Upgrading DHL eCommerce Parcel Locker networks across Europe

About DHL eCommerce

DHL eCommerce, one of the divisions of DHL, is a world leader in both domestic and international parcel delivery, helping businesses grow within and beyond borders.

They were the first company to implement a smart locker back in 2021 and, over the years, they have grown their network extensively and currently manage one of the largest fleets of OOH.  

Challenge

After developing a strong smart locker infrastructure in many countries, DHL eCommerce found themselves with a very diverse set of hardware across different markets. This meant the network wasn't unified as the lockers were produced and manufactured in multiple countries and therefore had different needs and limitations.

This lack of standardisation made it challenging for DHL eCommerce to manage at scale, which in 2023 led them to decide to unify their pre-existing and future locker fleet under a single system. This would enable them to not only centralise and systematise flows but also to continuously improve them.

Solution

To address this, they started looking for a software that could carry this very demanding engineering challenge and, after a very extensive and meticulous process, they identified Bloq.OS as the only solution in the market capable of solving these challenges.

We agreed on a multi-year project that is being rolled out progressively. Starting by the Czech Republic with PPL — a local DHL subsidiary — we were able to go from signup to launching the service in just 6 months. Since then, we have expanded Bloq.OS across the Czech network and are soon launching a new software type.

Results

“We chose Bloq.it as the provider for the Software for our European Locker network in early 2023, their solution stood out as the most complete one in features and product vision." — Klaus Ebner, Senior Locker Expert at DHL

By now, the total PPL network exceeds 1200 lockers and their ambition is to become one of the largest in the country, so there's an expectation to deploy thousands of units across the next few years.

To achieve these numbers, our engineering teams had to work directly with multiple hardware vendors for PPL's different types of lockers. Simultaneously, we worked with PPL IT teams to ensure we developed a solution that met their technical requirements while creating the right experience for users and operators that was adjusted to local market needs identified by PPL over the years.
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Now, PPL can deploy different types of lockers and vendings depending on location type and release themselves from locker-vendor lock-in.
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In 2024 we intend to launch the second country with DHL eCommerce where Bloq.it will be powering a fleet of lockers in Italy. In the following year, the plan is to keep rolling out Bloq.OS, improving service in existing countries and launch new markets for DHL eCommerce. 

As a result of this partnership DHL eCommerce can now trust that their entire locker fleet, across multiple European markets, will be running on the same software. This allows for continuous improvement and changes, enabling them to adapt to the ever changing OOH market, while keeping the same level of flexibility to address each country's operational needs and specific technical requirements.

This way, DHL eCommerce will have their entire fleet reporting to the same system while running on different hardware, language and flows, under a unified, centralised logic that ensures scalability over time.