French B2C delivery firms Mondial Relay and Relais Colis have both stopped deliveries this week as the country’s drastic anti-coronavirus lockdown forced their parcel shop networks to close while DPD and Geodis are adjusting daily operations.
Both Mondial Relay and Relais Colis specialise in B2C deliveries to collection points which are generally integrated within retail outlets.
But most of these shops have closed under the French government’s lockdown policy to try to slow the spread of the Covid-19 virus. Only essential shops such as supermarkets and pharmacies remain open across the country.
Mondial Relay, which is part of the Hermes Europe network, stopped deliveries on Tuesday (March 17). “Our service will not resume before April 15 or until the date fixed by the government,” the company told customers in a website message.
Parcels already delivered to a collection point that is now closed cannot be collected until the shop re-opens, it made clear. Items already in transit will be stored securely at one of the company’s logistics centres and cannot be transferred to a home delivery. “Our services have been completely interrupted and we do not provide any home delivery service in France,” Mondial Relay stated.
Mondial Relay has a network of 9,000 ‘points relais’ in France, mostly in newsagents, florists, dry-cleaners, opticians and similar shops. In 2019, it handled 125 million parcels and generated €287 million in turnover. The company has more than 55,000 customers, including leading brands such as Vinted, Leboncoin, H&M, Asos, Bonprix, Kiabi, Showroomprivé.com, Nespresso, Norauto, Amazon.fr, Cdiscount.com, Decathlon, Rueducommerce.com, Auchan.fr and Misterauto.com.
Smaller rival Relais Colis stopped deliveries to its network of 5,200 collection points on Tuesday for the same reasons. The company, in which DHL has a minority stake, delivers 40 million parcels a year for a range of well-known retailers, including Amazon, Cdiscount.com, La Redoute and Vente-Privée.
In contrast, about half of the 6,000 outlets in DPDgroup’s French collection point network Pickup are reportedly still operating. According to DPD France, they have switched to ‘non-contact’ parcel handovers. Customers have to identify themselves and the parcel shop operator enters a code in the PDA on their behalf.
DPD France itself, which mostly focuses on B2B deliveries, said in a customer notice yesterday (March 19) that it has seen “a drastic reduction in volumes”. In response, it will close down its operational network on Wednesdays and Fridays until further notice, with effect from today (March 20).
Meanwhile, Geodis Distribution & Express, which also mostly handles B2B parcel deliveries, is adapting its operations in order to prioritize health, food and hygiene traffic.
“At the request of the Ministry of Health, Distribution & Express is required as a priority to allocate its resources to the distribution of medical products to all pharmacies in France. In order to concentrate its capacities on these supplies, D&E has temporarily suspended the handling of all delivery traffic to individual consumers (so-called B2C traffic); this excludes health and hygiene products as well as of hazardous goods,” the company stated.
Similarly, FedEx and TNT are refocusing services in Eastern France to healthcare and food deliveries, and have thus suspended normal services in the region, which includes cities such as Strasbourg, Mulhouse and Metz.
GLS France has switched to non-contact deliveries and informed customers that it cannot deliver parcels to collection point partner Mondial Relay until further notice.
