Responsible e-commerce
Online purchases are leading to more vehicles driving around the city every day to deliver our products. People can help reduce the impact of urban goods distribution on public spaces and try to opt for online purchase deliveries at delivery points.
The significant increase in home deliveries in recent years has brought more disruptions to public space and mobility. Some vehicles stop on pavements to make deliveries quickly, others circulate unnecessarily when they find nobody at home and have to come back again at some other time. All this leads to chaos, accidents and an increase in pollutant emissions.
People can help to improve this situation by choosing delivery to lockers and other reception points when shopping online, grouping together purchases to avoid generating so many journeys or not choosing immediate delivery options.
According to the Logistics Cluster of Catalonia, e-commerce (the industry behind our parcels and deliveries) has recently been growing at a rate of 10% a year. In 2024, from Black Friday and over the whole Christmas period, there were 5.6 million home deliveries in Barcelona, a 27% increase compared to other months of the year.
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Getting online purchases sent to a pick-up point
The city has over 1,300 collection points. Some 98% of the population live within 200 metres of one (a shop or smart locker).
Getting packages sent to a convenient collection point benefits people and benefits the city. You can pick up the parcel on your commute, without having to wait for somebody to bring it to you. It also saves on journeys by delivery vehicles.
As a result, we help contribute to a city with less traffic, less pollution and less traffic noise, freeing up pavements for pedestrians too.
The City Council also passed the Special Urban Plan on New Activities in Car Parks in the City of Barcelona in 2023, which allows short-term car parks to also include complementary services, mainly linked to urban goods distribution, such as smart lockers or collection points.
In the city, more than 100,000 e-commerce deliveries are generated every day. Most of these operations take place on public roads, with vehicles delivering parcels.
In 2024, vans and lorries accounted for 12.9% of vehicles by km travelled and were responsible for 18.85% of total CO2-eq emissions, 19% of PM10 emissions and 18% of NO2 emissions recorded in Barcelona. Furthermore, a total of 1,059 vans and lorries were involved in a road traffic accident, resulting in 1 fatality, 11 seriously injured people and 271 people with minor injuries.
Benefits of collection points
Collection points are convenient for logistics companies, users and the general public.
- Logistics companies have a hub with extended opening hours (all day in the case of smart lockers) where they can make several deliveries at once.
- Users can request delivery to a point which is on their usual route (avoiding the need for extra trips) and offers extended pick-up times.
- With fewer vehicles out for delivery, the general public benefit from reduced traffic and pollution in their neighbourhoods.
We continue to foster local commerce and municipal markets as they help to improve the local economy and generate wealth for your neighbourhood. If you opt for online shopping, you can help improve the impact that urban good deliveries have on public space by getting your orders delivered to a collection point.