Recently, parcel lockers have been at the center of the logistics industry, with frequent investments in the concept. Earlier this year, the number of deployed lockers surpassed the traditional post offices in Sweden.
The increased volume has led actors such as Postnord to shorten the storage time in their lockers to three days, while Instabee has tested mobile solar-powered lockers to manage peak demand. Now, DHL is taking the next step in its plan to gain more market share.
Rolls out up to 200 lockers per month
In the spring, the company's CEO Robert Zander announced an investment of over 2 billion Swedish krona for the Swedish market. Now, the plans are being put into practice as the company begins to deploy the new lockers.
Starting this autumn, the pace is set at between 100 and 200 new units per month. The metropolitan areas of Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö are first in line, before the network will be expanded to smaller towns and rural areas.
Now the parcel lockers are being rolled out across the country while we strengthen the organization to take a larger position within e-commerce. We are investing long-term in both capacity, accessibility and competence, says Johan Widman, Head of Business Area for E-commerce at DHL Freight Sweden.
Aims for private individuals
In addition to the hardware on the streets, internal work is underway. The e-commerce business area is being expanded with new personnel in sales and customer support, combined with investments in digitalization and IT.
One goal of this is to capture the increasing volume of packages sent directly between private individuals, an area where competitors have also presented new solutions. Consumers' new patterns, where they increasingly act as sellers in the second-hand market, are changing the demands on the industry.
Today, the consumer is both buyer and seller and expects the same simple and accessible deliveries regardless of who sends the package. This is changing the logistics market and creating new opportunities for us, says Johan Widman.
Aims to reach 7,000 delivery points
When the rollout is complete, the logistics company expects to have added up to 5,000 new lockers. Together with the existing network, the goal is to reach 7,000 delivery points around Sweden.
The entire Swedish project is part of a European plan from the company, where the strategy is to add up to 20,000 lockers to the more than 170,000 delivery points that already exist.