Norway's state-owned Posten Bring and Germany's Deutsche Post have outlined peak-season preparations, adding parcel lockers, temporary workers and sorting capacity to handle a surge in packages before Christmas.
What Happened
Posten Bring has opened new parcel locker locations and upsized 300 existing lockers this year. Parcels delivered to Pakkeboks lockers rose about 50% year on year from January to September, with August volumes already exceeding last year's Christmas record, the company said.
Earlier this month, Posten Bring opened its largest parcel terminal in Moss, capable of handling more than 500,000 packages per day. The facility will mainly handle imports from Sweden and Denmark plus local volumes, and will relieve the Oslo hub during peak periods.
In Germany, DHL's Post & Parcel division plans to add more than 500 parcel lockers by year-end, hire over 10,000 temporary workers, schedule about 9,500 delivery routes in the busiest weeks and deploy roughly 11,000 extra vehicles. Germany currently has about 19,500 DHL Packstations, Poststations and partner-operated lockers.
Background
European e-commerce parcel volumes continue to grow, and consumers increasingly accept self-service pickup outside home-delivery hours. Lockers help postal operators manage last-mile pressure by allowing round-the-clock pickup and efficient replenishment. Peak-season planning now typically begins months in advance.
Impact on Shippers
For Chinese exporters selling into Europe, expanded locker networks can reduce failed deliveries during peak season, but lockers have strict size and weight limits, so oversized goods still require home delivery and may face delays. Extra staff and vehicles in Germany should ease congestion before Christmas, yet peak surcharges and booking difficulties may still raise last-mile costs.
On customs clearance, added postal capacity mainly benefits domestic handling; import clearance times still depend on documentation compliance and port congestion, so sellers should allow longer overall transit times.
Recommendations
Sellers should check whether parcels to Europe meet locker size and weight limits, and accurately record pickup preferences on labels and orders. Consider pre-stocking overseas warehouses before peak, avoid the late-November to mid-December delivery crunch, and ensure VAT and product compliance documents are complete.