Marie Pospíšilová
Talking to the people shaping delivery
ALFA 3 was represented by Alena Castellon, Mike Bogel and Rostislav Týn.
The conference was a good opportunity to talk with professionals from the postal and logistics sectors, with operators of collection networks and with technology providers. The big themes: the expansion of out-of-home (OOH) delivery, making better use of parcel lockers, and how the various players in the logistics market can work together more closely.
Expansion of out-of-home (OOH) delivery
Making better use of parcel lockers
Collaboration between players in the logistics market
Parcel lockers are becoming a fixture of delivery infrastructure
One of the central topics was the growing importance of self-service parcel lockers and collection points. Customers increasingly want to pick up their parcels when and where it suits them.
As networks expand, though, another question moves to the fore: how well are they actually being used? For operators, it’s long since stopped being only about the number of lockers installed. What matters just as much is their availability, their utilisation and their ability to serve different shipment types and customer groups.
That’s why open collection networks are drawing attention, where several carriers share the same infrastructure. One example is the Locky network, which according to figures presented at the conference was already running more than 1,700 parcel lockers across Portugal and Spain as of August 2026.
Customers are willing to change how they receive a parcel
Some of the most interesting insight into recipient behaviour came from a presentation by Kanguro.
More than 45% of the recipients surveyed redirected their planned delivery to a collection point before the delivery vehicle had even set off. And once they’d tried it, most stuck with it: 58% chose a collection point again for their next parcel.
The message is clear. Offer the alternative to home delivery at the right moment and customers will take it. And the final stage of delivery becomes considerably easier to plan.
New opportunities: returns and resale
There was also plenty of discussion about the growing importance of reverse logistics, parcel returns and the second-hand goods market, known as recommerce.
Parcel lockers have long stopped being simply a collection point for online orders. They’re developing into versatile hubs for sending, returning and handing over parcels.
Collecting purchases
Sending
Returns
Handing over parcels
Expanding what they can do is therefore one of the most important directions of travel for the whole industry.
Keeping an eye on where logistics is heading
ParcelNext confirmed one thing: the future of delivery doesn’t lie in expanding infrastructure alone. Collaboration between carriers, efficient use of existing capacity and services that genuinely match what customers need matter at least as much.
For our colleagues, Lisbon delivered exactly what it should have: new insight, new contacts and a clear view of where the European market for automated self-service delivery is going.