Not Home Delivery, but Parked Car Delivery

May 17, 2016

We've seen the package delivery guys and the eCommerce guys struggling with how to effectively deliver packages. We've dubbed it "the last mile," taking a term used in the telecommunications industry for how to get telephone, television, and internet to the home in the last mile. For package delivery we've seen the concept of drone delivery combined with electric walk-in vans by WorkHorse, and lockers at the grocery store by Amazon. Grocery stores have, again, started doing home delivery of groceries.

Now, Volvo car has come up with a slightly different idea that is intriguing. Often times, a package delivery service attempts to deliver a package that requires a signature and finds no one is at home. They leave some sort of note on the door, and attempt to deliver it again the next day. Failing again, the note tells you to come to the package delivery local location and pick up the item yourself. That's a whole lot of waste.

Volvo car thinks an answer is to enable delivery to your parked car at work with a special authorization that allows the unlocking of the vehicle for this particular purpose. This makes me think of Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V) communications in a new light. I can see the trunks on car after car popping open as a package delivery vehicle moves around the parking lot. Why not? We already have Safelite Autoglass repairing windshields in parking lots and detailing being done while you work. Why not delivery of things while you work?

https://www.media.volvocars.com/global/en-gb/media/pressreleases/190579/volvo-cars-pioneers-two-hour-in-car-delivery-service-with-swedish-start-up-urb-it

About the Author

Paul Menig | CEO

Paul Menig is the leader of Tech-I-M LLC, a consulting company focused on helping companies succeed by leveraging technology in their products and processes. After successfully introducing many high tech products in the corporate worlds of General Electric, Eaton and Daimler, he is now focused on savvy technology creating powerful results in companies of all sizes.

Paul also provides free counseling to a wide range of businesses as part of the non-profit organization SCORE that is associated with the Small Business Administration (SBA). Paul is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in electrical engineering and has participated in many training programs in quality, strategic planning, finance and technical areas.

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