Munich Box: Pack stations at underground stations too expensive - MVG stops testing and wants to check above-ground offers

Created: 05/08/2022, 18:30

By: Sascha Karowski

There are packing stations in underground stations in Hamburg, for example (Hamburg Box).

In Munich they are too expensive.

© dpa

There will be no packing stations in the subway stations like in Hamburg in Munich.

Reason: Because of fire protection, the facility would be very expensive.

That's a pity, the CSU thinks.

But the MVG could also have imagined such offers.

Munich – There will be no packing stations in Munich underground stations for the time being – although both the economic department and the Munich transport company (MVG) are very interested.

However: Setting up parcel stations is obviously too expensive and the approval procedures are too long.

The City Council will take up the issue on Tuesday.

Trial operation of two packing stations at Ostbahnhof and Studentenstadt: too expensive, approval too long

The MVG had set up two model packing stations at the Studentenstadt and Ostbahnhof stops as a test.

The conclusion is sober: the requirements for fire protection alone are so costly that such underground locations cannot be operated by external providers to cover their costs.

The proposal for the city council also states that the transport companies would be happy to examine specific applications for the installation of packing stations at surface locations.

Packstations in underground stations: “The Munich Box is an additional way of receiving parcels”

The Packstations had applied for the CSU, the so-called Hamburg Box should serve as a model.

In the Hanseatic city, there have been parcel stations at currently 21 underground and suburban railway stations since 2020.

The system is considered an alternative to DHL, which, as is well known, also operates its own packing stations in Munich.

The post office does not deliver to the Hamburg Box either, but the competition does.

"Anyone who is not at home during the day would have an additional opportunity to receive parcels with the Munich Box," says CSU boss Manuel Pretzl.

The Munich Box is particularly suitable for those who use public transport every day.

It would thus be an efficient and environmentally friendly bundling of parcel deliveries.

"We very much regret that the costs for site development in the subway stations are very high and therefore uneconomical.

Nevertheless, we are pleased about the offer from Stadtwerke München to inspect locations on the surface.”