Manage network capacity

In 2023, we continuously aligned our network capacity to fluctuations in demand, within the constraints of a continuing tight labour market. Volume seasonality, with extreme peaks in the build up to and during the Black Friday to New Year period, means our network needs to be highly flexible. To deal with these changes, we continued to adapt distribution routes and scaled back operations across our sorting centres, helping to safeguard customer and consumer service levels. We also centralised the management team of Transport Services, the branch of our e-commerce network that includes our time-critical and cargo networks. The change will enable us to capture synergies and help to make small and large transport within the company as sustainable and efficient as possible.

Successful parcel delivery during peak periods

One of PostNL's busiest parcel delivery periods in the Netherlands occurs between Black Friday and New Year, as consumers take advantage of retailer discounts and order gifts online. We delivered almost 51 million parcels during this period in 2023, with over 1.8 million passing through our sorting centres on the busiest day. Despite these huge volumes, we are proud to report that we delivered 96% of parcels within a day and almost 100% within two days.

We achieved this following thorough preparation of our sorting and delivery operations, and by working closely with e-tailers and customers to agree on pick up and delivery days. However, being able to operate at maximum capacity in the peak period meant we had to secure fixed capacity earlier in the quarter. In the current tight labour market, this reduced our flexibility and led to increased costs.

Ongoing growth in Belgium

In 2023, we began constructing our second high-tech sorting and distribution centre in Belgium, as we respond to growing e-commerce demand in the country. The new centre, located near Ghent, East Flanders, will be almost 2.5 times the size of our first sorting centre in the country. And as with all our sorting locations, sustainability is an integral part of the design and construction, with solar panels providing up to half of the centre's energy requirements.

Scan gloves help generate significant cost savings

Throughout 2023, we rolled out the use of scan gloves across our depots in the Netherlands, enabling us to realise cost savings of over €2 million, expecting these cost savings increase to close to €5 million in 2024. Scan gloves are gloves with a built-in scanner that improve the efficiency of the sorting process and enables us to trace each parcel during transport and delivery. This has enabled us to significantly reduce the number of half-empty roll containers we transport between depots, reducing the total number of roll container movements per year by over 500,000.

Selecting delivery preference in PostNL account

Since 2023, consumers can now indicate personal delivery preferences through their PostNL account, giving them the option to have their parcels delivered to their own address, a PostNL point or a parcel locker nearby. Consumers can also select a 'non-home preference', which could be their garage or garden shed, or somewhere else that is dry, out of sight of the street, near the house, and accessible to the deliverer. The new service is designed so that more parcels will be delivered where consumers want them, first time.