Home parcel locker company Parcellock have started rolling out their own parcel lockers around Hamburg, ahead of a planned roll out across Germany.

Parcellock is a company that collaborates with Hermes, DPD and GLS and works with the pharmacy chain DM. The system involves a customer having their own parcel locker by their residence, which is accessible by both couriers and the resident. Parcels can be picked up and dropped off at the parcel locker.

This enables a private service without the customer either needing to travel to a location away from their home, and gets round the issue of letting a courier through the front door as may well be happening with smart locks being developed by other companies.

As with so many innovations, it is now down to the market to decide whether this system is attractive enough and simple enough to become very popular. Reality frequently clashes with potential. It is well backed by some of the biggest delivery players in Germany but will need to start generating returns in order to get a foothold in the market.