Het bezorgen van een pakketje is lang niet altijd even makkelijk. Met de aanhoudende opmars van e-commerce wereldwijd vormt de logistiek vaak een grote uitdaging. En dat wordt bemoeilijkt door overvolle steden, extreme weersomstandigheden en moeilijk begaanbaar terrein.

Maar pakketbezorgers zijn vindingrijk. Business Insider heeft een aantal unieke manieren op een rij gezet waarop pakketjes wereldwijd afgeleverd worden. Van drones in Rwanda en ezels in de Grand Canyon tot boten in de Amsterdamse grachten.

De meest bijzondere manieren wereldwijd waarop pakketjes hun eindbestemming bereiken

De meest bijzondere manieren wereldwijd waarop pakketjes hun eindbestemming bereiken

  • USPS

    Even in the simplest scenario of a truck driving up to a cul de sac and dropping a package on a doorstep, last-mile delivery is difficult and expensive to manage.

    Spencer Platt/Getty Images

  • Man delivering packages in the snow

    Factor in immense traffic congestion, unreasonable weather, uncrossable terrain, or geographically secluded areas, and logistics companies end up in some pretty remarkable situations just to get packages delivered on time in regions around the world.

    Getty/Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency

  • Chinese people stand in straight lines wearing blue jackets that say ZTO Express as one person addresses the group.

    In China's $2.6 trillion e-commerce market, two-day delivery is expected. ZTO Express couriers mostly deliver Alibaba packages.

    Source: Insider

    REUTERS/Jason Lee

  • Thousands of packages, some in red sacks, are piled up in a Chinese warehouse ready to be delivered.

    Though delivery speed is incredibly fast, China's logistics operations range from high-tech and automated to chaotic and very low-tech.

    VCG/VCG via Getty Images

  • Multicolored packages are piled up in a massive mound while a delivery work moves one load away from the pile at a sortation center in China.

    And big surges in online orders still create chaotic scenes.

    VCG/VCG via Getty Images

  • A Chinese consumer wearing a light-colored jacket removes a package from a rectangular autonomous delivery robot.

    There are also many different package pickup schemes in play in China like these autonomous lockers from Alibaba's logistics arm, Cainiao.

    Source: The Straits Times 

    VCG/VCG via Getty Images

  • A man in a red jacket loads packages into a bright green wall of lockers in China.

    Walls of parcel pickup lockers are also a fairly common sight.

    NOEL CELIS/AFP via Getty Images

  • Metal shelves sit outside the fence of a gated community and four people search for their packages on the shelves.

    And in some neighborhoods picking up an online order is even lower tech with shelves stationed outside gated communities.

    Guo Haipeng/VCG via Getty Images

  • A smiling man in a blue jacket and red cap opens a locker in a dark green set of lockers on the side of the road.

    Lockers are popular in densely populated areas like big cities where packages may be easily stolen, but they're also used in places where residents are spread out like rural Canada.

    Source: CBC

    Jim Wilkes/Toronto Star via Getty Images

  • A white boat surrounded by other boats in a harbor

    Sometimes remote places are easier to reach via waterways, like in the Cranberry Isles in Maine where the United States Postal Service sends a mail boat rather than a mail truck.

    Ellie Markovitch for The Washington Post via Getty Images

  • A man wearing a red uniform jacket sits in a boat withe a small motor and hands a package to a woman in Thailand.

    People on the outskirts of Bangkok, Thailand, also sometimes receive deliveries by boat.

    AFP PHOTO / Lillian SUWANRUMPHA

  • A yellow DHL boat full of packages is parked dockside in Venice, Italy.

    In Venice, Italy, boats are the fastest way to get around by far — and that includes package delivery. Traveling by boat is essential to avoid the tourist-jammed streets.

    Gisela Schober/Getty Images

  • A bright yellow boat goes down a very still river in front of office buildings in Berlin, Germany.

    In Berlin, Germany, DHL, which is owned by the German postal service, uses waterways to keep out of traffic.

    REUTERS/Lisi Niesner

  • A man in a red and yellow DHL uniform lifts a bicycle off of a yellow, DHL-branded river barge while the boat driver observes.

    And in the Netherlands, boats get bicycle couriers closer to their destination for time-sensitive deliveries.

    REUTERS/Robin van Lonkhuijsen/United Photos

  • A man in a orange jacket and red helmet rides a motor bike. The back is stuffed with cardboard packages and one has the Amazon logo.

    Smaller more nimble vehicles often make deliveries possible in congested cities like downtown Bangkok.

    Romeo GACAD / AFP

  • A white man in a suit drive a 4-wheeled brown cycle with the UPS logo on the side.

    In famously congested London, UPS uses eQuad electric bicycles to get around traffic.

    Source: Reuters

    REUTERS/Nick Carey

  • An employee of the Favela Brasil Xpress transport company drives a vehicle carrying packages that will be delivered to residents of the Paraisopolis favela, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on December 1, 2021.

    To deliver in even more extreme congestion, a startup called Favela Brasil Xpress has begun using tricycles to get through Sao Paulo, Brazil's crowded favelas.

    Source: AP

    Filipe Araujo/AFP via Getty Images

  • Zipline

    Drone delivery is very slowly growing in the US, but in countries with more rural populations, like Rwanda, it's catching on.

    Source: TechCrunch

    Zipline

  • A woman in a black top and blue jeans waits for a drone to drop a package in the driveway of her small home in Texas.

    Drones are spreading in Texas though, as Walmart's pandemic-inspired delivery program is expanding to Arizona and Florida.

    Source: FreightWaves

    Mario Tama/Getty Images

  • A pile of boxes sits on a snowy tarmac as with a plane in the background.

    In some places, like Alaska's smaller villages, deliveries by air are literally the only option due to extreme cold.

    Source: Alaska Native News

    AP Photo/Wong Maye-E

  • A man in jeans and a black and yellow short ride a tricycle with large cargo baskets on the front and back through a field.

    Germany's North Sea Islands also require some unique mail service since the island of Baltrum has no cars (and no street names).

    Source: Germany Travel 

    Sina Schuldt/picture alliance via Getty Images

  • A white horse pulls a cart full of cardboard packages behind a UPS driver in a brown uniform pushing a hand truck with more packages.

    Mackinac Island in the US state of Michigan also requires delivery companies like UPS to make adjustments to the norm. No cars are allowed, so UPS drivers deliver with horses and carts.

    Source: Detroit Free Press 

    AP Photo/Carlos Osorio

  • Two brown horses pull a yellow carriage and a man in a black and yellow jackets stand up in the carriage.

    Germany's Neuwerk island also challenges the local post office since its famed mud flats are a protected national landmark. Horses are the only way to make it through the mud.

    Source: World Heritage

    Christian Charisius/picture alliance via Getty Images

  • An older man wearing a red jacket walks toward the camera on a paved road running through a field.

    Germany's mudflats also led Knud Knudsen to volunteer as the mail carrier on a tiny islet with three inhabitants in the North Sea.

    Source: DW

    Alexander Koerner/Getty Images

  • A white mule is tied to a post loaded with package in the grand canyon.

    Even in dryer climates, animals are still used to deliver mail — like at the bottom of the Grand Canyon in Arizona where mules deliver mail to the native people who live there five days per week.

    USPS

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