BONN/BRATISLAVA/PRAGUE: July 30, 2019 Deutsche Post DHL is cooperating with Austrian Post in Slovakia and the Czech Republic to deliver cross-border, last-mile e-commerce shipments from September this year.

Austrian Post subsidiary In Time s.r.o. will deliver parcels sent by DHL customers to Slovakia, while Deutsche Post DHL Group’s Czech subsidiary, PPL CZ s.r.o. will deliver parcels sent by Austrian Post customers to the Czech Republic.

“With e-commerce on the rise and growing parcel volumes high quality and best-in-class customer experience in last-mile-delivery becomes increasingly a key differentiator and with this cooperation we will lay the right foundation for this,” said Petr Horak, PPL CZ s.r.o. & DHL Parcel Slovensko managing director.

DPDHL says the agreement has no impact on DHL Express, DHL Global Forwarding, Freight and DHL Supply Chain in both countries.

“We are pleased to have found a professional partner in the Czech Republic for our growing cross- border e-commerce business,” declared Carsten Wallmann, Austrian Post senior vice president Turkey and Central, Eastern Europe Parcel.

In a related move, DHL Parcel is increasing its prices for business customers from September 01. The company cites annual investments of €150 million in personnel, automation and infrastructure growth as well as a “significant increase in transport and personnel costs”.

"In order to reliably process the increasing parcel volumes, we are continuously investing in the expansion and modernization of our parcel network. In July 2019, we also transferred around 13,000 employees from subsidiaries to the company’s collective agreement, thereby further improving working conditions and fair wage structures," explained Ole Nordhoff, DPDHL chief marketing officer Post & Parcel Germany.