OK, this one sounds a little weird, but let’s have a look anyway.
Getting deliveries can always be a bit of a hit-and-miss affair, especially if you’re at work or on the toilet. Despite you waiting around, you’ll probably find that the delivery driver turns up just when you’re busy, then you have to re-arrange the delivery or head to some remote depot miles away.
Now, as part of a pilot scheme by the Skoda innovation team, you could have parcels delivered to the boot (trunk) of your car. All you’ll need to give is the address of your car and the registration plate, then the courier will place the parcel delivery directly into the boot.
It is, of course, more geared towards Skoda owners, and the technology required for remote access to the car is currently being tested. The pilot is starting in the Czech Republic, where couriers are given secure access to your boot. Skoda tech has enabled the brand to allow couriers to use a mobile app to pop the boot, with the location of the car displayed to the courier via GPS. The courier is granted a one-time access to open the boot within a pre-defined time slot, then they re-lock the boot after placing the parcel in the boot. Once that’s done then the customer is notified about the successful delivery.
This, of course, does raise the question of trust. What if the delivery driver (who’s probably not paid a great deal) opens the boot and sees a brand new TV in there that you’ve just collected from Currys? Or if you’ve got your £5000 road bike in the back of your estate car?
The service and technology is currently getting thoroughly tested by a small selection of customers and trusted partners.