Belgian postal company moves into crowdsourced deliveries

While crowdsourced delivery platforms appear increasingly common, as a host of start-ups look to break into the business-to-consumer by aping the Uber model and transplanting it to freight and logistics, there has been little appetite for adopting them by national postal companies, many of which have deep relationships with unions. So we read with interest, in LogisticsMatter, that Belgium’s postal operator, bpost, has developed an app that will allow private citizens to deliver goods and letters on its behalf – although bpost executives were keen to stress that this would be the high-cost option in the trial period in Antwerp. “It is more expensive than sending a package through the post office, but it is cheaper than using an express carrier. The service is priced to make it an addition to our current offering,” a spokesperson said.