Express Parcel Delivery Problem Solution from Leading Logistics Group

GERMANY – Not satisfied with broadening the possibilities regarding the deliveries of small items using drones, logistics giant DHL has come up with an interesting new idea for dropping off parcels at a customer’s address when nobody is at home, by using their Smart car as a sort of outdoor security box. The difficulties currently being encountered by home delivery drivers undertaking express deliveries when no one is around might may make good YouTube fodder but absent consignees are the bane of courier companies.

DHL Parcel and Smart have commenced a joint pilot in which owners of Smart cars can use their vehicles as mobile addresses for car drops starting this autumn. An expanded market test will be conducted in the German town of Stuttgart and the car drop service will be offered a few months later in Bonn, Berlin and Cologne. By attracting several hundred participants in each city, partners DHL Parcel and Smart aim to collect feedback under conditions similar to those that will be found in a full roll out.

Smart car owners wanting to take part in the pilot can register here for information and submit their applications from September. Installation of the devices needed to participate in the pilot will be performed at local distributors, with Smart assuming the costs. When registering their car for the pilot with Smart, customers can also fill out the necessary DHL car-trunk delivery agreement in just a few simple steps. DHL Parcel’s customer portal has been linked with Smart’s own customer portal to combine the two processes into one.

The joint solution from Smart and DHL Paket is smartphone based, with the Smart driver and the DHL parcel courier using specially designed apps. The vehicle owner uses the Smart app to generate a single-use transaction authorization number (TAN) which they enter in the ‘c/o’ box when stating their delivery address for purchases in an online shop. For the car drop to take place, the vehicle simply has to be parked in the vicinity of the owner’s home address.

The DHL parcel courier is informed of the preferred delivery location via an app, receiving time-limited access to the recipient’s car. The single-use TAN the online shopper enters when placing their order enables the courier to locate and open the vehicle within a set period of time. Having gained access to the trunk, the courier can either deposit a parcel or retrieve a shipment for return. Once the courier closes the trunk, the TAN authorizing them access is cancelled. A message sent via the app notifies the car owner that the delivery has taken place.

Smart CEO Annette Winkler said the new service expands the ways her company’s vehicles can be used to offer a broader mobility model that goes beyond the car itself and kicks off the groups campaign to improve the quality of urban life, whilst Jürgen Gerdes, CEO Post - eCommerce - Parcel at Deutsche Post DHL Group commented:

"As a leader of innovation in the parcel sector, with DHL Parcel we are pursuing the goal of developing new ideas to supplement our diverse range of solutions to make it easier to send and receive a parcel, and to personalize the process to meet customers’ needs. Having successfully tested car-trunk deliveries as part of a pilot in Germany, we are using the knowledge we have gained to work with Smart to develop a new and attractive service for a young, extremely online savvy target group."