Bonn: Woman fails to hand in parcels Post offices unaware of their own Ukraine aid campaign
Bonn · A well-intentioned aid campaign by Deutsche Post DHL Group is not known within its own service network: A woman from Bonn fails to hand in relief parcels.
Deutsche Post DHL Group is sending aid parcels from Germany to Ukraine free of charge. Customers can print out a shipping label on the company's website and stick it on a parcel containing relief goods weighing up to 20 kilograms. The company then transports the parcels to Poland, Hungary and Slovakia, where the Ukrainian postal service Ukrposhta has transfer points.
A well-intentioned campaign with a hitch: a woman from Bonn, who does not want her name to appear in the newspaper, was keen to support the initiative. She packed three aid packages and went to the Postbank/Post branch on Münsterplatz, only to be turned away. The branch, which handles all postal services, refused to accept the packages. The label was apparently unknown and could not be scanned. The Bonn woman's attempt to hand in the parcels at a DHL shop in the north of Bonn also failed for the same reasons.
Post spokesperson Alexander Edenhofer is very sorry that the customer was unable to post the parcels intended for Ukraine: "We have informed our branches several times about this offer, but we are taking the current case as an opportunity to make further adjustments. "
The "Humanitarian Aid Ukraine" process is structured independently of the Deutsche Post standard parcel processes, he said. "Since no specific sender and no specific recipient can be named, and Deutsche Post DHL assumes no liability for these items, there is also no tracking," Edenhofer said.
This is why parcels are not scanned when they are handed in, and there are no subsequent scans along the entire process chain. He added that this would also avoid any confusion in the process between ordinary parcels and such relief parcels. He said he hoped there would be no problems next time when the parcels were handed in.
Providing urgently needed goods
"We want to support needy people in the country who are in urgent need of supplies of food, medical products, household items and hygiene articles," said the Post spokesman, explaining the background of the campaign. Private customers who want to send such goods to Ukraine must download the appropriate label and can then hand in parcels weighing up to 20 kg addressed to "Humanitarian Aid Ukraine" at post offices.
The label can be downloaded here:
The site also has an overview of the goods that are most urgently needed at the moment. Shipping is free of charge for private customers.
The woman from Bonn now wants to try her luck again. Her main concern is that the campaign becomes better known and that no more people fail to hand in their donations: "Not everyone will go to the branch a second time."
Original text: Claudia Mahnke
Translation: Jean Lennox
