Pressure on couriers

Vienna drowns in a flood of parcels: 540,000 items per day

More than half a million parcels are transported in Vienna every day.

(Bild: Marianne B., Krone KREATIV)

The Viennese receive an average of 112 parcels a year - courier services are working flat out to deliver them. And there could be even more. This is the result of a recent report. 

Every year in Vienna alone, the area of Simmering is sent in parcels. An incredible 540,000 times a day, a delivery person rings the doorbell somewhere in Vienna, drops off parcels or fills out a collection slip, much to the annoyance of customers. And the majority of Vienna's flood of parcels is actually homemade - the proportion of business customers has remained constant in recent years, while online trade is booming. This is according to the latest report for courier, express and parcel services (CEP), which is published every two years.

540.000

parcels are delivered in Vienna every day. Online trade in particular is a driver. Bottlenecks could occur with air freight.

Twelve soccer pitches a day
"Vienna's daily parcels correspond to the area of twelve soccer pitches," says Davor Sertic, Chairman of the Transport and Traffic Division of the Vienna Chamber of Commerce. Statistically speaking, every Viennese household receives 112 parcels per year. A staggering 133 million were delivered in Vienna in 2023. The transport industry has now become a basic supplier - medicines or food would sometimes be in short supply. And the end of the road does not seem to have been reached yet. Sertic: "The volume of parcels will increase significantly over the next ten years and could even reach 250 million."

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/stock.adobe.com)

Skills shortage and ever-increasing pressure
However, this is not all good news for companies. The strong increase in the activities of Chinese online stores in Austria has an impact on the time management of delivery staff. Due to the increased parcel volume, they have to serve more addresses with more shipments every day. However, the industry is struggling with a shortage of employees. Different salary and pricing models don't necessarily make things any easier either.

Delivery should cost nothing
The pressure on drivers and companies to deliver on time and promptly is increasing - partly due to the expectation that deliveries should cost nothing. There is an imbalance between the cost of delivery and the low prices that customers ultimately want to pay for it. The infrastructure can't keep up either. Sertic: "This is where the installation of parcel boxes can help." An intelligent arrangement of loading zones should also be promoted. A pilot project is already underway in Vienna.

Cargo space is becoming scarce on airplanes
In the forwarding sector, logistics companies are primarily seeing a shortage of air freight space - mainly due to China stores - which in turn is leading to delays in deliveries scheduled at short notice and higher transport prices.