Number of parcel lockers in the Netherlands up 90% to 9,309

The Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) counted 9,309 parcel lockers in the Netherlands last year. That is 90 percent more than a year earlier.

Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht agreed in a covenant this year that, for the time being ("vooralsnog"), no parcel lockers will be placed on the street in historic city centres. The cities will look first at locations such as shops, libraries and bicycle parking.

Merten Nefs, a researcher at Erasmus University who studies the impact of big warehouses, says lockers are "more a matter of street furniture". With at least 1,500 new machines a year, he says, a liveable and safe urban environment needs thought, and municipalities could set some ground rules.

Nefs says lockers can bring more eyes on the street, more interaction between residents and more movement in public space, which are lacking now.

Location matters for heavy items, Nefs says: "If you have to collect 30 kilos of cat litter, you don't want to drive into the city centre." He suggests delivering heavier items to a locker in a car park, and says empty shop units in existing shopping centres "would be perfect".

PostNL director Selma Postma links the growth to changing habits. "In the beginning, online shopping was nerve-racking. You order something, you pay for it and then you have to wait and see whether it really arrives. That trust is there now, after about twenty years," she says. People now want to be in control of delivery themselves.