Corona, Background

“It’s great how we’re managing the surge in parcels together”

The Swiss Post ethos: everyone helps one another out – such as in Fahrwangen am Hallwilersee. The letter delivery team are helping out their colleagues in parcel delivery and are receiving support themselves, including from Judith Hollenstein. She usually supports change processes, and now she’s delivering parcels twice a week.

Ines Schumacher

Rich Content Section

Five employees of the Swiss Post in Fahrwangen am Hallwilersee. They help each other at work.

At the rear entrance to the Fahrwangen am Hallwilersee delivery point, an unfamiliar group are smiling cheerfully for the camera. Two letter delivery staff are on their fully loaded DXP scooters with trailers also full to the brim. Between them are a woman and Thomas Hager from the Address Competence Center standing by the boots of their own cars filled with parcels. And team leader Fabian Herzog, his arms laden with parcels. The scene tells the whole story: working together to cope with the surge in parcels. The parcel delivery staff have been delivering numerous items since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. The letter delivery teams are doing all they can to help but are reaching their capacity limits with their three-wheeled DXP scooters. Many parcels are simply too big.

Swiss Post’s jobs site for the internal recruitment of staff proved a godsend for the Fahrwangen delivery point: “I volunteered immediately,” says Judith. She actually works in change management at Swiss Post, supporting teams during change processes. Now she’s part of an entire community that is helping the Fahrwangen delivery point to manage the surge in parcel volumes: the actual delivery team – which is doing extra rounds to get the parcels out – a team from the Address Competence Center in Kriens, who are using their own cars to deliver parcels, and Judith Hollenstein herself. “It’s great to see how well everyone is working together as a team from different units and simply all mucking in,” she explains.

Monitors, printers, garden furniture and fish tanks: “It seems as though the parcels we’re delivering are getting bigger and bigger,” says Judith Hollenstein. She also pays tribute to the customers: “One time a customer told me to simply leave a parcel I could barely lift and that he would fetch it himself from the car.” Customers have shown a great deal of understanding on the whole, and so too have her colleagues from the delivery teams: “It’s wonderful to see. Everyone’s doing their bit. And they’re all so full of energy. You really feel as though ‘yellow blood’ is flowing through their veins such is their commitment to the common cause – Swiss Post.” Judith Hollenstein will do her next stint delivering parcels the day after tomorrow on Friday – for the delivery team in Fahrwangen.

written by

Ines Schumacher

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