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re: Ann: TZ teams with Toll to trial A. D. A....

Toll to trial parcel locker system

By Anna Game-Lopata | April 9, 2013

Toll Group will partner with engineering design company TZ to trial a locker system for the collection of products acquired by consumers online.

The system will involve the delivery of parcels by Toll Group’s existing consumer delivery business, which currently delivers parcels purchased online to newsagents for collection.

Toll will trial the lockers as part of its specialised online business-to-consumer retail parcel delivery service, Toll Consumer Delivery.

Based on the success of the trial, Toll Consumer Delivery will look to add the locker service to its existing collection network, which includes the Nparcel newsagency parcel collection service.

The newsagent service operated by Nparcel and Toll Consumer Delivery allows customers collect their parcels from their local newsagency.

Toll has been providing high-volume express services to individual consumers for nearly a decade, currently handling more than 500,000 business-to-consumer parcels each year.

This equates to around 6 percent of the total online business-to-consumer market in Australia.

“This service offers dedicated management and leading technology which leverages our extensive network and resources to provide ultimate flexibility to the consumer about when and where their purchases are delivered,” Toll spokesman Christopher Whitefield says.

“We have invested accordingly and provide leading mobile technology focusing on SMS and email pre-delivery alerts, proof of delivery, time slotted deliveries, choice of delivery day including Saturdays, market leading reliability, and choice of pick-up locations including retail locations.”

Whitefield says Toll has also partnered with the Victorian Newsagents’ Association to use them as alternate delivery points. Toll Group currently has more than 130 newsagents signed up in Melbourne.

“More than more than 16,000 parcels have been delivered through our network of Victorian newsagents since late last year and we are currently growing this partnership with newsagents into a national offering,” Whitefield says.

TZ says it has been working on an online delivery infrastructure solution for some time to allow its participation in the "lucrative online logistics market" arising from the growth of online purchasing.

The deal with Toll is the latest of many initiatives and partnerships TZ has been developing over the last 12 months to establish sites, flow and revenue for the locker network.

Along with a mix of corporate, retail and business park sites the company is negotiating with business property owner GPT Group, TZ recently announced agreements with Victorian petrol station operator AA Holdings and Australian Fuel Distributors (AusFuel).

Collectively, these arrangements potentially provide TZ with access to over 130 petrol station and convenience store sites across Australia.
TZ is also in the process of negotiating with Singapore Post as an overseas distributor in the business.

Planned for a May 2013 deployment, TZ’s locker system for online retail parcel deliveries aims to allow consumers a secure, convenient system for collection.

It will operate in a similar way to systems used in public locker rooms at swimming pools or gymnasiums, where a securely delivered numeric code enables the locker to be opened at any time by the user.

http://www.fullyloaded.com.au/industry-news/articleid/83303.aspx