Lähetyksen hakeminen pakettiautomaatista kesti kauemmin kuin odotin.

Hakeminen is a -minen form made from the verb hakea. It turns the verb into a noun meaning the act of fetching / collecting / picking up.

So:

• hakea = to fetch, collect, pick up
• hakeminen = fetching, collecting, picking up

In this sentence, hakeminen behaves like a noun, not like a finite verb. The whole phrase lähetyksen hakeminen pakettiautomaatista is the subject of kesti.

You may also see older materials call this the fourth infinitive, but in practice it is very useful to think of it as a verbal noun.

Because lähetyksen is connected to the action noun hakeminen.

In Finnish, when a -minen noun has an object, that object often comes before it and is often in the genitive form. So:

• lähetys = shipment
• lähetyksen hakeminen = picking up the shipment

A very literal way to understand it is something like:

• the shipment’s picking-up

But natural English is simply picking up the shipment.

This is a very common pattern:

• kirjan lukeminen = reading the book
• auton peseminen = washing the car
• lähetyksen hakeminen = picking up the shipment

It is really a bit of both, which is why learners often notice it.

It behaves like a noun phrase in the sentence because it can be the subject of kesti:

• Lähetyksen hakeminen ... kesti
  = Picking up the shipment ... took

But it also keeps some verbal qualities:

• it can have an object: lähetyksen
• it can have a place related to the action: pakettiautomaatista

So hakeminen is noun-like in grammar, but still verb-like in meaning and structure.

Yes — hakea is a very common Finnish verb with several meanings depending on context.

Some common meanings are:

• to fetch / pick up / collect
• to apply for
• sometimes to get / go get

In this sentence, because of pakettiautomaatista, the meaning is clearly to pick up / collect:

• lähetyksen hakeminen pakettiautomaatista
  = picking up the shipment from the parcel locker

So here it does not mean to apply.

Because -sta / -stä means out of / from.

So:

• pakettiautomaatissa = in / inside the parcel locker
• pakettiautomaatista = out of / from the parcel locker

Since the shipment is being collected from the parcel locker, pakettiautomaatista is the natural choice.

This is the elative case, often used for movement out of something.

It is the elative case.

The ending -sta / -stä usually means:

• from
• out of

So:

• talo → talosta = from the house
• kauppa → kaupasta = from the shop
• pakettiautomaatti → pakettiautomaatista = from the parcel locker

In this sentence it marks the place from which the shipment was collected.

Kesti is the past tense of kestää, which here means to take (time) or to last.

So:

• kestää = to last / to take
• kesti = lasted / took

The subject is the whole action:

• Lähetyksen hakeminen pakettiautomaatista = picking up the shipment from the parcel locker

So the structure is:

• [action] + kesti + [time comparison]

That is why the sentence means that the action took longer than expected.

Kauemmin is the comparative form of the adverb kauan.

• kauan = long / for a long time
• kauemmin = longer / for a longer time

With kestää, this is very natural:

• Se kesti kauan. = It took a long time.
• Se kesti kauemmin. = It took longer.

So:

• kesti kauemmin kuin odotin
  = took longer than I expected

You may also hear pidempään in similar contexts. That can also work, but kauemmin is perfectly natural here.

Because Finnish uses comparative + kuin for than comparisons.

So:

• kauemmin kuin = longer than
• parempi kuin = better than
• nopeammin kuin = faster than

In this sentence:

• kesti kauemmin kuin odotin
  = took longer than I expected

So kuin is the normal word used after a comparative.

Because Finnish often leaves out something that is already obvious from context.

In English, you might say:

• longer than I expected
• or more fully, longer than I expected it to

Finnish often does the same kind of shortening:

• kuin odotin = than I expected

The missing idea is understood from the earlier part of the sentence. Here, odotin means something like:

• than I expected it would take
• than I expected

So nothing is wrong or missing in Finnish — it is simply understood.

Because the expectation belongs to the same past situation.

• the pickup happened in the past
• the speaker’s expectation also existed in relation to that past event

So odotin is very natural:

• kesti kauemmin kuin odotin
  = it took longer than I expected

Finnish does not need a more complicated tense here. A simple past works well.

The word order is quite natural and neutral.

The sentence begins with the whole subject:

• Lähetyksen hakeminen pakettiautomaatista

Then comes the verb:

• kesti

Then the comparison:

• kauemmin kuin odotin

So the structure is:

• [subject] + [verb] + [comparison]

Finnish word order is fairly flexible, but this version sounds very normal if you are simply stating a fact.

Because Finnish does not have articles like the and a/an.

So Finnish often leaves definiteness to context. Here, English uses the shipment, but Finnish simply says lähetyksen.

The sentence still sounds specific because of the situation and the structure:

• it is some particular shipment the speaker had to collect

So even without an article, the meaning can still be definite and clear.