It’s so easy to shop online – a click of the mouse and your order is placed, but delivery can be tricky if you’re not at home. “Smart ready to drop” makes order delivery that much easier, by allowing the Smart owner to specify his/her car as the delivery address. The delivery driver can also pick up return parcels in the same way.
“Smart ready to drop”, developed by the Daimler division, further maximises the car’s use, especially in the city, and offers a mobility concept that goes beyond motoring. The parcels are delivered by DHL. The delivery driver is given one-time keyless access to the boot of the drop-off car through a special app.
The service and its systems will be beta tested this year in Stuttgart, followed by Cologne, Bonn and Berlin a few months later. Other cities will follow. With several hundred participants per city, Smart’s goal is to gather experience in realistic conditions.The beta test is the biggest in-car delivery test ever performed in Germany. Last year, a first field test with some 30 Smart drivers that lasted several months was successfully completed.
The service is smartphone-based, with both the Smart car owner and the delivery driver using the special apps. After placing the order, the Smart customer generates a transaction number (TAN) in the app and enters it in the “c/o” field of the delivery address. The app reminds the customer to park his car near his home address for delivery.
The app notifies the DHL driver of the desired delivery address. The driver uses the TAN to open the car within a specific time window. Similar to Smart’s car2go car-sharing system, a Connectivity Box is installed inside the car at the bottom of the windscreen. New car buyers can order their Smart car with a pre-installed Connectivity Box, which can also be retrofitted at the dealership.
The DHL driver deposits the parcel in the boot and locks the car digitally, and his access authorisation expires immediately. The app automatically notifies the smart car driver of the successful delivery. 
The Smart is now smarter than ever.
