The Covid crisis has accelerated the growth of e-commerce, meaning the parcel-delivery sector has needed to develop creative solutions to meet demand. The Dutch start-up ViaTim believes part of the solution lies in a network of “neighbourhood pickup points”. In the Netherlands, this type of network has existed since 2016: some 600 private individuals receive parcels and handle the returns for their entire neighbourhood. The aim is for 750 neighbourhood points in Belgium soon.
ViaTim established a partnership with DPD Belgium, which has enabled the initiative to be deployed in Belgium in recent months. Within this period, nearly 120 neighbours have joined the pickup point network.
To meet the demand linked to the huge growth in e-commerce, parcel delivery companies are increasingly seeking solutions for last mile. DPD Belgium found a solution to this issue in the ViaTim Points network. The network is made up of private residents who receive parcels and serve as pickup points for the people who live in their street or neighbourhood. They either deliver the parcels daily to recipients’ homes or operate as a neighbourhood parcel-pickup-service point with extended opening hours (from 4pm to 9pm), which is ideal for people who need to pick up or send parcels after office hours. In this way, the parcels arrive on the day they are supposed to, even if there may be three times as many parcels to be delivered on that day. Indeed, potential peaks of activity at the parcel delivery company are spread across dozens of additional helping hands, who then make their delivery rounds within a limited radius around their own home.
The ViaTim Points are often run by people who are retired or who work from home. In the Netherlands, 600 ViaTim Points are already operating. Together, they handle more than 250,000 parcels a month. They form a dense distribution network, providing an alternative to all those delivery vans in the street. ViaTim encourages people to collect or deliver parcels on foot or by bike. This also contributes to reducing traffic. The Erasmus University of Rotterdam calculated that this initiative could cut neighbourhood CO2 emissions by 74%.
Source: DPD
