How does the customer receive their ordered package faster? And how do you avoid traffic jams in city centers. The solution relies on people.
Online trading has not only been booming since the Corona era. Ford and the Hermes parcel service are working together to better coordinate and accelerate the delivery of the ordered parcels over the last mile. In a pilot project in the British capital, London, delivery vans with pedestrian couriers are forming a team. The parcels are handed over to couriers in an easily accessible car park near the customers who deliver them on foot. A cloud-based logistics software developed by Ford ensures that the transfer point to the respective pedestrian courier ensures short distances to the delivery address. The couriers are shown the location of the transport and the best routes to the delivery addresses via smartphone app. The combination of vehicle and human should also help reduce traffic in city centers. In the 2020 Christmas business, for example, two vans with a total of eight couriers delivered just as many shipments in a London district - but faster - than six vans that were used in comparison without additional support.