Parcel locker newcomers unveil ambitious growth plans

A diverse range of little-known new entrants to the fast-growing out-of-home parcel lockers delivery market outlined their strategies and ambitious growth plans for the coming years at the recent Parcel + Post Expo 2023 in Amsterdam.

Senior executives from YEEP!, ARKA, Direct4Me, Bloq.It and Modern-Expo took to the stage in an extensive session at the three-day Innovation Forum. A previous article already covered the presentations of well-known big players Quadient, KEBA and Cleveron.

Parcel gridlock in London?

Alan Barrie, an experienced parcels industry executive who is now chairman of British start-up YEEP!, told the international audience how London is heading for massive congestion problems in the coming years.

More than 25,000 vans are currently used to deliver some 750 million parcels a year to consumers, with about 90% of these as residential deliveries to 3.5 million homes throughout the British capital, he said. Volumes could reach one billion a year by 2030, creating even more congestion, according to forecasts.

In response, all major delivery companies are seeking to expand their out-of-home (OOH) delivery networks, he said. Both DPD and Evri, for example, want to double their OOH networks to about 16,000 and 20,000 respectively, while Amazon aims to extend its Hub access points from about 25,000 at present (including about 10,000 lockers) to as many as 60,000 in the coming years. The strategy of Royal Mail, with more than 14,000 parcel collection points (mostly post offices), is “still unclear”, however, he commented.

Dense delivery network?

Claiming that parcel shops have “failed” as out-of-home (OOH) delivery points because consumers did not want to go to different shops to collect parcels, Barrie portrayed consolidated parcel deliveries to a dense carrier-neutral open locker network as the best solution to reduce congestion and tackle environmental issues.

The Delivering London initiative (which has now transformed into YEEP!) had planned for about 9,000 lockers throughout London, with an average of 1 locker within a short walking distance of 1,000 people. “Cities want collaboration and carriers see the opportunity to deliver to 9,000 locations instead of 3.5 million homes,” he commented.

Collaborative green network

YEEP! officially launched its network of battery-powered green parcel lockers, which are supplied by Spanish company KernTerminals, last month. It aims to install more than 400 lockers by the end of this year (including at 50 train stations), reach 1,000 by Q2, 2024 and then accelerate to 5,000 by 2025. The company would then expand into other British cities, aiming for 10,000 lockers in total by 2027 and 22,000 by 2032, according to Barrie.

Presenting the company’s strategy, Barrie made clear that the start-up, which has secured funding of £8 million for its first year, has very big ambitions to compete with InPost, Quadient and other parcel locker operators with its plan for a hyperlocal, carrier-agnostic network.

“We are looking to redefine lockers with an open system,” he explained. This “community-based, green at heart” network would be centred around “collaboration and partnership”, open to all carriers, helping the sector to reach its decarbonization targets. “We are starting with London, which is the most difficult place, and then the UK.”

C2C boom

Very different stories were presented by four locker companies from Portugal, Central and Eastern Europe. Lucian Ulmanu, CEO of ARKA, presented the Romanian locker manufacturer’s business model and its latest security software, and discussed the potential impact of AI technology and automation on delivery services.

Miha Jagodic, co-founder & CEO of Bloq.it, told the Innovation Forum about the Portuguese locker company’s close partnership with VintedGo, the logistics unit of fast-growing C2C marketplace Vinted. The two companies recently signed a new long-term partnership to grow their respective circular economy and out-of-home delivery businesses across Europe.

New-look lockers

Meanwhile, Tadej Visinski, CEO of Slovenian company Direct4Me, which earlier this year signed a major deal with DPD for 700 lockers in Slovenia and Croatia, addressed the changing requirements for parcel lockers, such as for temperature-controlled compartments or private home parcel boxes. The company also used Parcel + Post Expo to present its new ‘Urban Furniture Parcel Lockers’, which are small machines for urban locations.

Similarly, Roman Melnychuk, marketing manager of Ukrainian company Modern-Expo, highlighted the potential of parcel lockers for new business activities and new urban solutions.

For example, lockers could be fitted with charging points for electric vehicles for customers collecting their orders; used for commercial advertising purposes; expanded with convenience store sections selling food, drink or other products; or accompanying natural greenery could make them into “eco-islands” by purifying the surrounding air. Another solution was to develop a ‘premium’ personal home locker for digitally-controlled residential deliveries, he continued.

At Parcel + Post Expo, Modern-Expo picked up the Supplier of the Year Award for its ‘Loko App’ software while its large-scale City Islands stand attracted plenty of visitors.