OREANDA-NEWS. May 15, 2014. The DHL Packstation – more than five million registered users cannot imagine online shopping without it. Today, some 2,650 automated kiosks with approximately 250,000 compartments are available for sending and picking up DHL parcels in more than 1,600 cities and towns throughout Germany.

This means that 90 percent of the people living in Germany are within ten minutes of a DHL Packstation. The network will be expanded significantly with the installation of another 300 automated kiosks by the end of 2014, increasing availability for customers even further.

DHL Paket will be installing its own automats for the first time. The market leader tailored them to its needs in collaboration with the company Polygon. “Our network of DHL Packstations is unique and represents a milestone in the history of parcel delivery. We have decided to bundle the know-how we have acquired during our more than ten years in the market in Germany to an even greater degree and continuously refine and improve the lockers ourselves. The expansion of our network in Germany is an important part of our strategy to be the clear leader in terms of market share and innovation in the German parcel market,” explained Jurgen Gerdes, Board member for Post-eCommerce-Parcel, Deutsche Post DHL.

During the development of the new Packstations, particular attention was paid to the steadily growing demand for parcel compartments and to providing an even greater variety of compartment sizes plus ensuring the latest security standards for the closure devices and locks used, to name a few examples.

Having developed its lockers in a targeted manner, DHL Paket can also adapt them to the needs of international markets. One important element of Deutsche Post DHL’s Corporate Strategy for 2020 is to export the successful German model for the parcel business to other countries with similar market structures and comparable growth rates. “The Packstation is an important pillar in our market success in Germany. We will examine the use of these automats in European markets very closely and selectively use them to establish our B2C operations in other countries,” Jurgen Gerdes underscored. The first DHL Packstations in the Netherlands and Italy will be available in the near future.

In addition to its own lockers, DHL Paket will also continue to use the Packstation models from the Austrian manufacturer KEBA and will maintain this successful collaboration in the future as well.