Parcel Lockers - July 2024 Early Market Engagement

The purpose of this Prior Information Notice (PIN) is to notify the market of forthcoming market engagement event to help determine future strategy.

Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) is the public body responsible for transport strategy and coordinating the transport network in the West Midlands.

We are an executive body of the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA).

We work in close partnership with the seven constituent authorities of the WMCA to achieve our aims to reduce traffic, improve access, and electrify transport.

One of our key policies is to make the most of the transport network and ensure it operates efficiently (TfWM 2023, p.40).

As part of this, we're committed to working with freight and logistics operators to ensure that transport network supports more efficient, safe, sustainable, and reliable movement of goods.

Our work in this area has highlighted the increasing importance of parcel delivery to the residents and businesses of the region.

Nationally, parcel volumes grew consistently between 2016 and 2019, before jumping by 45% during the pandemic (Ofcom 2022).

Today, volumes are still significantly above pre-pandemic levels.

This growth has largely relied on the conventional to-door delivery model.

However, the inefficiencies of this model are well known (e.g. road capacity, parking, and pollution).

TfWM is driven to tackle these negative impacts, while strengthening access to eCommerce, improving the public realm, and increasing the quality of the stops and stations on our public transport network.

Parcel lockers are an intervention with strong potential to help us achieve these aims.

This is because lockers are: - More efficient than to-door delivery in terms of both emissions and distance travelled. - Popular among users, with high customer satisfaction ratings. - A valuable service in stations, mobility hubs, stops, and the public realm.

Provision of lockers in the region is already growing.

TfWM recognises and values the steps that parcel locker operators have already taken to reduce the impact of last-mile delivery by developing their own parcel locker networks in the region over the last decade.

However, there is still significant potential for provision and usage to grow.

Importantly, TfWM has found that fewer than 2 in 10 people live within 3 minutes' walk of a locker.

Research has suggested that this travel time is the point at which lockers become a comparable substitute to-door delivery.

TfWM and the wider WMCA is well placed to take action to overcome these challenges given its control of land on the public transport network, and its strong links with constituent authorities who control housing, the public highway, and other sites in public ownership.