Project scope

Instead of buying lockers from other manufacturers, the goal was to design and manufacture our own indoor parcel lockers and develop the software to run the business.

Solution

Everything was developed from scratch and in the end we had:

• Designed our own indoor parcel lockers from laminated particle boards

• Developed parcel locker software with the following services:

  • Parcel sending

  • Drop-off

  • Returns

  • Storage

  • Parcel pick-up

• Integrated with POS device to offer card payments

• Developed a network management platform

• Developed a business customer self-service portal

• Developed APIs for integrations with e-commerce

• Implemented an alternative method of payment where parcels could be sent using so called “Payment codes”

Maintenance and support

Once we had lockers installed in the biggest cities of Latvia, we immediately required maintenance. We built our own department for maintenance of the locker network, which included both software and hardware maintenance with visits to the lockers, repairs, new installations, relocations etc. as well as customer hotline that assisted both customers and couriers whenever necessary.

Pioneering the courier agnostic network

Around 2015 we decided to open our network to other courier companies in Latvia and ended up onboarding carriers like DPD Latvia, DHL Express Latvia, Itella Latvia. This required system integration and changes in the software so that multiple carriers could work side by side. Ultimately it led us to understand that the carrier agnostic model is the best approach for a parcel locker network due to numerous economic advantages.

Results

With almost 10 years of running our own parcel locker network business we received invaluable experience that allowed us to create the software that we have right now. All of the features have been developed specifically for business purposes either to reduce expenses or increase profits. We have profound experience in all aspects of a parcel locker business including logistics, maintenance, marketing, accounting, sales, manufacturing, software development etc.

The network Pasta Stacija was sold to Latvian Post at the end of 2018, but our knowledge remains and we are happy to share it with our new customers who want to create their own locker networks.