Lab1886, Daimler AG’s global innovation incubator, has expanded its Chark in-car delivery service to Berlin, Germany, following successful testing of the service in Stuttgart.
Drivers of Mercedes-Benz passenger cars and the V-Class of model year 2015 and newer can use the Mercedes ‘me connect’ service to have parcels or purchases delivered directly to their parked vehicle in the German capital.
According to Daimler, customers were highly satisfied with the in-car delivery service during the pilot in Stuttgart, positively highlighting the personal convenience, the greater ease in daily life, as well as the speed of the delivery. More than 1,000 parcels have been delivered in the greater Stuttgart area to date.
Anyone looking to participate in Chark can apply at www.chark.app for the second pilot phase and around 250 participants will be enabled for the beta test in Berlin by email. Other German cities will follow.
Chark works by temporarily giving the digital vehicle key of the parked car to a service provider the user has previously booked. The vehicle can only be unlocked and locked once and cannot be moved. If a customer wishes to have an online purchase delivered directly to the boot of the car, they enter the address of the Chark hub as the delivery address when ordering and their personal Chark ID as an address supplement. The user can decide the time window and parking location in which the service provider is permitted to open the vehicle. As soon as the delivery service is within a range of 500m (1,640ft) of the indicated parking location, it is able to locate the vehicle by GPS and unlock it once. When the delivery order is completed, the user receives a delivery report including photos.