Courier from Krakow
Krakow is home to the headquarters of one of the most popular courier companies in Poland. As the "E-commerce in Poland 2019" report prepared by Gemius for e-Commerce Poland shows, the logistics operator from Kraków - InPost is among the top three most popular courier companies in the e-commerce sector. InPost, by the way, is not only about courier deliveries, although InPost's success in this sector, achieved in just 5 years, is impressive. For most customers, InPost is primarily about parcels collected 24 hours a day, 7 days a week from Paczkomaty. At the same time, Paczkomaty is a kind of proprietary project of the company, which was the first to introduce this type of service to the Polish market, long before it introduced courier services.
InPost in nationwide survey
The Kraków-based company has maintained its position in the rankings for some time now. In the 2017 Gemius report, the top three positions were held by the same companies, including the Kraków-based operator. The latest report shows that the situation in the market for courier services for e-commerce is holding up. InPost maintains a strong third position in the market for logistics services in the area of transporting e-commerce orders. The report indicated that 20% of respondents had used the company's courier services in the 12 months preceding the survey. Overall, more than 58% of respondents had received delivery from an e-commerce shop by courier in the most recent period. Delivery by courier thus remains the most popular form of delivery of e-commerce orders. At the same time, Parcel Post was in second place behind courier services, which was used by 52% of respondents. An additional reason for satisfaction for the Krakow-based company will be the fact that this 52% represents a huge increase in the popularity of Parcel Machines, which were indicated by only 22% of respondents in the 2017 report. With that said, courier deliveries are clearly more popular than picking up a parcel at a Parcel Machine only among the oldest group of e-commerce customers (50 and over). In the other age groups, picking up a parcel at a Parcel Machine is about as popular (within 1 percentage point) as courier. At the same time, as many as 61% of respondents said that the availability of Parcel Post delivery motivates them to shop online, while for 71% of respondents the motivator was courier delivery available as a form of delivery from an e-commerce shop. All in all, this means that the Krakow-based courier company controls a sizable slice of the e-commerce logistics pie.
Courier deliveries by operator from Krakow in the opinion of customers
Can it be concluded that the Krakow courier company owes its popularity to the high quality of its services? This would be the question to ask the operator's customers. This is what the Polish Institute for Quality Research (PIBJA) did in 2019, which carried out an opinion poll in conjunction with Onet.pl on a representative group of respondents - people who had used the services of at least one courier company in the three months preceding the survey. The survey covered selected courier companies serving the nationwide individual parcel market. Respondents were asked, among other things, about the speed of delivery, the condition of delivered parcels and whether the courier was polite. Among the eight companies about which respondents were asked was InPost, which took first place in the ranking with a score of 84.5%. Similar results came from a survey conducted by PIBJA in 2017 using the mystery shopper method. In this study, auditors from PIBJA directly examined the quality of courier services by sending parcels between Warsaw and smaller and larger towns and cities across Poland (which did not include Krakow, however). InPost courier service came second in this study with a score of 86.3%. Krakow can therefore be proud of the quality of its courier service provider.
Courier services in Krakow
How does all this relate to logistics services in the Malopolska capital? All courier companies must take Krakow seriously. After all, Kraków is one of the largest, most important and most cosmopolitan cities in Poland. For InPost, however, Krakow is also of symbolic importance, as Krakow is also the city in which this courier company has its headquarters (as if anyone needed: ul. Wielicka 28, 30-552 Krakow, tel. 722 444 000).
Courier parcels from Krakow can be sent in one of the 300 or so Paczkomats and service points that InPost has in and around Krakow. There is a Parcel Machine at the main railway station and at Balice airport, near the Rakowicki Cemetery and near the sanctuary in Łagieniki. There is a Paczkomat near Błonia, where the dragon's feet are said to have fallen after Dratewka the beast exploded, and there is a Parcel Service Point near Kleprz, where the dragon's head landed. Only in the Old Town there are no parcel machines (because modernity clashes with history), but the king could walk from the castle to the POP in Stradomska Street. Although he would rather send someone to the nearest Paczkomaty at Tyniecka, as it is across the river. Krakow is also one of the cities (along with Warsaw, Łódź and Wrocław, among others) where InPost offers its services. local courier . These would probably be used by His Majesty the King if he still sat on the Wawel throne, as it is a very good service (the whole of Krakow within easy reach - a courier would go straight from the throne room with the correspondence to the addressee, if necessary).
Well, if Krakow is so abundantly supplied with InPost logistics system tips, how could its height send a parcel through an InPost courier?
How to send a parcel by courier without registration
If his majesty would like to send a parcel by courier, but would not like to set up an account in the operator's system (because how could the king...), the Quick Shipment service offered by InPost would be a suitable solution for him. It allows the parcel to be prepared for posting online, without registration, by means of a simple form in which his majesty (or, more likely, the royal secretary) could enter all the data needed to send the parcel. After selecting the form of shipment (as both Parcel Post and courier services are available) and the appropriate size (the parcel is sent in a Parcel Machine, so the key is to find out which box it will fit into) and indicating the Parcel Machine, all that is needed is to enter the details of the sender and recipient (first name, surname, e-mail address and telephone number and, in the case of the recipient of a courier parcel, also the exact address where it is to be delivered) and accept the terms and conditions.
For the user's convenience, a box is visible on the right-hand side at all times, containing a summary of all the choices (concerning the parcel of course; when it comes to life choices of its height, InPost remains apolitical), as well as the resulting price of the service (affordable, not only for the royal pocket). The parcel is paid for by an online transfer, after which a shipping label can be printed and stuck on the parcel to be taken to a pre-selected Parcel Machine, where, after scanning the code from the label, the appropriate box will open. Once the box is closed, the parcel can be considered to have been sent. The next day, the courier will probably place it in the receiving Parcel Machine (probably singing "Oops, I did it again", because delivery a day before the statutory 48 hours is nothing new at InPost).
How to send a parcel by courier without leaving home
However, if its height had an account in Parcel Manager, InPost's online parcel service system, it would also have the option of ordering a courier to pick up parcels at the address indicated. This is a truly royal service - you can send a parcel without leaving your home, and it costs less than PLN 5 (or even PLN 0 when sending five or more parcels at once). Admittedly, the procedure gets a little complicated with several parcels, but that's why the king has a secretary to take care of such matters.
So how do you send a parcel by InPost courier with the so-called courier pick-up to the sender? To use this service, after logging in to the Parcel Manager, click "send parcels" and select "courier" as the delivery method in the sending form. In this case, you will also need to fill in the form, albeit only with the recipient's details (name, exact delivery address, telephone number and e-mail address). Next, the size and the place/method of delivery must be specified. The royal secretary would have three options to choose from here. Two would be the standard sending at a Parcel Machine or a Parcel Service Point (presumably the one on Stradomska Street, although, unlike a Parcel Machine, a POP does not need to be specified in advance). The third one is the mysterious-sounding "I will create a collection order - the parcel will be collected by an InPost courier (extra paid service)", which means exactly what it says, i.e. that the courier will come to the indicated address to collect the parcel.
However, the courier will not come to pick up parcels anywhere - the customer must define a pick-up point (or points) in advance. This is done in the settings of the "My Account" panel, under "New collection point". In the form located there, the address of the new parcel collection point must be entered (e.g. Royal Castle, Wawel Castle, Krakow). The address must be verified, which may take up to 24 hours. With several pick-up points already defined (e.g. in different castles), the sender can choose one of them when preparing the parcel delivery in Parcel Manager. If he or she does so, once the parcel has been approved and paid for, all he or she has to do is wait for the courier to arrive to collect the parcels. This is ideal for crowned heads and those suffering from agoraphobia.
Ecology in logistics and parcel machines
Krakow had a dragon problem in mythical times and now has a smog problem. Fortunately, Parcel Machines are at least helping a little with this. But perhaps one step at a time.
The greatest number of problems (costs and pollution), on a per-parcel basis, are generated at the 'last mile', i.e. the last distance covered by goods from a high-capacity delivery point (e.g. a railway station, truck unloading point or port) to the individual customer. Cars used to deliver goods along this stretch generate a whole range of environmental problems. Smog (from smoke and fog; not to be confused with dragon) is a mixture of fog and airborne particulates (these are the infamous PM10 and PM2.5). In addition to the cookers used to heat individual homes, the main source of smog in cities is the dust that rubs off from brake pads and street surfaces. In contrast, tailpipe emissions from modern cars are not, contrary to popular belief, a source of smog, but the CO2 produced when burning the fuel contributes to global warming and adverse climate change, which is the greatest environmental challenge of the 21st century. In the US, for example, carbon dioxide emissions from motorised transport account for almost 20% of total CO2 production. Added to this is the lesser-known, but no less intractable, problem of noise pollution (pollution), extremely troublesome for city dwellers. Not to mention the risk of accidents and the huge amount of space that cars take up in the city (both in traffic and in car parks). At the same time, the biggest obstacle to the smooth movement of alternative modes of urban transport (pedestrians, bicycles, public transport), which generate less pollution and CO2, is precisely cars and the space devoted to them.
How do Parcelcells solve the last mile problem in the context of parcels delivered by courier? Well, they relieve the courier of the need to cover that last mile with a single parcel. What contributes to the effectiveness of Paczkomaty in reducing pollution is their number (let us remind you that Kraków has over 200 of them). As research conducted by InPost on a sample of 1,200 customers has shown, they most often pick up parcels on their way back from work, school or shopping. This is greatly facilitated by the fact that Paczkomaty are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Thus, it cannot be said that the carbon footprint of the last mile is passed on to the customer, because even if they drive to the Parcel Machine by car (and this is most often the case in villages and small towns), they do so as part of a journey they would have made anyway. On the other hand, in towns with more than 200,000 inhabitants and in densely built-up cities, many customers are no more than 500 metres away from a Parcel Machine (⅔ of the respondents have no more than one kilometre to the nearest Parcel Machine). As a result, InPost customers most often walk to the Parcel Machine. Such people made up the largest group of respondents across the entire survey (38%, and in the largest cities, more than half). So be like Dratewka, save Krakow from the dragon, I mean smog, by ordering to a Parcel Machine!
