Last year, Estonian state-owned postal delivery company Omniva increased the number of its automatic parcel machines in the country to 327. In cooperation with municipalities throughout Estonia, Omniva installed several new automatic parcel machines in smaller towns and villages, which previously had no such machines of their own.

In an Omniva press release, CEO Kristi Unt said, that the company is focused on providing a more personalized postal and parcel service for its customers, closer to their homes. To do so, Omniva met with representatives from all of Estonia's municipalities last year to collectively review and modernize the organization of its postal delivery services. 

"More and more people are ordering products from e-shops as well as from private individuals to parcel machines, and as a result people have less and less need to go to the post office," said Unt..

"Ordering from e-shops broadens the choice of goods available, and the delivery service is also a convenient way to collect them, especially (for those living) in smaller towns and cities," Unt said.

Unt explained, that one of the common threads, which emerged from meetings with representatives of municipalities throughout Estonia, was the expectation that more automatic parcel machines would be installed.

"Last year, Omniva installed 56 new parcel machines in Estonia, many of them in smaller places, where there were no parcel machines before," she said, adding that in some locations, including Võnnu (Tartu County), Veriora (Põlva County), Sangaste (Valga County) and Kolga-Jaani (Viljandi County), the only automatic parcel machine is an Omniva one.

Due to the special nature of small islands such as Vormsi, Ruhnu and Kihnu, rather than installing physical parcel machines, Omniva runs a so-called "virtual" service, which delivers orders directly to customers living there.

"Further discussions are still ongoing with some municipalities and the installation of new parcel machines will continue this year," said Unt, adding that Omniva is also in the process of increasing the size of some of its existing machines to cater for higher volumes of parcels. The company is also replacing its older models with newer ones.

"We are working closely with local authorities, who are familiar with the needs and expectations of local residents and will suggest suitable locations (for the machines)," Unt said.

The press release pointed out, that Omniva's automatic parcel machines can usually be found at commonly frequented locations within towns and cities, such as shops and supermarkets.

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