Austrian Post is “top dog” in domestic parcel delivery test

Austria’s consumer watchdog VKI has said parcel delivery for the country’s online shoppers “often works poorly”, but said Austrian Post performed best in tests. The Association for Consumer Information (Vereins für Konsumenteninformation) issued a report at the end of November warning that Austrian consumers had “lots of complaints” about their package delivery services.

Complaints highlighted by the watchdog included couriers leaving a “sorry we missed you” notice without bothering to ring doorbells when recipients were actually at home to receive their packages.

Packages left in inappropriate places also caused frustrations, as did parcels that took a long time to arrive and valuable consignments arriving damaged.

Austrians have also been complaining about helplines being available only through premium phone lines, and of having to pick up parcels from depots located a long way away.

The VKI said it carried out tests in response to a “sharp increase” in the number of complaints, although it noted the increase was partly fueled by the huge growth in ecommerce within Austria.

The watchdog warned that at present, the receiver of a package in Austria may not technically be the customer of the parcel delivery service delivering it, and therefore their complaints hold no legal standing.

The VKI tested the six major parcel carriers in Austria, with each delivering 17 packages of various sizes.

It said “top dog” in its tests was Austrian Post.

Other companies involved in the testing included DPD Austria, GLS, Hermes, DHL and UPS.

In its study, VKI said DHL and UPS tended to mainly deliver for business clients, with prices that “scare away” consumers. The watchdog also noted the cooperation that occurs between some carriers, with DPD found to be delivering “many” parcels sent via Hermes.

Austrian Post

Austrian Post said the VKI report had found that its services offered the fastest delivery times – averaging 1.4 days – and the best prices.

It also noted the report’s highlighting of its post office network in boosting parcel service quality, with 1,900 outlets nationwide.

Peter Umundum, the Austrian Post board member responsible for parcels and logistics, said: “Here is an independent comparison test that proves our strategy is the right one: we score with performance and an unbeatable price.

“Our couriers know the customers and can deliver nine out of 10 packages first time. And if that does not work, there is always a post office in the area,” said Umundum.

Austrian Post delivers about 59m parcels a year in Austria, up from about 41m in 2008. The company generated EUR 846.5m in revenue from its parcel and logistics division in 2011, a 5.6% growth on the previous year, with EUR 13.8m in pre-tax earnings, up 9.3% on 2010.

Growth in the division has been driven by ecommerce volumes as well as business-to-business success, with the standard parcels product which is used mainly for shipments to consumers seeing a 3.8% year-on-year growth in its revenue in 2011, to EUR 166.8m.

Austrian Post says it currently delivers 90% of all parcels within two working days, with 94.2% of universal service parcels delivered within two working days in 2011.