货物配送 取货服务要火了

PARCEL deliveries are often thwarted by menacing dogs, doorstep thieves, unanswered doorbells or a host of other impediments that keep goods from their intended destination. Even demography plays a role: young consumers are less willing than older folk to stay at home waiting for a delivery. Businesses suffer as a result. Two-fifths of online shoppers said they stopped buying products from a website following a troublesome delivery, according to the Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG), a British industry association.

包裹配送经常会遇到麻烦：狗凶得要咬人，有人冒领，按门铃却没人回应，或是许多其他障碍，导致货物无法送到收件人手中。甚至连年龄架构都会对货物配送产生影响：和老年人比，年轻的消费者不太情愿在家里等货物上门。结果，蒙受损失的却是企业。据英国行业协会“互动媒体零售集团（IMRG）”所说，2/5的网上购物者表示，如果一家网站的货物配送服务很糟糕，他们就不会在这儿购买产品了。

Customers and sellers should welcome the growth of a new way to ensure that goods are delivered quickly and safely. Parcels are increasingly shipped not to home addresses but to local businesses, where they are held for pick-up. This summer Amazon, an American online-retail giant, is expanding a network of delivery lockers in local shops in some of America's biggest cities as well as in London. A locker pops open when a customer enters an access code received by e-mail or text message. Other companies are building even bigger locker networks, especially in Europe.

为确保货物快速、安全地配送，一种新方法出现了。对此，顾客和商家应该非常欢迎。越来越多的包裹被送往当地商店，等人来取，而不是送到家庭住址处。今年夏天，美国的在线零售巨头亚马逊，正在扩大美国一些大城市以及伦敦的当地商店寄存柜网点数目。顾客收到邮件或短信，得到一个取件代码。只要输入该代码，寄存柜就打开了。其他公司甚至在建设更大的寄存柜网络系统，尤其是在欧洲。

Some shoppers are willing to pay to avoid home deliveries. ByBox, a British firm, charges shoppers about £2 ($3.15) to retrieve a parcel from one of its 1,350 locations around the country. Other locker networks are free. Delivery firms can save lots of money by sending a batch of parcels to a single place, where delivery is guaranteed, so they are naturally keen to provide the service. Nine out of ten Germans live or work within about ten minutes of free lockers operated by Deutsche Post DHL. The French and Turkish post offices also provide free locker services.

为避免送货上门，有的购物者愿意支付一定费用。ByBox是一家英国公司，在境内有1,350个网点。在其中任意一处寄存一个包裹，顾客需支付约2英镑（3.15美元）的费用。别的寄存柜网点是免费的。在快递能到的区域，如果把一批包裹送到一个地方，快递公司会省一大笔钱，因此，他们特别乐意提供这项服务。敦豪速递公司（DHL）拥有很多免费寄存柜，10个德国人中，就有9个人在其网点附近居住、或工作，不超过10分钟就可以拿到包裹。法国和土耳其的邮局也提供免费的寄存柜服务。

There are other advantages too. More efficient deliveries can take the strain off lorries and other shipping infrastructure. In Britain this is running close to capacity at peak periods, says Andrew Starkey of IMRG. Merchants, then, welcome the deployment of more and better infrastructure. Add-on innovations should make buying and selling online even easier. For example, Cleveron, an Estonian firm, has introduced lockers with credit-card readers across northern Europe. These cubby holes can collect payment for the goods being collected.

寄存柜服务也有其他优势。这种配送方式更有效率，可以减轻卡车等交通工具的运输压力。IMRG的安德鲁•斯达克（Andrew Starkey）说，在英国的高峰时期，车辆几乎都是满载货物。其次，配置更多、更好的基础设施，商人也是很乐意的。额外加入一些创新元素会使网上交易更方便。比如，爱沙尼亚的一家公司Cleveron，在整个北欧地区的寄存柜上加了信用卡读刷卡器。这些“扁扁的插口”可以为柜子里面的商品收费。

A lower-tech delivery system also shows great promise. Growing numbers of shops and other businesses are holding packages behind the counter for later collection. One delivery network has signed up over 1,050 local shops in America and Canada and is adding about two dozen outlets a week. Gareth Sudul, head of Kinek, the firm behind the scheme, says that businesses like the simplicity of providing a "KinekPoint" service. No special kit is required. All shops have to do is log deliveries and pick-ups through a website that automatically sends e-mail and text-message alerts to addressees.

技术含量较低的配送系统也是大有前途的。在越来越多的商店和其他公司，柜台背后都存放着大量包裹，等人领取。有一个配送网络系统已和美国、加拿大的1,050家当地商店签约，还以每周二十几家商店的速度在增长。Kinek是该计划的策划公司，公司老板加雷斯•苏杜（Gareth Sudul）说，商家喜欢这种简单的“Kinek网点”服务。它不需要任何特殊设备。商店只需在一个网站上录入配送和取货状态，然后网站就自动发邮件、信息，提醒收件人。

Pick-up locations typically charge from about $3 to release a package, passing on $1 to Kinek. People fetching a parcel also often buy a few items. The lure of extra sales has led some shops to hand over the packages for nothing, coughing up $1 just to have someone walk through the door.

一般来说，在取货点领走一个包裹，需要支付3美元左右的费用，其中1美元归Kinek所有。而取包裹的人也经常会买一些东西。在这种额外销售的诱惑下，一些商店愿意负责无偿寄存包裹。多付1美元，只为多一个客户光临。

Not everyone will join in. Questions over insurance liability might hamper the growth of pick-up services. And in America online merchants avoid charging sales tax in some states by neither having a physical presence nor hiring staff there. So they may be wary of putting lockers in these parts of the country. Some consumers, having paid for door-to-door delivery, will not want to traipse to a nearby shop or petrol station to collect their parcels. But the growth of online sales means that exasperation levels with home deliveries and the attraction of a rapid pick-up are sure to rise.

但并不是每个人都会加入这个行列。保险责任上的纠纷也许会阻碍取货服务的发展。在美国，一些在线商家为了不支付某些州的营业税，既不在那儿开实体店，也不招聘员工。所以，要在美国这些地区安放寄存柜，他们也许会非常谨慎。而已经为送货上门支付过费用的顾客，是不愿意晃到附近的商店或加油站取包裹的。但网上销售业务在不断发展，送货上门肯定会越来越令人头疼，而这种快速取货服务也必然会更引人注目。