GLS has announced a price increase of 3.8% for domestic and international parcels for businesscustomers from April 1 to compensate for rising costs. But prices for parcel shop clients will
remain stable.“The additional costs caused by the new legal provisions such as working hour regulations andenvironmental regulations as well as the persistent shortage of cargo space and the labour deficithave driven up distribution costs,” explained Klaus Conrad, Managing Director GLS Germany.
In particular, the regulation of working and rest periods has increased demand for drivers inspite of already low unemployment in the logistics sector. As a result, the wages for drivers andskilled workers have risen significantly.
GLS added that investments in IT and support of individual depots have optimised the parcelflow but it could not fully compensate for the continuously rising external costs. “We constantlyimprove our production processes and adapt the tour planning according to the current flow of goodsto use our high quality network to full capacity,” Conrad said. But he emphasised: “To guaranteethe high GLS standards in delivery, pick-up and transit times, adapting the prices to the marketconditions is unavoidable.”
