The parcel service providers are desperately looking for efficient delivery methods in order to be able to handle the masses well.
Swiss Post sees its collection machines as a central element here.
There should be more packing stations at these locations
Why more and more packing stations?
"Many of our customers are not at home during the day, and sending parcels to their home address makes little sense," explains DHL CEO Meyer.
It is true that a secure storage location could be specified via the Internet so that the parcel carrier still leaves the shipment close to the apartment - for example in the garage, on the terrace or in the garden shed.
But many citizens, especially in big cities, don't have such storage locations.
Such parcel recipients could determine in advance that the shipment would be sent to a packing station and then take it with them on the way home, for example.
The demand for such automated pick-up stations is increasing significantly, said Meyer.
The Bonn-based group is primarily targeting train stations as new locations - i.e. stops on buses, subways, suburban trains, regional trains or long-distance trains.
Housing associations should also be asked whether the post office can rent a space for the construction of a new packing station.
(dpa)
