ROHLIG SUUS Logistics, one of a small number of such operators in the Polish market, is expanding its coverage of COD services to other countries. Starting in September, the services will also be provided to partners in other countries delivering parcels to Poland from elsewhere in Europe.

More people in Poland than ever before are shopping in foreign on-line shops, seeking discounts and products not available on the local market. The delivery of such goods is no longer a barrier, and Cash on Delivery (COD) remains of particular interest to on-line buyers, especially those who fear that the seller might not ship their order upon payment. In order to mitigate this risk and improve customer satisfaction, many shops offer this form of payment.

This trend is confirmed by the latest research undertaken for Trusted Shops, a website specializing in the quality certification of on-line shops as a means of e-customer order protection. The research demonstrated that one in every ten buyers has a problem claiming their money back from online shops. About 7% percent of those interviewed failed to either receive the purchased goods or receive their money back, whereas 4% had difficulties in returning their package and claiming their money back.

The first partner to leverage this new offering is the German counterparty with whom ROHLIG SUUS ran a pilot project. Part of this involved improving the IT system interfaces to facilitate COD parcel data-transfers between the partner and the operator, followed by implementing functionalities to manage currencies and exchange rates. ROHLIG SUUS in effect now collects the payment in PLN from a Polish receiver, and then returns it in the agreed-upon currency and exchange rate. This is a fairly complex process that could lead to potential exchange rate gains and losses, which is why few logistics operators have offered such services so far.

According to Patryk Świderski, International Groupage Product Director at ROHLIG SUUS Logistics: "Up until now, Cash on Delivery has been the domain of local shipments, yet due to the constant increase in e-customer demand for complementary services, we have decided to offer this service to our foreign customers as well. The maximum COD amount we offer is 15 K PLN / 3.5 K EUR, which is impressive compared to our European competitors.".