France’s La Poste expects to deliver an “unprecedented” 100 million parcels in the forthcoming peak season, 20% more than last year, after seeing a 30% volume surge in recent months driven by the e-commerce boom resulting from COVID-19 pandemic lockdown restrictions.
While the B2C parcels business Colissimo will deliver up to 4 million parcels on its peak day in mid-December, the group’s other French delivery businesses are also expecting strong increases. Express operator Chronopost expects its daily volumes to rise from 800,000 to more than 1.3 million, while DPD France volumes are likely to increase from 400,000 daily to more than 500,000 parcels per day.
The group is gearing up for this volume surge during the November – December peak period with new services, additional sorting capacity and 9,000 temporary workers to support its workforce of 100,000 postal staff.
Four new Colissimo sorting centres
Under an overall €450 million investment programme launched in 2018, the postal group has invested significantly in its parcels network to increase capacity. Over the past 12 months, La Poste has opened four new Colissimo centres, each capable of sorting 35,000 parcels/hour, taking its dedicated nationwide parcel network to 18 locations.
The most recent opening is the 17,000 sqm ‘Ile de France Nord’ centre, close to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. In July, a 7,200 sqm centre opened in the Cote d’Azur region while two centres opened in northern France and the French Alps region in late 2019.
In early 2021, a 23,000 sqm ‘Ile de France Sud’ facility will open on the southern outskirts of the French capital. Another new facility is due to open near Bordeaux in 2023.
New parcel delivery and collection services
Meanwhile, La Poste is offering diverse new services for parcel customers during peak season 2020. For example, the company expects to deliver up to 40,000 packages a day with fresh produce through the Chronofresh service, compared to 25,000 daily last year. Chronofresh has added more staff and doubled the number of delivery rounds to cope with this growth.
La Poste delivers about 94% of Colissimo parcels successfully to residential addresses at the first attempt. For the remaining 6%, parcels will no longer automatically be deposited at post offices for collection. Instead, there will be a 2nd delivery attempt on the following day.
Recipients will also be able to request redirection to a collection point of their choice, including 17,000 postal points, 13,000 Pickup retail locations and 450 Pickup Station lockers. La Poste is installing parcel lockers in more than 50 heavily-used urban post offices to speed up collections and will set up collection points at other commercial locations.
In addition, La Poste is testing Colissimo parcel deliveries by appointment at peak season. If successful, this service will be rolled out nationwide next year.
Finally, the company aims to make it easier for private customers to send parcels. During peak season they will also be able to send parcels through their own letter-box with collection by the postman or postwoman during their delivery round.
