May 30, 2016
News

A Scandinavian courier company, PostNord AB, and supermarket chain, ICA AB, are testing the new service with about 20 households in the Swedish capital, promising that messengers will remove their shoes and unpack online deliveries, even when customers are away. The pioneering service hinges on a new add-on lock, which customers must install on their doors and which messengers can open with their smartphones. Made by Swedish startup Glue AB, the lock allows residents to decide remotely when to allow access to their homes.

Unlike some more futuristic ideas, such as drone deliveries, the Swedish proposal appears to have the potential of quickly becoming operational on a large scale, said Matthias Winkenbach, director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Megacity Logistics Lab. Mr. Winkenbach has no ties to the project.

“It eliminates failed delivery attempts, which usually cause lots of friction,” he said. The cost of failed deliveries of goods ordered online was estimated at £771 million (US$1.13 billion) for 2014 in the U.K. alone, according to IMRG, an online-retail association. Read Full Article