Competitor Watch

Irish postal operator An Post is planning to introduce a network of self-service parcel locker stations, enabling customers to conveniently access online deliveries and make returns.

The new parcel locker system will be concentrated in high footfall areas in Dublin and key regional centres and will complement its post office network.

An Post’s vision is to ‘become the e-commerce backbone of Ireland for shippers and shoppers’. It handled more than 30 million parcels last year, up 42% on 2017, as shoppers increasingly opted to buy goods online.

An Post plans to initiate the contracts to install the lockers in November this year. The move will put An Post in competition with existing providers, including Parcel Motel, the service that is part of Nightline, which was acquired by UPS in 2017.

Separately, An Post is introducing hundreds of electric vehicles for zero-emission deliveries in Dublin by the end of this year and in other major cities next year. It will replace 200 standard vehicles with electric vehicles this year, with an additional 550 by 2022. The electric vehicles will be a combination of delivery vans and electric bicycles.

In addition, An Post is trialling public charging points for electric vehicles outside post offices and installing solar panels on its buildings. Altogether, initiatives being introduced in 2019 will save 1,000 tonnes of carbon annually. Under its ‘Post Eco’ plan, the company plans to completely eliminate carbon emissions by 2050.