Royal Mail is targeting forecourts as part of its ambitions to become the biggest self-service parcel locker provider in the UK, despite being a late arrival to the market.
That is according to the delivery business’s director of partnerships and acquisitions Anna Malley at this week’s National Convenience Show.
She told Forecourt Trader on day two of the NEC event that over half of the companies enquiring about the working model locker on the Royal Mail stand were petrol station owners.
One of them was Sterling Petroleum, the 32-strong forecourt operator, which plans to add the lockers to its business. Its owner Nakendram Piratheepan, who will continue to have InPost lockers on sites, says he is attracted by the potential volume of parcels that Royal Mail will bring.
Another was Karan Retail which is planning to introduce the lockers at some of its 46 sites after discussing suitable locations with the supplier. It already has lockers from rival InPost which it introduced a year ago and says are performing well.
“It’s about adding more services to the sites,” says operations manager Visnu Kumaranisanthan.
This is typical in the petrol filling station market, according to Malley.
“Forecourt operators are entrepreneurial and are always looking to add more, and to use under-utilised space,” she says.
“There’s real interest from forecourt operators in turning their sites into hubs, and this will only continue with more motorists driving EVs and looking for something to fill the 20 minutes of time spent charging their vehicles,” she adds.
Currently the bright red liveried boxes, which can print out parcel labels and were launched last December, are for drop off only, but Royal Mail plans to add a collection service soon.
The lockers are currently found at around 100 Royal Mail and third party sites. This includes shopping centres and Sainsbury’s retail locations, following a long-term partnership announced this week with the supermarket giant to roll out lockers at stores across the UK.
Malley says that she is hoping to have lockers at 1,000 to 2,000 sites by this time next year. And the Royal Mail has entered a partnership with retail consultancy C-Store Collective to help it get a footfold in convenience retail – promising retailers a rental income in quarterly instalments, and the hope of higher footfall.
“We think we have got the brand and the heritage, and are ready to succeed,” says Malley.
Royal Mail will also usually pay for an electrical connection to the unit, and it says it is working on a solar battery powered option for sites where this could be an issue.
Royal Mail describes its lockers as “best in class”, with their large digital screen, and the ability for customers to choose a locker lower down in the unit for easy access if using a wheelchair for example. Also, the units, which come in various sizes starting from 2.6m wide, are fitted with CCTV and overhead lighting.
Parcel collection boxes have taken off in line with the growth in online shopping and second-hand marketplace sellers. And recent Lumina research suggests that a third of forecourt operators view parcel services as key to their operation in the next five years.
The biggest player in the sector, InPost, has nearly 9,300 lockers in the UK currently having officially launched here in April 2013.
