Millions invested in sorting
Online retail is flourishing, and consumer demands are rising: Swiss Post is investing in new technologies in order to continue guaranteeing services of the highest quality. This includes three new regional parcel centers and a state-of-the-art Mix-Mail system.
Whether it’s tech gadgets, sporting goods or fashion accessories: the average Swiss resident is increasingly ordering items from online retailers all over the world. In 2020, more than three quarters of the 95,000 small goods consignments processed by Swiss Post every day came from Asia. To manage these volumes more quickly and cost-effectively, Swiss Post has invested around 70 million francs in a state-of-the-art Mix-Mail system at the Zurich-Mülligen letter center, where the small goods consignments, which are often non-standard shapes, are now sorted automatically instead of manually, as was previously the case. The system will also be used to process small domestic parcels. It will become fully operational this year.
New regional parcel centers shorten delivery times
Thanks to online shopping, Swiss Post has now seen new parcel records for seven years in a row. In 2020, it handled more than 191 million parcels. And the demand for faster delivery is also growing: in 2020, 55 percent of parcels were sent as PostPac Priority; 15 years ago, the figure was less than 20 percent.
With an investment of over 190 million francs in four new regional parcel centers (RPCs) boasting state-of-the-art sorting systems, Swiss Post anticipated these trends. The RPC in Cadenazzo started operations in October 2019. The Ostermundigen location (converted into an RPC with a new sorting system) followed in March 2020, and Vétroz and Untervaz in the autumn of the same year. The RPCs, which can sort up to 40,000 parcels per day, are linked to each other and to the major parcel centers by a direct transport network. This reduces distances, helps protect the environment and ensures that consignments reach customers faster.
The new RPCs also enable Swiss Post to help create added value in different regions: local jobs are retained, or new jobs are created. In addition, the newly installed photovoltaic system also makes the Vétroz RPC the largest producer of solar electricity in Valais.