Austrian Post has won a major four-year delivery contract extension from teleshopping company QVCand is further extending its network of parcel drop-off and collection points.
The postal group announced today that QVC Germany has extended its contract for delivery ofmore than 500,000 parcels a year in Austria by a further four years. QVC sells a wide range ofproducts, including fashion, beauty products and electronics, through its TV channels.
“We have already successfully worked together with the Post in Austria for more than adecade,” said Thomas Landemann, logistics director of QVC Germany. “With their high quality ofparcel delivery and a comprehensive European network, Austria Post meets our logistics shippingneeds. That’s why our orders will continue to be delivered by the Post in Austria in future.”
Peter Umundum, Austria Post’s head of parcel logistics, commented: “We processed about 70million parcels securely and rapidly for all our customers in 2013. With QVC Germany we’ve retainedan important and well-known business partner in the B2C segment. This confirms our strategy ofinvesting about €100 million a year, whether in new logistics centres or expansions, in our fleetor new 24/7 solutions for receiving customers.”
The postal operator has meanwhile completed installation of 8,000 ‘parcel boxes’ forcollection of packets and parcels in residential apartment blocks across Austria. About 80 per centare located in Vienna with the others in the country’s provincial capitals.
Customers are extremely satisfied with the ‘collection boxes’ since they are located withintheir buildings, thus saving a trip to a post office or postal agency, Austrian Post pointed out.The boxes act as an alternative delivery address if the first delivery attempt at the door isunsuccessful.
By the end of the year up to 500,000 items will be been collected from the boxes and thisfigure is expected to rise towards one million next year. Austrian Post plans to install up to 300more boxes this month and then a further 4,000 throughout the country in 2015, creating a networkof 12,000 residential collection boxes.
Separately, Austrian Post plans to deepen its cooperation with OMV, the Austrian oil andpetrol station group, and extend the network of parcel points at petrol stations. Customers havebeen able to hand in parcels at many OMV petrol stations since 2006 while self-service parcelcollection terminals have been installed at 11 locations. This number will be increased to 40petrol stations over the next two years.
The two companies will also investigate opportunities to cooperate in other countries,including in Central and Eastern Europe.
