It is difficult to find an individual who has not had problems with a home delivery. But end customers are not the only ones affected by the double-digit growth that online commerce is registering in Spain, especially after the covid pandemic. For courier companies and online shipping stores, the rapid growth of the market has become a major headache.

“The last kilometer can increase logistics costs by up to 40% due to returns and failed deliveries, putting the profitability of the business at risk, not to mention the working conditions of many delivery drivers,” warns Oriol Montanyà, deputy general manager of the UPF Barcelona School of Management. On the other hand, cities like Barcelona have begun to legislate in this regard due to the associated traffic and pollution problems. Specifically, Barcelona has proposed that 40% of deliveries be made to collection points by 2030.

“The growth of online commerce has been very sudden in Spain, compared to other European countries, which has led us to the current situation,” explains Xavier Codina, head of the mobility service at the Anthesis Lavola consultancy. However, Codina highlights how “quickly the sector is trying to solve existing problems, either out of necessity or out of conscience”. It should be remembered that transport represents a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions.

Companies specializing in the installation of collection points such as Kanguro or Geever are being born, already consolidated firms such as InPost or Correos have created their own network of collection points and even traditional businesses have seen how becoming collection or delivery points meant an opportunity for them. new source of income. The infrastructure is being created to reduce home deliveries, which are the most problematic, but the end customer must prioritize collection at shared points.

“We must end this spiral of trying to see who delivers faster and cheaper, or even for free, because transport has a cost. In addition, it cannot be that they charge you the same to bring the package home as at a collection point, because for the same price you are going to ask for it to be brought home ”, denounces Montanyà. In the opinion of the UPF professor, the solution is, first of all, so that transport is not free, and so that deliveries to a collection point are cheaper than home deliveries. “There are already companies that are applying it,” he says. In Spain, around 80% and 90% of packages are delivered to homes, according to the Delivery Decarbonization Pathway report, prepared by the consultant Oliver Wyman on behalf of Amazon.

Delivery times are another of the great problems under debate. “A study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) calculates that fast deliveries, in less than two hours, cost three times more energy and greenhouse gas emissions compared to conventional deliveries,” says Nacho Guilera. , director of Ciutat i Territori i Canvi Climàtic de Anthesis Lavola.

To all this, Montanyà recalls that the online trade of goods that need to be transported only represents approximately 10% of the total.