Wirtschaftshilfe der Studierenden Oberösterreich, or WIST for short, has existed since 1960 and operates 5 student hostels in Upper Austria and Vienna. The aim of WIST is to enable students from lower-income groups to gain access to a university education by providing affordable places in the halls of residence. The whole thing is rounded off by the WIST community: the residents actively participate in the life of the dormitory by organising parties, events or sports events.
The challenge: The parcel volume exceeded the capacity of the employees.
Since the volume of parcels is also increasing among students, but at the same time students spend a lot of time at the university, studying or doing other activities, the pick-up notifications piled up at the reception.
This was often inconvenient for the residents, who often had to go to the post office in the evening or to a parcel shop further away from the respective parcel service. Transport is also becoming more and more inconvenient: mobility behaviour has changed, and more and more students are consciously foregoing their own cars for environmental or cost reasons. This makes it difficult to pick up large, bulky parcels. The items are then laboriously transported by public transport. Much to the annoyance of the students.
"Our service concept is high, we want the residents to have a good time with us and to be able to receive the packages on time and happily with little effort. Therefore, something had to change in the overall situation," explains Michael Cetinkan, Managing Director of WIST. The residents' environment also kept coming up with ideas in this direction to finally get the situation under control.
Package reception for residents is made more flexible.
Those responsible at WIST wanted to offer their residents a contemporary service that fully meets the needs of the younger generation. The Barabra House, in the immediate vicinity of the Johannes Kepler University Linz, was chosen as the location for the pilot project. This student residence is home to 350 residents and also houses the WIST back office.
Together with the customer, the number of lockers needed was determined, the location of the system and the composition of the modules was decided. A conscious decision was made in favour of the covered outdoor area in front of the main entrance: on the one hand, the parcel facility is protected from the weather and, on the other hand, it is freely accessible and easy to use for all residents and delivery staff around the clock.
The Variocube software POBox is used on the locker system, which facilitates use for pick-up and delivery drivers with an easy-to-operate user interface on the system.
The residents log on to the online platform pobox.app and can manage all the necessary locker permits centrally. From this point on, nothing stands in the way of receiving parcels via the locker system.
After a delivery person has placed an item in the system, the user immediately receives a notification with a pick-up code and can remove his or her parcel before entering the flat. Unnecessary journeys are no longer necessary and collection slips are a thing of the past.
"We at WIST see the use of intelligent Variocube parcel stations in our halls of residence as state-of-the-art. As a dormitory operator, we always have our finger on the pulse of the times and see the use of such lockers as a building block to make everyday life, which is often stressful, easier for the students and our staff. The handshake quality and the customer service of Variocube have convinced us completely.
Michael Cetinkan, Managing Director of the Students' Economic Aid Upper Austria
Positive feedback from the WIST community and frequent use.
The service has been very well received by the students, many of whom registered in the first few days and have been using the flexible pick-up service ever since. The number of users has been steadily increasing ever since. The annoyance about the opening hours of the pick-up shops and the inconvenient transport home is a thing of the past.
"I would particularly like to emphasise the quality of Variocube's customer service. Shortly after the start-up, a training session was held for all employees and open questions were clarified to our satisfaction. Since then, our colleagues have been able to help the delivery staff and residents themselves," says a satisfied Michael Cetinkan. "The installation also went quickly and we only had to provide a 230 V power supply.
Recommendations brought the WIST to Variocube
It was important for those responsible to find a regional partner. Through recommendations and the projects already implemented in Linz, they became aware of Variocube: "We were completely convinced by the product and service quality, and the contact is made at eye level and with handshake quality, which we liked immediately. We are already looking forward to equipping our other locations with parcel boxes with Variocube as a partner," says Michael Cetinkan.
