Austrian Post hails success of food delivery trial
Austrian Post and the wholesale grocery supply firm Pfeiffer Handelsgruppe have completed an 18-month trial delivering food to households. The “Food4all@home” trial involved around 600,000 households in Upper Austria ordering groceries online for daily delivery by the Post.
The aim was to develop an affordable home delivery service where a local supply of food could be guaranteed for busy consumers, regardless of where homes were located, when householders were available to take delivery or what householders’ mobility situations were.
One of the keys to the project was in using cooled packaging, instead of expensive cooled vehicles, with the packaging having to be compatible with Austrian Post’s existing sorting and transport systems.
The project ran three different delivery models — same-day evening delivery in the Linz area, next-day delivery anywhere in Upper Austria, and the collection of items at designated pick-up locations.
Austrian Post said today that it can now call the trial a success, and potentially roll the service out to additional parts of Austria.
Peter Umundum, the Austrian Post head of parcel and logistics, said: “This new range of logistics services has the potential to revolutionize the food supply chain in Austria.”
“We’ve shown that food can be properly cooled for up to 48 hours, and so the delivery of food can be made in all seasons and all outdoor temperatures.”
Cooperation
Close co-operation: Austria Post’s Peter Umundum, RISC Software GmbH managing director Wolfgang Freiseisen, Dr. Efrem Lengauer of the University of Applied Sciences, Upper Austria, and Pfeiffer CEO Markus Böhm
The Post said the project involved “intense” cooperation between project partners, with the postal service providing logistics experience and infrastructure and Pfeiffer providing food industry know-how.
Other partners included software firm RISC Software to provide route optimising technology and the logistics department of the University of Applied Sciences, Upper Austria, to provide a scientific perspective on the trial.
Markus Böhm, the Pfeiffer chief executive, said: “In this trial it wasn’t simply a question of providing food for sale on a website — we needed to break new ground with the the intelligent connection with various numbers of consumers through online sale channels, providing added value.
“Gaining knowledge from the different viewpoints of all partners was of great importance in this project.”
“Cheaper”
Professor Dr. Efrem Lengauer from the University of Applied Sciences, Upper Austria, said: “Food delivery is not new. We wondered whether it would be possible to do it without using the expensive actively-cooled vehicles by cooling the package itself.
“This would make it possible to use the standard processes of efficient package delivery instead, which is definitely cheaper.”
The project saw software firm RISC developing a last mile simulation model that could optimise delivery rounds, taking account of current traffic situations, so that deliveries could be made at exactly the required time.
Umundum said: “Customers want an uncomplicated delivery in the shortest possible time frame, and we can offer it to them. We place special emphasis on meeting our delivery commitments while offering extra flexible delivery options.”
