Let’s talk about parcel lockers: Location, size, and operation

POLIS, ETP-ALICE, and C40 Cities co-hosted a webinar on 29 January 2025 on parcel lockers, facilitating an ad-hoc exchange with experts and city representatives from Europe and North America.

The webinar focused on delivery parcel lockers, and discussed in detail (i) where cities and businesses should locate them, (ii) what models can operate effectively and (iii) which sizes are the most efficient to deploy. Representatives from New York, Valence, and London presented different parcel locker policies and partnerships, followed by a round table discussion with Groningen, Stockholm, and New York discussing lessons learnt and best practices.

City and business partnerships are key

Cities can play a valuable role in developing a parcel locker network by primarily acting as a partner and regulators in collaboration with private sector operators. The city does not need to own, manage, or maintain the physical lockers themselves, but can regulate their location, size, and number of operators allowed in a certain area, to maintain optimal usage whilst balancing the needs of public space. For example, New York City’s LockerNYC pilot program launched in April 2024 in partnership with GoLocker, and has since processed over 7000 transactions across 14 locker sites, with plans to expand to new neighbourhoods, trial a new business model, and broaden data collection and analysis.

Locker locations should balance the needs of delivery operators and end users

Cities’ varying typologies, landowners, and public realm policies can inform optimal locker placements to suit both delivery operators and end users. Ideally, lockers should be distributed in residential or commercial urban areas, close to transit terminals, where footfall is high and end users can collect their parcels by active modes. However, without certain restrictions on the number of lockers in a given area there is a risk of over-saturation and conflict of space. For example, after a 1.5-year pilot project, Stockholm introduced regulations to control the placement of parcel lockers on public land to help reduce overlapping functions of the existing pick-up-drop-off network.

Additionally, lockers can also be strategically placed to facilitate multimodal freight opportunities. For example, Cross River Partnership have piloted parcel lockers in two locations across London which have integrated deliveries and pick-ups by river and cargo bike freight. Lastly, the City of Groningen is one of the few public authorities to have developed a framework for an open parcel locker system, developed in collaboration with the University of Groningen and Bax Innovation. Overall, the findings might serve as a guide for public officials seeking to establish a well-planned, integrated strategy.

Consider electricity and land use requirements from the outset

Many parcel locker designs require a significant amount of power access 24/7, and cities and businesses looking to launch a parcel locker network should engage with the relevant electricity network operator as early as possible in the planning stage to build a relationship and understand if new lines of service will be required, or if there are private property owners who can provide the power. This was one of NYC’s limiting factors as part of their LockerNYC pilot program. Another aspect to factor into timelines includes navigating potential varying decentralised regulations and approval processes for installing a parcel locker on public land.