DHL unveils plans to boost Berlin’s parcel options
DHL Parcel has announced that “by the end of 2016, the densest network of alternative delivery options in Germany and even across Europe will be found in Berlin”. The plan, said the company, is to “fuse fused familiar and new types of solutions into an innovative grand concept for Berlin”.
By the end of next year, the DHL Packstation delivery network in Berlin, Germany’s capital city, will be expanded from its current base of 180 units to 500, with the capacity to process up to 50,000 parcels a day.
DHL also expects to see several thousand parcel box units installed in apartment buildings “across the entire urban region of Berlin”.
The company said that “the third key element of the Berlin innovation project” is the DHL Parcel Shops.
“With nearly 900 Parcel Shops and Deutsche Post retail outlets, Berlin has the densest collection network in Germany,” said DHL Parcel.
“Residents of Berlin today only have to go an average 360 metres to reach the closest DHL Parcel Shops. In the near future, DHL Parcel will make these shops into places where customers can both send and pick up parcels.”
Other moves planned by DHL include additional time windows for parcel deliveries as well as working on “completely new” crowdsourcing options and testing its own smartphone app for the first time in Germany.
“In the mid-term, thanks to these measures,” said Jürgen Gerdes, Board Member for Post – eCommerce – Parcel at Deutsche Post DHL Group, “we will be in a position to process more than half of all shipments in Berlin using these innovative delivery concepts and thus to offer parcel recipients in Berlin a one-of-a-kind service.”
