Hewlett-Packard employees in Europe will be able to get their private parcels delivered at work in future under an innovative new ‘Business-To-Office’ (B2O) delivery service entitled ‘Pakadoo’.
The ‘Pakadoo Point’ service aims to fill a market gap by enabling authorised ‘shop2job’ deliveries during normal company working hours, Markus Ziegler, director of Logistics Group International (LGI), said at the Transport Logistic trade fair in Munich this week.
Outlining the new concept, Ziegler explained that online shoppers would be able to click on ‘Pakadoo’ delivery when making their online purchase using a Packadoo ID number. Parcels would be delivered to special workplace ‘Pakadoo Points’ that would be set up in cooperation with employers at company receptions, in mailrooms or other agreed locations.
Buyers would be able to track the parcel online, would be automatically notified when the parcel had been delivered to their workplace, and could collect it at their convenience, also using their ID number for identification. Similarly, workers could drop off return parcels at the Pakadoo Point for collection by a parcel carrier.
“Pakadoo is a neutral parcel delivery point inside a company,” Ziegler explained. LGI, formerly HP’s logistics operation but now an independent company offering contract logistics and other distribution services, is currently in talks with parcel carriers in Germany over delivery agreements, he added.
The B2O service would ensure “nearly 100% rates for deliveries and returns” for shippers and parcel carriers, who could also combine B2B and B2C deliveries to company addresses. “It simplifies parcel delivery for employees because the Pakadoo Point is open while they are at work. So staff are more satisfied,” he emphasised.
Employers would thus benefit from higher levels of employee satisfaction, he claimed. The concept would also end the situation of employees receiving private parcels at work without their employer’s consent or contrary to company rules.
The ‘Pakadoo Point’ service was launched at HP offices in Germany last October as a pilot project and has proved popular both with the company and employees, Ziegler said. “The European rollout has just been approved,” he told a discussion forum on city logistics. “We are now in talks with other well-known companies.”
LGI, outsourced from HP in 1995, has some 3,000 staff at 45 locations and had turnover of about €400 million last year from a customer base in the electronics, automotive, fashion, healthcare and industrial sectors. Major customers include Audi, Bosch, Daimler, HP and Siemens. In 2013, the company acquired fashion logistics company ITG from Deutsche Post DHL.
