A few clicks and the package is ordered - but how do I get it, do I have to wait at home? And where should I put my return? Parcel machines are one solution – there are more and more of them.
Berlin. Anyone who wants to pick up or send a package can expect new machines in their neighborhood in the coming years. After DPD and GLS announced a collaboration in March, market leader DHL is now significantly increasing the pace of its expansion.
While the Bonn-based group had previously aimed to have more than 30,000 machines in Germany by the end of 2030, the group has now raised this target to around 50,000. The key to this is the acquisition of an up-and-coming competitor, which was announced on Thursday.
This is the company Myflexbox, which was founded as a start-up by Salzburger Stadtwerke and was taken over after a few years by British investors called Star Capital. Myflexbox has experienced remarkable growth - initially in Austria, later crossing the border into Germany.
While there were only around 600 machines in this country in mid-2026, there are now around 2,000. Parcels from UPS, Fedex, GLS, DPD and Amazon are stored in the light gray boxes. The company scored points with its “provider independence”: its owners were not parcel service providers who pursue their own interests and might prefer their own packages when storing them.
Parcel machines are actually a practical thing because they are available around the clock. But there is a catch: If all the compartments are full, the consumer has to go to another location and therefore go further than expected - sometimes the package ends up in a parcel shop whose opening hours are limited. Then it's no longer so practical, but rather annoying at times.
Such diversions should be avoided. But if the machine operator puts packages from other companies at a disadvantage by no longer finding space and being redirected, consumers' frustration with said other companies could increase - according to industry observers.
At the beginning of 2025, market giant DHL launched a subsidiary that operated parcel machines open to providers under the DeinFach brand. Their boss Lukas Beckedorff emphasized that they are independent and treat all shipments equally. But the competition was apparently not too enthusiastic about this offer - to this day, apart from DHL, the only major competitor that stores parcels at DeinFach is UPS.
Another parcel service provider will be added soon. Although the customer list was short, it was expanded diligently - DeinFach now has around 1,700 locations in Germany. It also helped that there was a financially strong owner and major customer in the industry leader DHL.
In the Internet age, the number of parcels is growing as people order more and more goods online. Deliveries to front doors are particularly time-consuming for parcel service providers, which is why they rely more on machines - they can deposit or take parcels there in one go and save time.
DHL has been relying on vending machines for a long time and is miles ahead of the competition. Long before DeinFach, the Bonn-based logistics company started packing stations for parcels, and postal stations for letters and parcels were later added. In total, DHL now operates around 17,400 yellow machines solely for its own shipments. Separately, DeinFach was launched, which is now being strengthened with the acquisition and relabeled as Myflexbox. If you add DeinFach/Myflexbox, DHL now has more than 21,000 ATM locations. By the end of 2030 there should be around 50,000.
Myflexbox, in turn, becomes part of a large parcel group. Doesn't this mean the company loses its unique selling point of being independent of package companies because of its owners? With this unique selling point, Myflexbox has been on a successful advertising tour in recent years.
Company boss Jonathan Grothaus says they will remain independent and that all parcel customers will continue to be treated equally. “Thanks to DHL, we now have more power to increase the pace of expansion and thus be even better positioned in the market,” says the logistics specialist. “Together we are taking the expansion of the largest open parcel station network to a new level.”
Grothaus and Beckedorff will run the Post subsidiary together in the future. The two are convinced of the concept that parcel machines should be open to all parcel service providers and not just one company. It is inefficient and complicated for consumers to have to go to a different machine depending on the package they are sending - it would be easier to have a machine around the corner where you can pick up all your packages.
This would also be important for the use of public space, says Beckedorff. “Locations are a rare commodity - if everyone builds machines next to each other and cooks their own soup, this rare commodity is used inefficiently.” Whether in the countryside or in cities, locations are being sought everywhere - at gas stations, shopping centers, train stations or pedestrian zones. “We are following demand: There should be a vending machine where a lot of people come by anyway or where they can be quick,” says Beckedorff.
However, the parent company DHL wants to continue as before with its own yellow packing stations and postal stations: They run separately from Myflexbox and can only be used for DHL shipments, so the competition is left out. Why actually? “We need the locations ourselves in order to be able to cope with the forecast growth in parcels,” says a DHL spokeswoman.
And what are DHL’s competitors doing? They bake smaller rolls. Hermes is not very active in this area; the company only has 30 machines in the greater Hamburg area. Rather, Hermes relies on parcel shops so that customers can drop off or pick up parcels there. Other parcel service providers do this too, but they see machines as an important addition. GLS and DPD want to offer up to 6,000 shared machines in Germany by the end of 2027.
