The Chinese cheap online retailers Shein, Temu, Wish & Co. cause a flood of packages. They already account for a double-digit share of the domestic post office’s parcel activities, which is therefore already larger than letter sales. The postmen also benefit from this: everyone receives a bonus of 813 euros.
“Compared to the millions of packages, there are only a few cases of problems with returns etc. The business is obviously very competitive for us in terms of price, and bundling it with a few large customers comes with certain risks,” Post explains. CEO Georg Pölzl. The largest shipping customer is Amazon, which despite its own delivery service also sends a lot via the post office; the American giant accounts for 13 percent of the parcel volume.
In Austria, this increased significantly last year to 200 million items, an increase of eleven percent and four times as much as in 2011. Together with parcels sent only between companies, our market already accounts for 368 million shipments.
The result is that for the first time, 51 percent of Swiss Post’s turnover of 2.7 billion euros in the previous year came from the parcel sector, while letters and advertising mail shrank to just 34 percent. Another six percent was accounted for by the branches and the subsidiary bank99. Because the postal company’s profit also rose by eight percent to almost 139 million euros, local postal employees also get something: their annual bonus increased from the previous 800 euros to 813 euros per person, and managers have a different bonus program.
More pick-up stations and self-service branches for the first time
Things will also change for customers: the self-service stations will be further expanded to make collecting mail easy; the number of compartments is expected to grow this year from 113,000 to 200,000. This can be done, among other things, by converting 1,000 former Telekom telephone booths into collection stations.
What is also new is the setting up of small self-service outlets in poorly served areas. About a dozen are planned, the first of which are already in Linz and Gänserdorf (Lower Austria). “This is intended to supplement the postal partners. Unfortunately, some of them are no longer available due to the retail bankruptcies and we can also extend the opening hours,” explains Postboss Pölzl.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
