DHL Germany aims to more than double the number of people registered for its automated parcelterminals, Packstations, to five million within the next five years.
The number of users has now reached two million ten years after the parcel collection machineswere first introduced. Around 2,500 parcel terminals with more than 200,000 boxes are now availablefor customers in more than 1,600 cities and towns across Germany to ship and pick up theirparcels.
“The business development of the Packstations has exceeded our expectations. While there were2,500 registered users in 2001, today there are more than two million. For 2015, we have setourselves the target of reaching five million customers,” said Jurgen Gerdes, head of Deutsche PostDHL’s mail and parcel division.
To achieve this goal, DHL will continue to expand the capacity of the Packstations network. In2010, it introduced new modular machines considerably expanding the number of available boxes atparticularly busy locations. Compared to the previous 76 boxes at each terminal, the biggestmodular version has up to 390 boxes today.
In the next few years, DHL plans to replace older terminals with new modular machines to furtherexpand the number of boxes and thus the availability. The introduction of new software is scheduledfor 2012 and is expected to further simplify the use of Packstations for customers while providingnew services.
“With this industrial innovation, we hit the mark with our customers. The constantly growingnumber of users shows that the Packstations are still very popular even ten years after the launch.Especially in times of booming online trade, it has become an attractive delivery address for manypeople which is there 24/7,” Gerdes added.
DHL said customers appreciate both the availability round the clock seven days a week and thesimple use of the machines, as well as the immediate information about the delivery of a parcel. Assoon as the shipment has been put into the Packstation, the customer is informed via an SMS or ane-mail. About 70% of the shipments are collected within 24 hours.
