The company was founded in 1972 in West Germany, and entered the market in East Germany in 1990. It expanded to France in 1997, the United Kingdom in 2000, Austria in 2007, Italy in 2009 and Russia in 2010. In modern Germany, Hermes Logistik Gruppe is the country's largest post independent provider of deliveries to private customers.
Hermes provides a delivery and collection service, formally known as myHermes for small and medium-sized enterprises and members of the public via doorstep collection and its "Hermes ParcelShops". The myHermes brand was launched in May 2009, and retired in October 2018. In 2017, Hermes won several awards, including the Operational and Compliance Excellence Award at the Motor Transport Awards, the Courier Team of the Year Award from the Institute of Couriers, the award for the Operations category at the Logistics Awards, and the award for the Customer Experience Champion at the UK Contact Centre Awards. In August 2017, the group launched their largest parcel sorting hub in Rugby, Warwickshire, to increase network capacity. In July 2018, Hermes was awarded Digital Team of the Year at the Computing awards. Hermes introduced a fleet of HGV units running on 100% renewable bio methane fuel. Hermes also added a fleet of 100% electric vehicles to its operation in October 2018. The addition of these vehicles resulted in Hermes winning the GreenFleet Award for Private Sector Fleet of the Year in November 2018. In September 2018, the national children's charity CHICKS announced that Hermes had signed a partnership agreement, pledging its support to the charity. In January 2019, Hermes confirmed that the peak period of 2018 was its busiest to date. During December 2018, the company processed 39.5 million parcels. The busiest day of the year fell on 30 November, when Hermes processed 1.9 million parcels, exceeding 2017's total of 1.6 million items handled in a single day. In February 2019, it was announced that the company would offer paid holiday and guaranteed wage rates.
Criticism
The company was named as the second worst parcel delivery services in the United Kingdom by users of moneysavingexpert.com in January 2014, with 30% of customers rating their experience as "bad". In September 2016, the government requested that HM Revenue and Customs consider launching an investigation into Hermes, after workers alleged they received pay equivalent to lower than the current minimum wage in the United Kingdom. During this investigation a whistle blower claimed that Hermes coerced managers into misleading an HMRC investigation. In June 2018, an employment tribunal in Leeds found that a group of 65 couriers, supported by the GMB union through lawyers Leigh Day, were workers entitled to employment rights, including minimum wage and holiday pay, rather than self employed as Hermes asserted. The GMB stated the ruling was likely to affect 14,500 Hermes couriers. Hermes are considering an appeal. During the coronavirus outbreak in the United Kingdom, Hermes said it would pay its drivers in the United Kingdom who needed to self isolate only £20 daily, and payment would be made only to those who normally earned less than £90 daily. As a result, almost half its workers would receive nothing while payments to the rest would be capped at £280. On an episode in April 2020 of Channel 4's consumer show, Joe Lycett’s Got Your Back, it was shown that Hermes was sending parcels they claimed were undeliverable to an auction house. Host Joe Lycett contested the undeliverability of the items, finding many goods auctioned off had legible names, addresses, and tracking numbers.
