Amazon today expanded its near 300-strong network of parcel lockers in Britain to the firstairport location, at Birmingham, but its German business was hit by more strikes.
The e-commerce giant announced that from today (September 22) online shoppers will be able topick up their orders from Amazon Lockers situated at Birmingham airport, in central England.Birmingham is the first UK airport to install the lockers.
Located prior to security in the airport’s south-check-in hall near to arrivals, the AmazonLockers will be accessible to customers twenty-four hours a day. Birmingham Airport currently seesnine million passengers pass through the terminal every year.
“Amazon Lockers at travel terminals are amongst the most popular so it made perfect sense to usthat the next step would be to install them at a leading UK airport,” said Christopher North,Managing Director of Amazon.co.uk Ltd. “Amazon Lockers are the delivery option of choice for manycustomers who want to pick up their shopping at a time and place that suits them best and we aredelighted that customers flying in and out of Birmingham will now be able to pick up the productsthat are flying off our shelves whilst at the airport.”
Birmingham Airport’s head of commercial, Richard Gill, said: “The arrival of Amazon Lockers atBirmingham Airport is great news for people passing through the airport, who can now pick up theiritems purchased online, whilst on the move, thanks to this new facility inside the terminal. We’resure these Lockers will prove to be tremendously popular and strengthens our commitment toproviding excellent customer facilities.”
The number of Amazon Locker locations across the UK is now approaching 300, with theself-service machines positioned in convenient locations as shopping centres, supermarkets,universities and libraries. In June, the company teamed up with Transport for London (TfL) toinstall Amazon Lockers at London Underground station car parks, starting with Finchley Central andNewbury Park.
The company said the number of deliveries made to Amazon Lockers in the UK has more than doubledin the last year but did not disclose the volumes involved. The vast majority of products directlysold by Amazon.co.uk are available for delivery to an Amazon Locker. Customers can select a Lockerlocation when they get to the checkout and are then given a unique pick-up code in order toretrieve their items from that Amazon Locker.
Amazon Prime members get One-Day delivery to these locations as part of their membership.Customers who aren’t members of Amazon Prime can receive One-Day delivery for £1.99 or get freestandard delivery on orders over £10.
Highlighting its contribution to the British economy, Amazon added that it has so far investedmore than £1 billion in its UK operations and over the last five years has paid more than £1billion to delivery companies like Royal Mail to deliver packages across the UK. The company doesnot disclose its UK revenues or volumes.
Meanwhile, in Germany the long-running dispute with the Verdi union over the issue of collectivebargaining escalated today with the start of a two-day strike at four of the company’s ninewarehouses across the country: the largest facility at Bad Hersfeld in central Germany; Leipzig;Graben near Augsburg (southern Germany); and Rheinberg (in north-west Germany).
The union wants to negotiate collective wage agreements based on the higher retail industry paylevels while Amazon insists that warehouse workers are logistics staff and should therefore be paidat the lower level typical in the logistics industry.
