Smartmile expands carrier-neutral parcel lockers in Finland and the Netherlands

Technology start-up Smartmile is expanding its network of carrier-neutral parcel lockers in Finland and the Netherlands in response to strong e-commerce growth.

The Dutch company, which works with various parcel carriers and retail partners, will install a total of 40 new lockers in the two countries between September and November 2020. Most of them will be installed in Finland.  

Smartmile is locating its automated terminals in Lidl grocery stores in Finland and the Netherlands along with K-Group stores as well as selected shopping centres in Finland.

CEO Aku Happo said: “Covid-19 boosted eCommerce volumes and strongly increased demand for our contactless, automated service. We are happy to offer more locations for online buyers and parcel carriers just before the peak season.”

Online buyers can select their preferred parcel terminal when shopping online and steer their orders to the most convenient location. Parcel transportation and delivery service to the machines are provided by parcel carriers DHL Parcel, DHL Express, Matkahuolto, PostNord and DB Schenker.

Kati Nevalainen, Director of the Parcel Services unit at Matkahuolto, the second-largest parcel carrier in Finland, said: “The number of parcels carried by Matkahuolto has grown significantly during 2020 - parcels of domestic online stores by almost 60% and parcels sent by consumers by almost 100%. Parcel terminals have been one of the key factors in this growth: our customers have embraced Smartmile’s easy-to-use parcel automates when sending, receiving and returning parcels.”

Lidl’s Jussi Hulkko added: “Smartmile's shared parcel automates allow more and more customers to pick up their parcels from the Lidl store while going shopping simultaneously, doing both errands in one trip. This is especially important under the current COVID-19 regulations where governments are advising everyone to minimize the number of trips to different locations.”

Smartmile aspires to build “the largest Open & Shared Delivery Infrastructure for Parcels in Europe” by 2023. The company’s cloud-based software platform connects parcel lockers to any online buyer, carrier and retailer, creating a new carrier and hardware-agnostic solution for last-mile deliveries.