Appointment service

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The appointment service was a service offered by the Deutsche Bundesbahn , which was located in its quality level between IC courier service and express service. Under this name, Deutsche Bahn introduced this new product on January 23, 1984, which had to meet the following requirements in terms of speed, design and reliability:

  • Connection of economic centers,
  • fixed short transport times from "evening to early morning",
  • Arrival guarantee ("freight-back guarantee")
  • transparent conditions and prices.

Using the fast night travel and express freight trains, 50 stations were initially included in the new service, and after the introductory phase on July 2, 1984, 60 stations.

The time items could be delivered to these 60 stations Monday to Friday by 5.30 p.m. (sometimes later). They were made available to the recipient for collection the next morning by 8 a.m. at the latest (in a few individual cases by 10 a.m.). One-piece shipments were allowed to weigh up to 100 kg. The freight could be paid for by either the sender or the recipient. A consignment up to 10 kg, for example, cost 20 DM for self-collection and 35 DM for delivery. The railway was initially satisfied with the development of this product, but in June 1990 it introduced the GEP trains (luggage / express goods / Post), which only ran between 34 freight yards. The appointment service could no longer be offered with the GEP trains because the running times of the wagons were unpunctual and therefore could not be guaranteed. The offer of GEP trains was discontinued in 1998.

The appointment service was the basis for the establishment of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutscher Kurierdienste (ADK) (later GO! ) In November 1984. City courier services were able to compete with the local offers "Post-Kurierdienst" (since 1983) and nationwide "Data-Post" ( since 1982) of the Deutsche Bundespost, organize urgent overnight transports "Overnight from city to city" cheaply in cooperation and thus step out of the shadows as a local transporter, become active nationwide and expand. In addition to the ADK, other, smaller courier cooperations were formed in competition that could use the appointment service, such as United Couriers or Overnight Parcel Courier (OPC).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jakob Prinz: Courier and new express services of the Federal Railroad . In: SPIEGEL-Verlag (Ed.): Markets in Transition, Transport Markets, Courier, Express and Parcel Services . tape 13 . SPIEGEL-Verlag, Hamburg January 1987, p. 104 .
  2. ↑ Armin Guhl: Suitcases only travel at night . Ed .: DIE ZEIT. tape 33/1990 . DIE ZEIT, Hamburg August 10, 1990, p. 1-2 .
  3. ^ Ernst Eggers: City courier services . In: SPIEGEL-Verlag (Ed.): Markets in Change . Transport markets, courier, express and parcel services, No. 13 . SPIEGEL-Verlag, Hamburg January 1987, p. 94-97 .
  4. ↑ MEEDIA GmbH & Co. KG (ed.): Courier services: extra tours through the whole country . tape 7 . absatzwirtschaft, Hamburg July 1985.