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PARCEL COLLECTION PLATFORM WELCO IS FOCUSING ON RURAL COMMUNITIES WHERE THE SERVICE IS MOST NEEDED People with space and who stay at home a lot of the time can sign up to become delivery
depots for parcels. There are a number of web platforms in France offering the service, but the long-established firm Welco is the best known. No one will become rich doing the work – during
a busy month the depot handler will earn a maximum of €250, and many earn a lot less. Launched five years ago, the Welco network passed one million parcels delivered in 2023, and by the end
of 2024 was present in 24,500 towns in France, with 90,000 people signed up to the platform. RUNNING RURAL POSTAL DEPOTS Its CEO and co-founder Romain Barraud told The Connexion that the
firm had initially focused on urban and suburban areas, but was now looking for people to run depots from their homes in rural areas as part of its long-term strategy “Our business idea,
even when we started the company, was to provide a service for rural areas, because we both grew up in small villages,” he said. “If you miss a delivery and it gets taken back to the post
office or to a depot in the nearest town, you often have to travel 20km to fetch it, and we wanted to try and find a solution.” Read more: Passengers on French trains can be paid to carry
parcels Qualifications for the job are to be over 18, have a French bank account and to own a smartphone capable of running the company’s app. You also need a room or space to store the
packages, which must not be damp. If a garage is used, it should be heated. People who sign up are paid between 30 centimes and 65 centimes per package, depending on size, and Mr Barraud
said handing 50 packages a week was a usual amount of work for people in isolated areas. Read more: How to send a parcel from your own letterbox in France “Many people say they do it because
they like the contact and to be of service to the community,” he said. Because the business is set up as a community-based co-operative, people who sign up to become depots do not have to
register as auto-entrepreneurs or any other form of business. TAX-FREE EARNINGS No extra tax has to be paid either, as long as earnings from the activity are below €3,000 a year. The
company’s app has a dashboard which shows your earnings, and gives a statement of earnings for tax declarations. Notifications are sent when the delivery van is due to arrive with the
parcels, and recipients receive pick-up details automatically if they choose Welco as the delivery option. “If, when ordering online, you come to delivery options and select ‘Choose a
depot,’ you can usually see options of places near you, including a house symbol,” he said. “If you click on that you will find Welco options, if we have someone close to you.” Among
corporate clients, the company has the sporting goods chain Decathlon, and the second-hand clothes platform Vinted, both of which do many of their deliveries with the company.