News on the Slovak logistics market: for e-shop owners and shoppers alike

The Slovak logistics market is currently going through significant changes and innovations. New technologies, better processes and new logistics trends are changing the way companies and e-shops handle dispatch and the way consumers shop. We have put together a summary of the very latest news so that you have it all in one place.

In this article you will read about news from: Packeta, 123Kuriér, DPD, SPS, GLS and Alza.

Packeta

Sending shipments through a Z-BOX

Packeta recently launched a new service that anyone who needs to send a parcel can use. All you have to do is download the Packeta mobile app, fill in the required details and you can send your parcel anywhere in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania. If this is your very first shipment with Packeta, enter the code Z-BOX1 at the end of the order and you will pay just 1 cent for delivery. If you have sent something with Packeta before, there is a 30% discount waiting for you with the code ZBOX30. Both the one-cent shipment and the 30% discount can be used until 30 April 2023.

Anyone can now collect your shipment from a Z-Box

Have you fallen ill, are you away or simply cannot make it to collect your shipment from a Z-Box? From now on, anyone you give permission to can collect it for you. All you have to do is share the shipment details with the person of your choice through the Packeta app. You can read how to do it on their blog.

Minute delivery

You no longer have to wait around for the courier. Thanks to minute delivery with online courier tracking, you will always know where your shipment is and what time it will be delivered.

On the day of delivery you receive an SMS with a tracking link. When you open it, a map appears with information about the courier's arrival time.

Source: https://www.packeta.sk/

123Kuriér

New depots

123Kuriér is expanding with two new depots in Strážske and Galanta, which makes it more accessible to e-shop owners operating nearby. Every new carrier depot increases the efficiency of both collecting and delivering shipments in the region. At the same time, a depot becomes even more important during strong seasonal periods such as Christmas, when e-shop owners do not have to wait for the courier and can take shipments to the depot in person.

Parcel centres

Parcel centres are 123Kuriér partner shops where end recipients can collect or hand over a shipment. The weight limit for a shipment is 50 kg. When handing one over you simply enter the mandatory details in the web application and take the shipment to a parcel centre, which you will find in every town in Slovakia. There is a 7-day window for collecting a shipment. If you run an e-shop and currently use 123Kuriér only for delivery to an address, you can add delivery to parcel centres to the shipping options in your cart.

DPD

Delivery to private lockers

One of the big innovations from the courier company DPD is delivery to private lockers. This is an innovation that DPD is the first to guarantee. What we once saw in films or heard about from other countries is now a reality in Slovakia too. DPD couriers will deliver your parcel into your own locker, which you get from their business partner Direct4.me. With the locker owner's permission, any DPD courier can put a parcel inside. The recipient does not have to wait and the courier will always deliver the parcel for certain. You can read more about private delivery on their partner Direct4.me's website.

Source: https://direct4me.sk/

DPD Home

With the DPD Home service, the recipient knows a 1-hour delivery window. They can track the courier's arrival online on a map before delivery and, if necessary, change the delivery address or day in the mydpd.sk app.

SPS

An expanding network of pickup points

Pickup points at SPS are not so much news in themselves as the fact that there are more and more of them. SPS currently offers delivery to 1,500 pickup points. Roughly 900 of them are partner ParcelShops, whose main advantage is the 7-day storage period. For e-shops there is a further advantage (compared with Packeta): shipments headed for ParcelShops are collected by a courier regardless of how many are being dispatched. The second, more flexible alternative in terms of 24/7 availability are AlzaBoxes. The storage period in AlzaBoxes, however, is only 2 calendar days.

GLS

More parcel machines

GLS has just doubled the number of GLS parcel machines from the original 120 to 240. Another increase is planned for May this year, when the number could rise to around 500. It also plans to expand its standard pickup points, though not on the same scale or with the same priority as the parcel machines.

An app for users + a plugin for contracted clients

In May this year GLS is launching a mobile app that will be available to download for all users and parcel recipients. At around the same time, contracted GLS customers will be able to download a plugin into their system. The plugin will serve mainly to make direct delivery of parcels to pickup points more practical and easier to follow.

Going green at several carriers

Last but not least, almost every courier company has committed to reducing the environmental impact of its business. By buying and using electric vehicles they are trying to reduce the emissions released into the air. And not only that.

• The courier company DPD is heavily involved in various green activities, which you can read about in detail on their website. In the delivery area it helps reduce emissions by using 104 vans with alternative drivetrains. Besides cars, DPD delivers parcels in Košice and Bratislava using 2 cargo bikes. Their new and at the same time largest depot in Slovakia runs on electricity from 100% renewable sources.

• GLS is also trying to deliver more and more sustainably, thanks to 41 electric vehicles, which represents 5% of its entire fleet and fulfils its commitment for 2022. The purchase of electric vehicles continues, with a target of 25% electrified vehicles by the end of 2025. Besides that, they use photovoltaics on the central GLS building in Budča, which powers the day-to-day running of the administration.

• At the end of 2022 SPS expanded its fleet with 9 electric vans and plans to add another 50 by May this year. It has also built charging stations at 6 depots and will continue rolling them out across all depots and partner charging stations. The latest news is the planned construction of photovoltaic power plants on the roofs of the delivery centres in Ivanka pri Dunaji, Žilina, Košice and Banská Bystrica.

Source: https://www.sps-sro.sk/

• Last year Packeta launched a pilot project in Prague delivering shipments by electric bicycle, with the intention of continuing in Slovakia as well, as part of its sustainable business strategy. Its sustainability strategy also describes commitments and plans for using alternative sources along with other corporate responsibility activities. A unique project in the field of hydrogen is also planned (we were unable to find out any concrete figures or dates).

Alza

Returning goods through AlzaBoxes

A few weeks ago Alza released a new service for its customers covering easy complaints and returns of goods through AlzaBoxes. If you want to make a complaint or are dissatisfied with the goods, you simply fill in the basic information in your Alza account and put the shipment into any AlzaBox. Bulky appliances are of course an exception and have to be brought to a branch or sent by courier. You will find how to create a complaint or return in the system, and more detailed information about this new Alza feature, on their website.

For now Alza's new service is only available to its own clients. As AlzaBoxes are also used for delivery by the carriers SPS, DPD, DHL and GLS, launching the service for their customers is planned as well.

The development of new technologies and solutions brings plenty of opportunities, but also challenges. Use them properly, though, and you have the chance to increase your competitiveness and achieve better results.

Automation, the use of artificial intelligence and the development of new forms of transport are certainly among the trends that will significantly shape the logistics market in the near future. But that is a topic for another time.