BONN (dpa-AFX) - The DHL Group has significantly expanded its range of vending machines. The number of so-called postal stations in Germany has increased since the beginning of the year from around 100 to approximately 300, the Post announced in Bonn on Tuesday. This number is expected to increase further in the future. At these machines, people can buy stamps, drop off and pick up parcels, and get video advice. They are a further development of Packstations, which only deal with parcels and of which there are around 12,500.

Speaking to the Business Journalists Association in Düsseldorf, DHL CEO Tobias Meyer expressed his hope that the postal stations could be counted towards the branch network obligation in the future. So far, this is not possible. As a result, the Group has problems in complying with the requirements - for example, when the last supermarket in a village closes down and no other retailer can be found to set up a post office counter. In the upcoming reform of the Postal Act, vending machines could, in a sense, be put on an equal footing with human-operated branches - which would be a tailwind for DHL's vending machine expansion plans./wdw/DP/stk