A UPS driver is cycling through Munich

“I stopped wondering what’s inside.” Once a customer waved a small package in the air and said the contents were worth two grand. “I don’t even want to know.” He wants to extradite. Back on the cargo bike. One week until Christmas.

Hlota has been in his job for three years now. There is a reason that he has recently started cycling: Because society demands sustainability, the large parcel services have put their deliverers on bicycles. There are projects in many cities. Hamburg, Munich, Berlin.

The principle is easy to explain. Last mile delivery, the “last mile” of a shipment, pollutes the environment and is expensive. Diesel and gasoline delivery vans drive through the city center, blowing greenhouse gases and particulate matter into the air. Some therefore rely on electric drives, such as Deutsche Post. Classic postmen are often out and about by bike anyway. Impending driving bans in the city center encourage rethinking.

A pilot project has been running in Munich since 2017: UPS puts its suppliers on bicycles and thus covers two thirds of the environmental zone in the Bavarian capital. No emissions, no problems? Of course, no system is flawless. And the deliverers are the first to notice. Is one of the toughest jobs getting tougher?

Christmas is like Olympia for deliverers

Hlota comes from the former Yugoslavia, from Vojvodina, today part of Serbia. He is 40 years old, clean-shaven, hardly any dark circles. His secret: cold showers and the genes. From dad’s head, from mom’s heart. “Jugo” flow through his blood. He didn’t see much about the war.

Other memories: more beautiful. “The noise, the people, the smell of the subway, not unpleasant, when I get on it comes back immediately.” 2007, culture shock. From the town of 30,000 to the metropolis of Munich. By then he was grown up, married. He is passionate about repairing cell phones. “I think it’s wrong to turn your hobby into a job,” he says then. He didn’t either. Cycling is his job, sustainability is important to him. “If I can do something for the environment by cycling, of course.”

Rain, snow, hail – whatever the weather, he gets on his bike and starts cycling. Like today. Delivering parcels at Christmas is like the Olympics for deliverers. That’s what he trained for. Give everything, be in the tunnel, call on the last of your strength. After a long corona year. The people, they stay at home, press “order” and set a machine in motion. Before they hold their parcel in their hands, all they get is their uniform, a ringing in their ears and a “hello”. Many people do not remember Hlota and his colleagues for long. Online trading is booming, the industry is desperately looking for new deliverers.

Ten days until Christmas. Tuesday, 10 a.m. Hlota wears a brown UPS hat, functional clothing, a scarf, and the jacket is pulled up to the top. He doesn’t like brown, prefers to wear black. Across from Circus Krone, Mittlerer Ring, constant car noise. Exhaust gases. Hlota unloads five parcels at once, a brown rectangular trailer the size of a small caravan is parked on the roadside. The intermediate storage, so to speak, here the parcels are stored for several delivery tours.

Down one step, arms tightly around her, he plopps her into a silver bicycle trailer. Two packages fall over the edge on the floor, there they lie, like wet sacks they stick to the asphalt. “A … Ma … Ny”. Concentrated, Hlota sorts the parcels on its trailers in front, in the back, depending on the address and house number. He and a colleague look at the “Diad”, which looks like an old, oversized Blackberry, where customers give their signature in non-Corona times. There are problems. “You can log out and then log in again.” “Okay,” says the other.

Every day 2200 stops, up to 3000 parcels, only in Munich. Hlota picks the two packages from the floor, wedges them between the others and closes the lid. Ten more days. Now is the hot phase. That means express deliveries. Deliveries must be made by 12 noon. Then he drives off. The last week before Christmas.

Sometimes Hlota is approached on the street. On his cargo bike. In front a heavy dark box, behind a smaller, silver one. People say: cool e-bike. Sitting on the saddle, he then runs his index finger down from his chest over his body, then taps his thigh with his index finger. “That is the electric motor. Two horsepower. ”He rides a bike without an electric motor, but some of his colleagues use e-bikes. People, says Hlota, think it’s good that their parcel arrives by bike.

Friday noon. Seven days until Christmas. Hlota gets on his donkey, that’s what he calls his bike. One of 32 donkeys in Munich. Together they will replace 20 large delivery vehicles. 50 kilograms replace 7.5 tons. Now in the Christmas season, a diesel delivery van supports the bicycles. With a practiced swivel, Hlota turns the almost five-meter-long monster. It is three minutes to the first stop. Hello UPS. Bzzzzz. Here, have a nice Christmas.

UPS delivers by bike in 30 cities

Christmas mood? Doesn’t really come up. Not on the radio, not with Hlota, not with customers. Crock of shit. Corona. Although, thinks Hlota, the people seem a little more relaxed. Hlota definitely notices it from the many packages. Like every year, twice as many as in August.

UPS is now delivering parcels more sustainably throughout Germany. The parcel service started in Hamburg in 2012 and has now grown to 30 cities across Germany. In Munich, this saved 108 tons of CO2 in 2019 alone, as much as 50 cars emit. Hlota thinks that the earth is a gift, if you can change the earth with cycling and with the right behavior, then he will be happy to do it.

What does the job do to you physically? In her private life, Hlota no longer rides a bicycle. Lots of S-Bahn and on foot. The most important errands are still done by the car. And just because the young generation demands a lifestyle doesn’t mean it’s sustainable, as he says. But out of conviction. The work takes away the joy of private cycling. He says: “Life is no picnic.” He knows: He won’t do this job for 20 years.

Hlota’s first job in Germany was in a reprographic office. The packages started then. Cut plans, sort business cards. He was allowed to bring the parcel over to customers who had their office within walking distance. In Serbia he worked here and there, it started with his father when he was 16 years old. “Dad always helped everyone, not because of the money.”

Hlota has no recognized training, no chance of the classic career ladder. After a year of reprography he worked as a caretaker, a lot of office work. As a part-time job, he took care of building security at an electronics company until he was looking for something new three years ago, “because of the family”.

Other side of the street, Munich Higher Regional Court. “They know me here, I don’t even have to go through the check.” He places the package in the scanner, briefly goes through the airlock, and takes the package out again. A woman with a gun in her holster accompanies him around the corner. “At some point people will trust you, that’s nice, that makes the job nice.” He doesn’t regret the decision for the delivery job at all, says Hlota.

Of course, there are also the not so nice sides of the job. When it rains, snows, hails. Hlota then speaks of “challenges” and means the inconveniences of the job. Sure, free time management, being in the fresh air – interpersonal relationships are very important to him.

But when it rains, everything gets wet or the cold penetrates your clothes. The pay is not that bad at all, 18 euros an hour. But he doesn’t do it just for the money, he emphasizes. At the end of the month there was nothing left anyway. Sometimes they have to hurry when the boss asks them to. Hlota says: “Man is made to work.”

A residential complex. With the delivery truck he would stand in the second row, stack 20 packages on the hand truck and off he went. Hlota rides her bike into the inner courtyard, which is the size of a soccer field, and parks the bike next to the front door. Plus point bike. In the cargo bike project, which was extended last year after the pilot phase, many are employed part-time.

The bicycles are like a start-up in a giant corporation

Of course you also work more, especially during the Christmas season, overtime is paid. Because the project is still a project, a lot is reminiscent of a start-up. The head of the project has to fight a lot, for example to ensure that the delivery staff do not get the thin standard clothing made for truck drivers. It’s all still a project, you can tell. UPS, the company, is bureaucracy, you hear that from many places. A European start-up in an established US company.

For the future, the city of Munich would like people to pick up their parcels themselves. No door delivery. Every day, Hlota’s boss pulls a ticket from the parking meter for the micro-depot on the roadside. Bzzzz. At the next delivery, the office on the third floor, the secretary waves him in. Hlota grabs two parcels that go back. She gives him a little present. “From the boss.” A small envelope. Later, when he opens it, there will be 25 euros in there, and it will be Christmas soon.

Outside he meets a colleague from DHL, deep circles under the eyes, 20 packages are piled up on his hand truck. He, lying on his back, greets “Zlatko” with a punch. They know each other. “I still have to deliver 270 packages today.” Hlota’s jaw drops slightly. It’s 2:30 p.m. “You can do that,” says Hlota, encouraging him. And he has a car, the DHL supplier.

“We are a community. If I deliver to the same address anyway, still have air, and can take a package from my colleague, I’ll do that too. We’re in the same boat. ”He jumps back on the bike.

The people are not always nice, some don’t say a word and slam the door. “Even at the end of the day, it is exhausting for me to always be nice, to smile. But I believe that you get back what you give. ”The sun is slowly going down. 16.30 o’clock. Hlota returns, he locks the collected parcels in the trailer, in the back, systematically organized.

He says he loves the job. But he also says he would do any job. Life is there to try everything out as quickly as possible before you die.

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