The concept of packstations was expected to cause a decrease in the total transport distance. The reason is that the receiving party only has to make a slight detour and the delivering party can deliver multiple packages at once and does not have to try again when customers are not at home. In order to research the reality of this expectation, two main questions are formulated: 1) Will packstations have a future as a new service in the logistics related to remote ordering ?; 2) If so, what impact will this have on the mobility behavior of consumers and industry service providers? The approach assumes an exploring research, the results are wide and roughly sketched. This project consists of three steps as to answer the main questions. First of all, a literature scan was performed. This revealed that delivery boxes are considered a good solution to current problems in home delivery. Furthermore, both the B2C as the B2B segment are expected to grow further in the future. The second step was a closer look at the consumer and the business market, involving: 1) In-depth interviews with companies participating in the pilot in the cities of Amsterdam and Eindhoven, with both packstations and desk-service; 2) Workshops with experts; 3) Surveys among users of packstations in the pilot. The experiences of users were researched and also their profile and tranport patterns were examined. The results of the interviews and the surveys were presented to experts in the workshops. The experts have expressed their expectations to what degree the outcomes align with general developments. Third and last, the previous results were compared to transport figures in the Netherlands. The concept of packstations and the outcomes of the surveys correspond well with the general transport patterns, thus, no changes will appear. But the density of the packstations network determines the ease of saving kilometers. On the one hand, the distance that users travel is a problem because the results of the survey are high next to the average distance in a trip, decreasing the odds of savings. On the other hand, when the movements are broken down to the city of departure and the city of arrival, the additional distance appears to be limited when packstations are placed on through routes. Currently, packstations are a small phenomenon, with only 15 locations in the Netherlands. Based on the results of this project, this (kind of) concept has a good potential for the future. The outcomes however show that the impact of the transport movements will be limited. There are savings expected, but limited, but an increase in the transport distances is also anticipated, mainly because consumers use their car for emptying the packstation. Therefore, the recommendations are: the government does not need to stimulate this concept from a savings point of view; the concept packstation is an excellent example of a demand driven logistics innovation. Because of the innovative character it deserves attention from policymakers; the location of packstations is important from the point of view of the environment and the users; in order to give these kinds of concepts a chance, the government could improve restraining factors, mainly permits. (Author/publisher)
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