During the past year, we fell in love with parcel machines. And for good reason. They have endless advantages these days. But at some point we seem to have lost control of this love....
The advantages alone?
Convenience and safety in the age of pandemonium are two major factors that have brought success to parcel machines. Contactless receipt of online purchases (which, of course, we've been doing much more readily over the past year) and independence (because who likes to wait for a courier or visit a post office?!) are the first positive associations with parcel machines.
It is also impossible not to mention the positive impact on the environment. A somewhat outdated, but certainly still translating into reality, study conducted by researchers from the AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow in 2013 shows that delivering parcels to parcel machines reduces carbon dioxide emissions. Couriers operating parcel machine networks drive up to 150 kilometers less per day than others, while delivering up to 600 parcels per day, compared to a maximum of 60 parcels for a traditional courier service. The fact that we can pick up a parcel from a parcel machine at any hour is also associated with much fewer repeat trips.
walls of machines
InPost's machines are constantly increasing in number. Until recently, they were a complete novelty in cities, chosen only by young, modern residents. Thanks to a pandemic change in our habits, they have become part of the landscape all over Poland. They are now practically everywhere. There are about 10,000 of them across the country. Sensitive to the aesthetics of the landscape, activists have noticed that we are threatened by parcel box disease. They are no longer just parcel boxes that make life easier, but massive walls colored from advertising that change the landscape. An example? A giant 12-meter-long machine stood in Wrocław's Biskupin. Photos of this absurd-looking "wall" circulated the Internet. Its presence divided residents. Some were happy that the problem of lack of locker spaces would finally end, others complained about the questionable aesthetics of the machine. Eventually, the city's conservationist intervened, forcing the company to dismantle the machine. With the growth of the e-commerce market, the "parcel machine" problem will only grow. Perhaps not coincidentally, in the United States Amazon has only 2,000 such machines....
city logistics does not exist
- If local government officials do not regulate the chaos in the delivery market, the landscapes of other Polish cities will soon be flooded by another urban pathology after signboarding, which is difficult to exterminate, says Przemyslaw Ostaszewski of the City Is Ours association in Tygodnik Powszechny.
Of course, in contrast to advertisements and signboards, which destroy the urban landscape, package stores make our lives easier, so before we start fighting them, it's worth looking for a worthy replacement. Unfortunately, the proposals of activists for such substitutes, "but more aesthetically pleasing and environmentally friendly" parcel machines seem so far unrealistic. But they are worth thinking about. If only quickly.
- Any minute now we may be inundated with parcel machines, which will become carriers of more ads disfiguring the city. We can go with the flow, or we can already think of some solutions that will make our lives easier -- says Jan Mencwel, president of Miasto Jest Nasze.
alternatives
- Unregulated deliveries within the city cause dangerous situations for other traffic participants, especially pedestrians. In the absence of adequate infrastructure, delivery truck drivers park near intersections and on sidewalks, thus limiting visibility in places where the danger is greatest. The consequences of this are evident - in 2019 there were 40 accidents involving trucks in Warsaw, a 29 percent increase over the previous year, activists argue in the report.
The association is calling for restrictions on the access of "diesel" courier trucks to cities. Instead of heavy vehicles limiting visibility - green modes of transportation, namely cargo bikes, small electric vans and cargo streetcars.
According to MJN, Polish cities should follow the example of London. There, cargo bicycles pick up goods from special loading warehouses on the outskirts of the center and distribute packages around the congested city. During rush hour, they move in half the time of small delivery trucks.
The solution is designed to improve delivery service in the inner city, as well as reduce traffic, noise and pollution. One bicycle is capable of transporting 100 kilograms of the same shipments that delivery trucks are filled with. By assembling a fleet solely of bicycles, some 400 tons of CO2 emissions will be prevented annually, MJN reports.
parcel trucks in the hands of the city
Aside from the substitutes that are unrealistic to implement in Polish reality, the City Is Ours Association suggests a few more solutions to the problem of the wave of parcel machines flooding us. One of them is to invest in a city-controlled network of parcel machines, which would become part of the city's logistics infrastructure, just like public transportation stops or park-and-ride lots. Such parcel machines would be a common asset for residents, and city officials could exercise control over this infrastructure, its aesthetics and locations.
The report Wild City Logistics. What to Do to Ensure E-commerce Doesn't Ruin Our L ives suggests that this lack of city control over parcel machines so far will, in the near future, result in the monopolization of this already greenest delivery channel.
- It is a matter of time that Poland's most popular private parcel machine network will be taken over exclusively by a giant like Amazon or Allegro, MJN reports.
So, the more parcel machines in the hands of cities, the greater the control? It took many years for cities to begin to introduce restrictions and change regulations as part of the fight against "adverting." And we still haven't won against it. With such a rapidly expanding e-commerce market, are any cities able to respond to activists' demands?
- Imagine how cool it would be if the city organized an architectural competition for a parcel machine. It would be a great piece of urban infrastructure," says Jan Mencwel.
And we can dream, as it were.... But in this case, as the pandemic continues, e-commerce is growing, and we, although it's tough love, still love parcel machines, the incoming wave of parcel machines is the size of a tsunami, and we can't stop dreaming.
