Innovative platform set to disrupt last-mile delivery
Traditional home delivery methods have barely changed over the last 50 years. Couriers still go from place to place to deliver parcels by a certain deadline. However, with the boom in e-commerce, this method is proving inefficient and not customer driven; delays, incidents and delivery failures have become all too common. On top of this, couriers have to bear the costs of making a second or third attempt to deliver while online shoppers have to stay home to wait for parcels. The result? Dissatisfied shoppers, increased costs, congestion and pollution. The EU-funded Citibox(opens in new window) project offers an innovative solution: the software platform Citibox, named for the project. “The platform connects all carriers with online shoppers through multi-user smart parcel-boxes installed inside residential buildings. Available to all carriers and e-retailers, the platform allows residents to receive their parcels at home, whether they are present or absent,” explains David Bernabeu, CEO of the Citibox company.
Never miss a delivery again
The Citibox platform(opens in new window) automates all parcel deliveries to residential buildings, ensuring there is a 100 % successful first delivery attempt, any time of day. Parcels are delivered to a single location in the lobby, saving couriers time which would otherwise be spent coordinating and searching for recipients, which in turn increases their productivity. “For users, the smart parcel boxes and use of the Citibox platform are free. They can enjoy the best experience receiving and returning online purchases at home,” adds Bernabeu. As for the environment, improved delivery efficiency will help reduce CO2 emissions and pollution. “Double parking and delivery vans clogging up rush hour traffic will reduce in cities. Vans constitute only 7 % of road traffic; however, they account for 12 % of congestion costs and their miles travelled have increased by 56 % compared to 9 % for passenger cars,” highlights Bernabeu. The smart boxes and platform can also increase last mile delivery capacity and boost e-commerce(opens in new window), thanks to their convenience.
Expansion on the horizon
The consortium successfully advanced their platform during the Citibox project. “The 360º upgrade implemented on our core platform, software and infrastructure has had a decisive and outstanding impact on the platform scalability,” confirms Bernabeu. As a result, a more robust, secure and scalable platform, ready to handle high transaction volumes and demand peaks efficiently, was achieved. Looking to the future, Bernabeu notes: “And now we are ready to scale.” There are three different ways which are contemplated in their roadmap. The first is to massively deploy their solution in Madrid and Barcelona. “Our plan is to install our boxes in two-thirds of the vertical buildings (buildings with more than 10 households) in both cities during the period of 24 to 36 months. This way we will have a penetration above 50 %, meaning that more than 5 out 10 inhabitants of Madrid and Barcelona will receive all their parcels through Citibox," confirms Bernabeu. The second path is to boost their expansion strategy, targeting large metropolitan areas in Europe. “We are already present in Paris, and our intention is to quickly jump into Berlin and London. After which, we aim to be present in the top 10 large metropolitan areas in Europe,” concludes Bernabeu. The third path for the Citibox roadmap involves work on product development so as to create value-added services such as night deliveries.
