The last mile in parcel delivery accounts for 35-50% of the total transportation costs because of the difficulty of transporting individual shipments to many different urban destinations. To meet growing consumer demand in e-commerce, parcel carriers undertake more delivery trips, congesting the roads & clogging the streets. While delivery vans were only 7% of urban travel in EU in 2015, they already accounted for 18% of the congestion.
The environmental negative impact of last-mile delivery on urban environment is also very well-researched. 25% of CO2 emissions & 30-50% of other pollution are caused by urban freight transported by diesel-powered trucks11. ~50% of diesel fuel consumed by urban transport is used for goods delivery. While delivery vans were responsible for only 7% of urban travel in the EU in 2015, they accounted for 18% of the congestion. To meet the growing consumer demand in e-commerce, parcel carriers have to take more delivery trips, further congesting the roads. The forecasted 40% growth in urban delivery by 2050 will put immense strain on the urban infrastructure.
Efficient parcel delivery requires vans to deliver most packages to very few addresses. This is only possible with a dense network of urban mini-hubs that would serve many citizens at the same time. Logistics carriers have started deploying their own networks of click-and-collect parcel lockers but they are based on the outdated inefficient technology of a mailbox of a fixed size with an electric lock, which puts a limit on their scalability. Tardis is a compact, modular single-access window parcel locker that automatically defragments itself. Tardis rearranges parcels inside to free space for additional ones, which results in 10x more parcels stored than in a traditional parcel locker of the similar floor size. Tardis can also contain several temperature zones enabling grocery & other perishable goods delivery. Tardis storage efficiency will allow us to build & deploy smaller & more efficient parcel locker networks in dense city areas capable of handling all typical online purchases of an urban dweller. With our parcel lockers, we will be able to reduce the costs of the carriers 3-4x, offering them a competitive advantage, create an open scalable urban delivery network & lay the foundation for same day delivery—the next frontier in online retail & B2C logistics. On the environmental side, we estimate that a dense Tardis network can deliver 64-72% fuel savings due to reduction of trips to storage-optimized lockers. An average home delivery created 1.2 kg of CO2, while collection from a parcel locker only 0.25 kg
