GLS has opened new eco-depots in Hungary and Italy using bicycles and electric vehicles for delivery and expanded the geographical coverage of its evening and Saturday deliveries in Germany offered as part of its Flex Delivery service.
GLS Hungary has opened a new depot in Budapest in cooperation with the capital’s first bicycle courier company, whose name hasn’t been disclosed. The delivery drivers transport most of the parcels for the city centre by cargo bikes or e-bikes. For heavy cargo, GLS uses an electric minivan with a range of 130 km as the first of its kind to be used in the Hungarian postal and parcels market.
In Italy, GLS now also makes emission-free deliveries to parcel recipients in the inner city of Milan using 12 electric vehicles and eight e-bikes. The new depot also features eco-friendly LED lighting.
These new depots are part of the company’s sustainability goal to continually reduce energy consumption. Bicycles are also used by GLS in other Italian city centres and in Belgium. It has the advantage that narrow and bustling downtown streets and areas with restricted access can be reached quickly and easily, the company stressed.
In Germany, GLS has further expanded the geographical coverage of its evening and Saturday deliveries offered as part of its Flex Delivery service to Leipzig and Hanover. Initially introduced in Frankfurt and Düsseldorf in May last year, the evening and Saturday deliveries have been gradually expanded to more cities and are now also available in Berlin, Cologne, Munich, Nuremberg, Hamburg, Bonn. This brings the total number of the cities covered to ten.
As part of the new delivery options, consumers living in Leipzig and Hannover can now also choose delivery in the evening or on a Saturday. The time window for the evening deliveries is set between 5-8 pm. On Saturdays, GLS delivers between 8 am and 1pm. If the first delivery attempt fails, the recipients can still choose the new delivery options again through parcel redirection via the company’s website gls-group.eu.
"The feedback from the users is positive," Anne Putz, Head of Corporate Communications at GLS, said. "In general we can say that the more options private recipients can choose from, the easier they can integrate the service into their daily routines – and the more satisfied they are with the delivery process."
Since launching FlexDelivery in September 2012, GLS Germany has been informing recipients about the expected delivery time and the expected delivery time window, with various delivery options to choose from. For example, recipients can choose to change the delivery day and address, fix delivery to a GLS parcel shop but also grant a signature release authorisation so GLS delivery staff can leave the parcel at an agreed location – for example, in a garage or another location at or close to the delivery address.
