A parcel locker is a bank of self-service compartments where you collect a parcel, or drop one off, using a code sent to your phone. There's no counter and nobody to sign for it. The courier puts your parcel in one of the compartments, you get a notification with the locker address and a collection code, and you open the door yourself whenever it suits you.
In the UK you've probably walked past one outside a supermarket or a petrol station, branded InPost, Evri, Royal Mail or Amazon. Which network your parcel is travelling with decides which lockers can hold it, and that catches people out. Most of the big branded networks are closed, so an InPost locker is only any use for a parcel InPost is carrying. Open networks work the other way round. Parcel Pending by Quadient runs an open UK network, and a single bank of its doors will take parcels from Royal Mail, Evri and DPD.
How a parcel locker works, from the sender to your hands
Choosing the locker
Most locker deliveries start with a choice you make at the checkout. The retailer offers locker delivery next to home delivery and shop collection, and you pick the locker you want off a map.
You can often change your mind after that. Several carriers let you divert a parcel to a locker while it's still in transit, usually right up to the point it goes out on the van, from their app or their tracking page.
If a person is sending you something directly, they choose the destination locker when they buy the label. They need your name and either your mobile number or your email address, because that's where the collection code goes.
The courier loads it
The courier turns up with a round of parcels for that locker bank, signs in on the locker screen or in their own app, and the doors they need release one at a time. Every parcel is scanned into a specific compartment, which is what ties your parcel to one door number and one code. Compartment sizes are fixed, so a parcel that won't fit any free door can't go in.
Your code arrives
You get a text, an email or an app notification once the parcel is in. It carries the address, the compartment number and a collection code, or a code you scan off your screen at the locker so you don't have to type anything.
The message also tells you how long you have. Collection windows differ by carrier and are usually a matter of days, so read the notification instead of assuming you have a fortnight to get there.
You collect
At the locker you either tap the screen and enter the code or open the carrier app and scan. The door releases, you take the parcel out and shut the door. The carrier logs the moment that door opened and the code that opened it, so if a question comes up later about whether the parcel was delivered, both sides are reading the same record.
Sending and returning from the same locker
Most networks now run in both directions. You buy a label, choose a locker, and the machine gives you an empty compartment to put the parcel in. The courier clears it on the next round. Returns work the same way, which is why a lot of retailers now list a locker drop-off on the returns page alongside the post office.
Where you'll find parcel lockers in the UK
Lockers go where footfall already is. Supermarket car parks, petrol forecourts, high street parades, rail stations, gyms, university campuses and the entrance halls of larger apartment blocks. Indoor ones follow the host site's opening hours. Outdoor banks are usually reachable around the clock, and for anyone working shifts that's the whole point.
The reliable way to find one is the carrier's own locker map, in their app or on their website. Searching for a parcel locker near you mixes the networks together, and the nearest pin on the map can easily be a closed network your parcel can't use. If you get a choice at the checkout, pick a locker that sits somewhere you already pass. The closest one is often the one you never actually walk past.
Why carriers and retailers push lockers
A courier delivering to homes makes one stop per address, and every one of those stops depends on somebody being in. When nobody is, the parcel goes back on the van and the round has to come again, with a card through the door, a redelivery slot and often a phone call in between. A locker bank collapses that into one stop where the courier unloads many parcels at once, and none of them can fail for want of an answered door.
For you the trade is straightforward. You give up the parcel arriving at your door and you get a delivery that can't be missed, plus a collection window you control. Whether that's a good deal depends entirely on how far the locker is from your route.
What goes wrong, and what happens next
- The parcel is too big. Compartments are a fixed size and the biggest one is still a locker door, so bulky items go by home delivery or to a shop instead. Carriers usually catch this when the label is bought and take locker delivery off the list of options.
- The locker bank is full. The courier can't force a parcel in, so it either goes to a nearby alternative or comes back the next day. You should get a message telling you which.
- You didn't collect in time. The parcel comes back out. Some carriers then hold it at a staffed collection point nearby for a while before it goes back to the sender, so check the tracking before you assume it's gone. Whether you get your money back depends on the retailer, not the carrier.
- The code never turned up. Check junk mail first, then the carrier's app or tracking page, which normally shows the code against the tracking number. If the parcel is marked as delivered to a locker and you still have no code, that's a carrier support case. The shop you bought from can't open the door.
Do you need an app, and can someone else collect for you?
You don't need an app for most networks. The code arrives by text or email and the locker screen will accept it typed in. An app makes it easier, because it stores the code, shows the locker map and lets you scan instead of type, and some carriers will now open the door from the app while you're stood in front of it.
Someone else can usually collect on your behalf, because the locker treats the code as the authority and has no idea who is standing in front of it. That cuts both ways. Forward a code to a colleague and they can open the door, so treat it the way you'd treat a door key.
How a parcel locker differs from the lockers eLocker builds
Everything above describes a carrier network. Lockers owned by a delivery company, sitting in public, holding parcels for whoever books them. We work on the other kind at eLocker, where a business runs its own lockers for its own workflow and often no carrier is involved at any point.
The difference is ownership, and what the locker is wired into. A public parcel locker is one node in a carrier's delivery network. A business locker sits inside that business's own systems, so it knows whose order is behind each door, or which employee took which piece of equipment, and the reporting comes out the other side. If you want the technology sitting underneath both kinds, our article on what is a smart locker goes through it.
In retail the parcel never leaves the retailer's hands. A colleague loads a customer's online order into a locker in store, the customer opens the door from their own phone, and no courier touches it. Click and collect lockers do that job, and there's a walkthrough of the handover in how click and collect lockers work.
Rapid grocery swaps the customer for a courier. A colleague puts the order in a locker, the courier takes it with their own order code, and nobody gets pulled off the shop floor mid-service to hunt for the right bags. Grocery courier lockers are built for that.
Warehouses and offices run the movement in both directions, which changes the job. A scanner, a radio, a laptop or a set of keys goes out to a named person and comes back at the end of the shift or the loan, and the locker records both movements against that person and that asset. Warehouse asset lockers and workplace IT lockers work that way, and the numbers that matter there are loss and downtime.
Most people reading this page just want their parcel. The carrier holding it also holds the code, so their app or their tracking page is the place to look.
If your job is the other side of the counter, the number to start with is what a single handover costs your stores or your warehouse today. Measure it on one site before you model anything estate-wide. Our guide to running a retail pilot sets out how.