Many relay points will be closed from April. It will no longer be possible to recover or drop your packages.
To send or recover packages, no need to go to La Poste, where schedules are often limited. Many relay points are made available, sometimes being in merchants near you. You can for example save time by depositing your package to send while going to make some purchases. This also makes it possible to limit shipping costs. Mondial Relay, one of the leaders in these delivery points, has just made an announcement that could limit this service, offered for almost thirty years.
While La Poste tends to make its yellow boxes disappear, Mondial Relay has decided, for its part, to put an end to some of its relay points contracts with traders, as announced Ouest-France. In a registered letter, consulted by Actu.frMondial Relay announces “After carefulness” to have decided to “do not continue the contract which binds them” with many traders, with effect a month after receiving the letter.
These closures can therefore be effective in April. However, unlike mail, the number of packages does not decrease. The company explained that it wanted to “strengthen its competitiveness by adapting to new uses of the French”.
It wishes, in fact, to favor deposits in “lockers”, these locker cabinets which simply open with a code and which are accessible 24/7. They are often placed near supermarkets or in parking lots: there are already 7,000 in France, against 6000 six months ago. Mondial Relay assures that these lockers “are widely acclaimed by consumers”. “This growth is accompanied by a rationalization and optimization of the relay points park in order to offer an ever more suitable quality network and” added the company.
This decision is quite contrasted. Traders deplore losing an additional source of income and a way to gain visibility and circulation in the store. On the user side, they raise the absence of contact with traders and the risk of finding themselves in front of full or victims of technical problems.
If Mondial Relay has not communicated a specific list or a number concerning the relay points that were going to close, be vigilant the next time you go to drop a package with a merchant. To date, they are 11,000 partners, but this figure will quickly decrease.