Daimler chark in-car delivery pilot extended

Daimler’s ‘chark’ in-car delivery pilot has been extended to Berlin.

‘Chark’ is an abbreviation for ‘change the way you park’ and is run by Daimler’s Lab 1886. It is open to all drivers of recent models of Mercedes Benz cars.

The car owner gives a temporary digital vehicle key of the parked car to a delivery provider that they have booked for ‘in-car delivery’. The digital key (for keyless cars) only allows the vehicle to be locked and unlocked but not moved.

Where the customer wishes to have an online purchase delivered directly to the boot of the car, he or she enters the address of the chark hub as the delivery address when ordering, and his or her personal chark ID as an address supplement.

The chark system gives the customer the choice of a time window and parking location and when the delivery driver gets within 500 metres of the parking location they will be able to locate the vehicle by GPS and then do the delivery.

In-car deliveries are not a new concept. Here at Apex Insight we have reported on different pilots involving DHL and other delivery players over the years. It hasn’t taken hold yet, possibly an issue of people not welcoming delivery drivers into their personal space when they are not about.

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