If I understand it correctly, DHL has done something similar in Germany for at least ten years now.
It is OK - especially useful to be able to send away parcels in the middle of the night (the stations are used for both sending and collecting). Other than that, I ended up not using them much. Neighbors work better for accepting parcels. But I suppose for other people they are quite popular.
Ultimately I think DHL's play is to reduce the number of human powered post offices, so in the end Packstations will be a step backwards for user friendliness.
It is OK - especially useful to be able to send away parcels in the middle of the night (the stations are used for both sending and collecting). Other than that, I ended up not using them much. Neighbors work better for accepting parcels. But I suppose for other people they are quite popular.
Ultimately I think DHL's play is to reduce the number of human powered post offices, so in the end Packstations will be a step backwards for user friendliness.
Edit: link to German DHL site about "Packstation" http://www.dhl.de/content/de/de/paket/privatkunden/packstati...
Edit 2: English Wikipedia says they started in 2001 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packstation