​FAN Courier is testing a plug-in truck and may further invest in such vehicles, but a big problem is the huge price of electric trucks. In the article, read about the cities where it is most difficult to deliver parcels, about the crises that marked the year 2022 and about what happened on Black Friday. According to FAN Courier, the market for courier services is 850 million euros.

A very expensive electric truck

Everyone has heard about electric cars, and we see them more and more on the streets. This is not the case for electric trucks, which are just starting to develop, but several major manufacturers have released models, and more companies in Europe are testing them to see if they are worth investing in in the future.

And FAN Courier is testing a 20-ton truck in Romania.

“So far we are testing, but we can say that there are some costs that we do not explain to ourselves. A regular truck costs 100,000 euros, and an electric truck costs 400,000 euros. Autonomy 200 km. (…) We would also like to invest in the field in the future, but at 400,000 euros per truck, the acquisition cost is huge,” FAN Courier representatives said at a press conference organized on Thursday. Testing started only a few days ago, so many conclusions cannot be drawn.

• Electric trucks – timid present, optimistic future and why “electrification” is so difficult

“At the same time, you can think that even when the mobile phone appeared, it was very expensive and few people used it, but over time it became a mass product. Over time, I believe that technologies will develop in this area as well, costs will be reduced, and we will switch to electric cars in the next 10-15-20 years,” says Adrian Mihai, the head of the company.

Where is the most difficult to deliver and what are the problems

In recent years, FAN Courier has invested in lockers, lockers where you can pick up your parcel or return it. There are 300 lockers in the country and the plan is to reach 1,000 by the end of 2023 with an investment of 10 million euros. In these cabinets, the cost of delivery will be lower than when delivered by a courier to the door.

A courier carries out an average of 90-100 shipments per day, and the average number can be much higher if the courier leaves many parcels in the lockers.

We know what couriers complain about when it comes to couriers: some don’t want to walk up to the block and ask the customer out. Other couriers are late, some are rude. We asked FAN Courier employees what complaints couriers have against customers:

“Starting with Black Friday, the pressure on couriers is very high, especially since compared to a normal day, deliveries increase by 40-50% — from 275,000 parcels to 400,000. November pressure causes discomfort in couriers, some respond to pressure better and others worse. All couriers in the market are under pressure when they have to deliver a lot, and Romanian customers are demanding customers: they want to receive the goods at the promised time, and here I completely agree, but some of them abuse and call the courier, but the shipment is not ready , and the courier has to stay there for 15-30 minutes. The courier has a strict delivery schedule, and if he was delayed for many minutes in several places, he would not have time to deliver. There are customers who complained about the courier because he didn’t want to wait for the man to pack the package,” says company manager Adrian Mihai.

Another big problem is the lack of parking: it is difficult, for example, if the courier has to deliver four parcels on Mageru Boulevard, on the 4th floor. It is also difficult in Cluj, where there are narrow streets and the local police apply fines. There are also cities where courier vehicles do not have access to the old center.

In other European countries, couriers have a certain priority according to the decision of the local council: they can stop for a few minutes in certain places, where this is usually prohibited. In those areas, there is delivery to restaurants and shops, and the courier has to drive more with the packages in the back, because they are not allowed in the car, people from the National Academy of Sciences say. Courier companies were not given such priority for entering Romania by car, the authorities replied that a precedent would be set and beverage distributors would also want to have this privilege.

Bucharest, Cluj, Timisoara and Iasi these are the most difficult cities to deliver to. Among the big cities, Brasov is a bit easier, as there are wider boulevards and more parking options around the blocks.

The year 2022 was complicated by several crises

The company says that it has also felt the effects of the crisis in the car market, where new cars are waiting for a very long time. At the end of 2021, FAN Courier ordered a fleet of about 100 cars, they promised to receive them by the end of summer, but this did not happen, and the promised deadline is January 2023.

FAN Courier started the year well with significant growth, but the outbreak of war saw shipments drop sharply in March, with recovery beginning in April. The increase in prices for fuel and energy resources had a negative impact, and in the summer the company decided to raise tariffs by 6-7%.

“The impact of rising costs has been so strong that we expect a significant decline in profitability. We have noticed in the market, especially after the start of the war in Ukraine, as well as due to the increase in prices of basic products, a state of expectation and thoughtfulness among consumers, a state largely caused by a decrease in purchasing power. In the category of good news, we can note the growing interest of customers in alternative deliveries – lockers, Collect Point,” says Adrian Mihai, CEO of FAN Courier.

As for this year’s Black Friday campaign, most sellers had a significant increase, which also reflected in the growth of the company’s business. A feature of this year was the decrease in orders for goods with a longer life cycle (for example, household appliances) in favor of consumer goods (for example: clothing, cosmetics, etc.). The most active period was from November 11 to 14, and almost all ordered parcels were delivered by November 25.

The investment level of FAN Courier exceeded EUR 31.5 million this year,

In 2022, the number of FAN Courier employees increased from 7,500 to 7,900.

FAN Courier estimates it will end 2022 with a turnover of €225m, up 10% on the previous year, amid a year full of challenges and uncertainty.

In 2023, FAN Courier estimates the growth of the courier market by 10-15%, after this year it reached a value of 850 million euros. In the context of the development of the industry, FAN Courier predicts the growth of its own business for the next year by 15%.

In 2022, online trade had a weight of 60-65% of the company’s activity, and growth forecasts remain, especially in the context of traditional discount campaigns in the last two months of the year.