Do you also feel uncomfortable with a packet point?

Translated from Dutch. View the original post here

Discomfort in the #pakketpunt : 'There you have her again'. We order and send more and more packages. Since the post offices have been closed, we often have to deal with parcel points in stores that do this 'toge'. The more than 26,000 users we questioned about this are quite satisfied with their parcel points. But discomfort is also felt: about the crowded shops of small entrepreneurs, who keep them with packages from work without buying anything there, for example.

If you order something online that doesn't fit through the mailbox, you can have it delivered to a private (or work) address, or to a parcel point to pick it up yourself. Delivery at home is the most popular option, but it's no guarantee that you won't have to go to the parcel point. For example, because the package at home could not be accepted. Half of respondents who have delivered to a private address sometimes happen to this.

Since the closing of the independent post offices in 2011, the parcel point is also where you need to be for sending parcels. More than two-thirds of respondents send parcels themselves: own parcels (53%), but more often returns (80%).
Gradient in packet points

In total, more than 26,000 participants in the research sometimes use a parcel point. Of these, 2 out of 3 have such a point less than a kilometer from home. A small group (2%) must travel more than 5 kilometres. For most, the distance to the nearest packet point hasn't changed much in the last two years. And although there may have been a little more packet points in total, nearly a quarter (24%) of respondents indicate that packets they used have stopped. In the meantime, the number of packages circulating has grown by about 10 to 15 percent annually.

Pick-up point in small village shop because Jumbo and AH have stopped...


Most people are satisfied with the accessibility and opening hours of the parcel points. The type of store/place within which the parcel points are located are also assessed positively: people can combine the visit to the parcel point with the groceries, for example.
Feeling of encumberment at the parcel point

Nevertheless, 15 percent also feel encumbered when bringing or picking up a parcel at a parcel point, especially when combined with a (small) store. That is because it hardly makes any money to an entrepreneur, while it takes time, 43 percent says: 'I have the feeling that I am leaving the staff from their “real” work, 'someone writes in the explanatory notes. 'It takes time that they don't always have, then someone needs to be called on to take over the work', another writes.
'A small store packed with packets'

'In large shops I do not feel burdened (like the AH), but with the little ones. There's a dry cleaning/clothing repair shop in my neighborhood, which is a pick-up point. A small shop, but in the back full of packages... '

32 percent feel encumbered by the attitude of the employees at the parcel point. An example from the explanations: 'The staff have a nasty attitude when you come to pick up a package and complain that it takes them a lot of time and space. ' Many people have the idea that employees think, “there's her again,” and “here he comes with his wheelchair again.”
Neighbors are watching

'My neighbours are a DHL neighbourhood point, I find that difficult. This way they know exactly how regularly I shop online and where. '

29 percent sometimes feel burdened by crowds. And, so says 23 percent, because you buy online instead of a (or that particular) store. Many people say they feel guilty because they only come to the store for parcels, and never buy anything. Sometimes this even comes up, according to the explanations: 'Package of bol.com picked up at bookstore, employee assumed there was also a book in it and said something about it. There was something else in it. “
Overcrowded parcel points

15 percent worry about the space that the package takes up, in the explanations people add that heavy packages also share a feeling of discomfort. 'It's a bookstore, very small and there are piles of mail that needs to be sent. The space is full and small', writes a participant in the research. 'Because the employees often indicate that they are overcrowded with packets', another person also lets you know.

A small group (3%, about 550 people) sometimes had that the package they wanted to send was refused because the parcel point was already full.

Would it help if there is a central point for each municipality specifically intended for the delivery and collection of parcels, not in a shop that does other business? A quarter would like that, 31 percent do not matter, but for the largest group (43%) it does not have to. So what's the solution?