While consumers enjoy the convenience of online shopping, they sometimes encounter problems regarding the delivery of goods they have bought.
Some places — such as high-security estates — are difficult to access for delivery services.
Not so long ago, the Consumer Goods and Services Ombudsman (CGSO) revealed that most of the complaints regarding online shopping were to do with delivery.
However, there’s a solution on hand from The Courier Guy known as “Pudo” — pickup and drop-off. In some ways, Pudo operates like the Post Office of old when it was still efficient.
Pudo is a delivery and collection service for discerning customers who do not want delivery to their homes or offices.
It uses the smart-locker tech that enables users to conveniently send, receive and store parcels any time of the day or week with less human interaction.
With the growth of online shopping, Pudo is now a niche service offering convenient delivery services to the e-commerce sector of SA, with a projected turnover of R130bn.
A thriving industry
According to Fortune Business Insights, the global smart locker industry was valued at $806m in 2022 and is projected to grow from $902m in 2023 to more than $2.1bn by 2030, exhibiting a compound annual growth rate of 12.6% during the forecast period.
The increasing rate of parcel theft and lower probability of recovery of stolen parcels are fuelling the demand for smart lockers.
However, for the industry to thrive, especially for small parcels, it is important for companies to ensure efficient order fulfilment processes, so delivery is seamless and uninterrupted.
This is where companies like DSV — a Danish transport and logistics company that has placed more than 400 smart lockers at Engen petrol stations and shopping centres — come into play.
DSV smart lockers are supported by technology solutions from imaging and electronics company Ricoh, which transform time-consuming manual tasks into automated processes. The lockers are connected technologies that provide secure storage and manage transaction processes. They also offer secure, authenticated 24X7 access with cloud-based monitoring that enables real-time visibility, tracking insights and reporting.
The Courier Guy launched its Pudo service for parcel delivery in 2020. Pudo has since launched 1,100 smart lockers nationwide, enabling customers to send parcels up to 20kg in just a few working days.
The wide geographical reach enables Pudo to efficiently deliver parcels to multiple customers and overcome last-mile challenges such as theft.
The ability to provide our users with a highly cost-effective, nationwide delivery solution is a paramount advantage delivered by Pudo.
— Yaga founder and CEO Aune Aunapuu
Last month, Pudo partnered with Yaga — an online sales and shopping platform for new and used fashion — bringing convenience to Yaga’s customers.
“The ability to provide our users with a highly cost-effective, nationwide delivery solution is a paramount advantage delivered by Pudo,” Yaga founder and CEO Aune Aunapuu said recently.
“Additionally, the unmatched accessibility offered through 24/7 access to the lockers, a feature exclusive to Pudo, has further elevated our services. With over 260,000 Yaga parcels successfully delivered through our partnership, the numbers speak for themselves, solidifying the success and impact of our association with Pudo.”
This means that garages and shopping centres are becoming part of an e-commerce value chain to handle last-mile delivery. They ensure the effectiveness of this new service through the credibility of their brands. Therefore, the location of the smart locker and the efficiency of the system are inextricably linked to the service of the mother brand (garage or shopping centre).
Financial institutions such as Nedbank have also developed smart lockers that offer a convenient and secure self-service option, especially for card and document collection.
Lockers are available at 119 Nedbank locations across the country, with plans to add another 84. Bank customers can also collect items delivered to them from 400 public DSV lockers located at petrol stations across the country.
So far, these smart lockers for convenient collection of deliveries seem limited to suburbia — after all, it is a niche solution.
Last-mile delivery is becoming an opportunity in SA and could significantly change the delivery industry and improve efficiency.
However, established brands may not wish to facilitate last-mile logistics in townships and rural areas. This simply means there is space for an innovative entrepreneur to find another solution for deliveries to townships and rural areas.
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