Post Minister Petra De Sutter (Groen) wants to encourage the placement of parcel boxes, so as to reduce unsuccessful deliveries and therefore the environmental cost of e-commerce, Le Soir reports on Wednesday.
BIPT (the postal services regulator) has just submitted for public consultation its royal decree aimed at giving legal existence to the parcel boxes that more and more individuals are installing in front of their homes. According to the firm De Sutter, last year there were 5,000 boxes of this type. About 10% of packages delivered leave with the delivery person because the recipient is not at home. “And with the imminent return to general face-to-face work and the growing success of e-commerce, we can logically expect an increase in the number of undelivered parcels.“, explains Post Minister Petra De Sutter. “It is therefore “desirable to encourage consumers who are used to ordering online to invest and make use of a parcel box“, can we read in the document of the public consultation.
The boxes must be large enough
The Royal Decree sets standards for these boxes to be large enough to allow the delivery of standard parcels (minimum 33 cm by 21 cm by 12 cm) and placed in such a way as to be easily accessible for distributors. The parcel box should “be visible without special search“. If it does not also act as a mailbox, it must be placed between the public road and the main access to the building. If it does both, it must be placed at the edge of the public road.
