Daimler testing drone+van team for eCommerce deliveries in Hamburg

Press Release


Stuttgart/Hamburg. smart is further expanding its innovative logistics service: in future "smart ready to drop+" will enable parcels to be delivered to the boot of a smart wherever the vehicle is located. Further advantages: almost all products from any shop can be ordered. Up until shortly before delivery customers can decide when and where the parcel should be delivered. To this end a new pilot test is taking place together with the cooperation partner Liefery in Hamburg.

Last autumn the "smart ready to drop" test run started in Stuttgart as the biggest in-car delivery test ever performed in Germany. Parcels can now also be delivered to the boots of smarts in Cologne, Bonn and Berlin. The smart cooperation partner DHL has already delivered a four-figure number of packages to these cities.

Now smart is going a further step in a pilot project in Hamburg by enabling the smart to be used as a fully mobile postbox. For the delivery process the vehicle no longer needs to be parked near the home address; parcels can be delivered by Liefery to wherever the vehicle is located in Hamburg.

Furthermore, customers are no longer tied to certain online shops and they can order products and have them delivered to their vehicle by Liefery. Private individuals can also send parcels to a vehicle. During the pilot test over several months the service "smart ready to drop+" is free of charge for customers.

Convenient and reliable ordering and delivery process

"smart ready to drop+" is smartphone-based and works with the help of an app developed by smart lab, the brand's think tank. The process in detail:

• When placing an online order the customer gives the delivery address as the "smart HUB address". This consists of two parts: the address of the Liefery hub in Hamburg, which acts as an interim storage facility, and the customer's own personal car boot ID.
• The customer is informed when the parcels physically arrive at the Liefery hub.
• The customer must then choose a date and one of three time slots allotted over the day for the delivery.
• In addition, the vehicle location must be specified – for example, the preconfigured addresses "Home" or "Work", but also any other address such as the car park of a gym. The setting "Dropzone" enables the radius of the smart around this location at the selected time to be defined.
• In the next step the user generates a TAN to give the Liefery delivery service keyless access to the boot of the parked smart.
• The app notifies the courier service of the desired delivery address and delivery time and the courier can open the car with the TAN once only within a specific time window. To this end a Connectivity Box is installed inside the car at the bottom of the windscreen.
• When the Liefery courier has deposited the parcel in the boot the car is locked again digitally and their access authorisation expires immediately. The app automatically notifies the smart car driver of the successful delivery.