Deutsche Post DHL: from 250,000 to nearly 1 million tracked rolling cages

Today, Deutsche Post and DHL have equipped over 450,000 rolling cages for parcel logistics—a significant portion of their stock—with trackers for localization throughout Germany. The fleet of approximately 400,000 letter trolleys is similarly equipped with powerful trackers. Combined, Deutsche Post and DHL in Germany now have almost one million trackers pinpointing the locations of their transport equipment, efficiently and reliably enabling those responsible to plan their deployment and required capacities. What was still considered new in 2019 remains indispensable for efficient parcel and letter transportation processes for Deutsche Post and DHL in Germany.

“Today, people order significantly more items than they did just a few years ago, having many packages conveniently delivered to their homes,” explains Delia Henning, expert in parcel center operations and responsible for the tracking project at Deutsche Post and DHL. “Accordingly, we must react flexibly to different parcel volumes throughout the year, efficiently planning our processes for times when we experience lower parcel volumes as well as the peak periods before Christmas, for example. Without rolling cages tracking, this would simply be unattainable today.”

At the start of the tracking project in 2019, the most important technical criterion—and one reason for choosing Alps Alpine as the provider—was the desired seven-year battery life of the trackers. Their robust Sigfox-based trackers, called “Lykaner 4,” which use a Sensolus patent, were chosen. Alps Alpine and Sensolus have worked together seamlessly for many years, developing many solutions that are also customized for DHL. While Alps Alpine’s proficiencies are primarily in hardware development and mass production capacities for its trackers, Sensolus contributes its software expertise for firmware and cloud-based platforms to the collaboration. Thus, DHL benefits from a powerful complete solution from a single source.

At the beginning of the project, Alps Alpine primarily installed Sigfox-based trackers. Since last year, 50,000 trackers based on the global standard NarrowBand IoT technology (NB-IoT)—which were developed together with Sensolus—have also been in use with the Lykaner N5 model. These are characterized by seamless connectivity, even in international mobile networks, as well as high reliability. NarrowBand-IoT is also a global standard for situations where low energy consumption and long battery life are essential.

Thanks to the effectiveness of its transport resources, Deutsche Post and DHL have up-to-date localization data and a strong overview of current stocks at all times; whether in their own distribution centers or at major customer’s, with whom shared use has been agreed. The localization data is sent from the trackers to a cloud-based platform, then fed directly into the company’s planning and scheduling systems via open API interfaces, where it is needed. The newer trackers also offer the option of determining whether transport equipment is in operation or parked via tilt sensors, in addition to pure localization.

Tracking ensures that transportation runs smoothly, efficiently and reliably, even when parcel volumes fluctuate greatly amid peak periods, such as Black Friday or Christmas. If fewer parcels are shipped, rolling cages can also be removed from active traffic and transported to designated warehouses with an optimized overview. Tracking also generates a clear database for contractually agreed use by customers or partners, minizing losses and unauthorized use.

“The collaboration between Alps Alpine and Sensolus has really proven effective over the past several years,” summarizes Ms. Henning. “The Sensolus tracking solution ensures that we can also process changing consignment volumes flexibly and with a good overview. It’s impossible to imagine our work processes without it.”