Since the start of containment, established to fight the spread of the coronavirus, many businesses have had to close. Shops which were, for some, relay points for receiving packages.
The few points still open are crumbling today under the boxes received.
Masks in tobacco shops: in Montluçon “we are still waiting for them”
Overloaded relay points
“At the start of confinement, we no longer took parcels, neither Colissimo nor Chronopost … We still had a few parcels which still arrived sparingly. But Chronopost called back to ask us to resume the activity. It has therefore been between fifteen days and three weeks that we have taken over, ”says Magalie Corbeau, manager of the Total station at Désertines.
“We now receive between 80 and 100 packages every day. And this morning, for example, I sent 120 off. ”The dozens of stacks of boxes around her bear witness to this.
Normally, our threshold is around 80 packages. But it is a figure that we generally reach for sales or for Christmas. There, we have never had so many.
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Same observation for Dominique Mercier, manager of the tobacco shop, Monte Cristo, in Montluçon. The only Chronopost relay point still open in the town. “It’s huge what we have received since the start of containment. But since April 20, it’s even worse! It has become quite complicated, ”he says.
“I can receive around thirty packages. Above, it’s delicate. I don’t have the structure for. So, I cannot receive everything. So there are packages that I do not take. »Packages that Chronopost must then manage, notably by setting up unusual operations.
Packages distributed in the back of a truck
In Montluçon, a Chronopost truck is parked in front of the Post Office in Blanzat. Parcel distributions are organized in the car park. 
To distribute parcels arriving en masse, Chronopost distributes directly to the back of a truck in front of the Post Office in Blanzat in Montluçon.
Stéphane Haetty, distribution manager, in charge of quality of service for Chronopost in Auvergne, explains: “Setting up this truck is a decision of the head office. Usually, on Montluçon, we have six relay points. There is only one open now [le Monte Cristo, NDLR]. As he is the only one to be open, he saturates. So we had to find a solution. “
Especially since for a little over two weeks, and as Dominique Mercier noted at Monte Cristo, the influx of packages has been massive. The reason ?
“It had been planned for a while and it is the chance of the calendar which wants that … For two weeks, we have integrated a new client: Vinted [un site de vente et d’échange de vêtements et d’accessoires, NDLR]. This customer generates a phenomenal volume of packages. The number of packages has therefore exploded in the relay points still open. “
Stéphane Haetty (Distribution Manager, in charge of quality service for Chronopost in Auvergne)
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Chronopost therefore necessarily awaits the reopening of its relay points.
“When several will reopen, we will have a greater absorption capacity. This will therefore be quickly regulated. But in the meantime, we will postpone this operation with our truck again the week of May 11 to try to dispose of as many parcels as possible. “
Reception of students, canteen, extracurricular, crèches …: as will return to school on May 12 in Montluçon
Text: Laura Morel
Photos: Florian Salesse
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