It sounds surprising at first: the market leader DHL is calling for stricter legal requirements for the parcel industry; heavy parcels should no longer be left to a single courier. “Parcels that are heavier than 23 kilos should only be allowed to be delivered by two people,” says Nikola Hagleitner, DHL board member for the German letter and parcel business. This should be enshrined in law and binding for the entire industry.
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The background is the health of the wearer. “If only one person is doing the work, it can be bad for your back,” explains Hagleitner. In the Post & Parcel Germany division, around every third sick note relates to musculoskeletal diseases.
However, the DHL competition is not very enthusiastic about the proposal. She argues against it with a lack of staff, a poorer environmental balance and possible longer transport times. For the service union Verdi, the initiative does not go far enough.
From fitness equipment to dog food
Heavy packages often include fitness equipment, dog food or cat litter. Hagleitner says that over 90 percent of heavy packages are divisible. Dog food or wine bottles could easily be divided into two shipments.
When asked why DHL doesn’t take the lead and only use two people to deliver packages weighing 23 kilos or more, the manager says that this would put DHL at a significant disadvantage in the competition if the competition did not impose such an upper limit. If DHL asked its corporate customers to split the parcels into two or if two-man delivery made the parcels significantly more expensive, then some corporate customers would probably switch to the competition.
“In the end, it doesn’t help anyone if parcel volumes go to service providers who have worse working conditions than us and good jobs that are bound by collective agreements are lost,” says Hagleitner. “Health protection only works in the long term if the same rules apply to the entire industry and these are strictly monitored.”
Of the DHL packages, only 1.1 percent weigh 23 to 31.5 kilos. Isn’t this small share pretty unimportant for the logistics company? No, says Hagleitner. “The said corporate customers also hand over a lot of lighter packages to us – and we would also lose these volumes if the corporate customers leave.”
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DHL competitors are against the new cap
DHL’s competitors are strictly against lowering the current 31.5 kilo limit. 20 or 23 kilos would be arbitrary limits, according to the parcel industry association BPEX, which represents the interests of companies such as Hermes, GLS and DPD. “We advocate that a professional parcel truck should be used when delivering a heavy parcel.”
A mandatory two-person workforce would drastically worsen the staff shortage in the parcel industry, warns the BPEX. “It is already challenging to recruit enough delivery workers.” A spokeswoman for the association also points out that heavy packages are often sent from company to company and are delivered at ground level, via elevators or ramps. If a new weight limit were to be introduced, additional vehicles and extra trips would be necessary, which would have a negative impact on the carbon footprint, according to the BPEX.
Traffic light coalition introduced a 20 kilo limit
The former coalition of the SPD, Greens and FDP introduced a regulation according to which two deliverers were needed for parcels weighing more than 20 kilos. At that time, DHL introduced a new class for heavy parcels. However, an exception should apply to the new legal regulation: if there is a suitable technical aid, one delivery person is sufficient. Which aids are meant should be clarified in a regulation – but that never happened because the traffic light coalition broke up prematurely.
The Verdi service union follows this up and is calling for a 20 kilo limit without exceptions. “It is time for the federal government to take action and introduce a draft law,” says Verdi Vice President Andrea Kocsis. “The employees in the industry have waited long enough and now need relief.”
Technology hardly helps people
Would electric hand trucks, which are easy to use to climb stairs, be a suitable aid? DHL manager Hagleitner shakes her head. Such technology could help, but it cannot replace a second delivery person for heavy packages. “There are no suitable technical aids that significantly minimize the health risks associated with heavy packages delivered by one person.”
The post and parcel manager points out that it’s not just about delivery to the front door, but that the shipments also have to be picked up and placed in parcel centers. At the locations, DHL tested exoskeletons – i.e. assistance systems on the body that make it easier to move heavy objects. The results were sobering. “Many of our colleagues don’t want these aids, for example because they make them warm and because the devices can be very heavy.”
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