Collaborative economy specialist WePost is looking to transport 200,000 B2C and C2C parcels this year on long-distance, high-speed (TGV) trains in France. The company aims to use a solution based on car-sharing, which sees rail passengers act as couriers between railway stations.

Couriers can reduce the cost of their rail fare by 10 euros to 20 euros when carrying a WePost parcel. The Marseille-based start-up has around 30,000 rail passengers signed up as potential couriers on French high-speed passenger rail routes connecting major provincial cities and Paris.

“It’s an environmentally friendly, zero-emission solution,” explained WePost’s co-founder Sophie Brette on French TV news channel BMTV. It also contributes to the decarbonisation of city-to-city express deliveries.

Parcels for all, by all

The passenger/carrier collects the parcel from a designated pick-up point in proximity to the railway station from which they are travelling. On arrival at their destination station, they deposit the parcel at a designated pick-up point close by.

WePost’s partners use cargo bikes to take care of the last (and first) mile for business parcels. A QR code guarantees the transfer of responsibility at each stage of the parcel’s transit, and identity documents must be presented together with a unique confidential code.

The WePost service is pitched at private individuals and e-commerce retailers seeking same-day parcel delivery or within a few hours of a shipment order being placed.

Small in volume and with a maximum weight of 10 kilos, the parcels contain items such as personal effects—keys, passports, identity cards, and documents that need to be delivered urgently—second-hand items, and e-commerce goods, including cosmetics and clothing, portable phones, accessories, and spare parts.

Ready to go international

French ready-to-wear fashion retailer Kiabi recently joined WePost’s 30+ e-commerce trader customer portfolio with parcels transported on high-speed rail services from Lille in northern France.

WePost is also looking to expand its collaborative parcel delivery concept to international passenger rail services from France to Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy, for example. The longer-term objective is to set up a direct presence in these countries and others. Extending the service to standard inter-city passenger rail services is also being considered.

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