DHL and Blue Dart pilot "intelligent" delivery trucks in India

DHL and its majority-owned Indian subsidiary Blue Dart are piloting a new “intelligent” pick-up and delivery vehicle in Bengaluru, India. The DHL Smart Truck has been developed by the company’s logistics technology unit, DHL Solutions & Innovations, and was previously been trialled in Germany last year.

The vehicle includes various technologies such as a route planner, using real-time GPS systems and local traffic data to calculate an ideal sequence of deliveries, with the flexibility to allow for last-minute pick-ups.

DHL says the vehicle reduced the number of miles driven by 15% during its test in Germany, cutting both fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions.

Dr. Keith Ulrich, Vice President at DHL Solutions & Innovations (DSI), said: “What matters most to our customers is absolute punctuality in pick-up and delivery. We believe that as we pilot the system in more cities, and fine-tune the technology, the system will prove itself to be enormously valuable in fast changing cities in the emerging markets, and become an accurate planning tool for the megacities of today and tomorrow.

“By optimizing routes and cutting CO2 emissions, DHL is also contributing to improving the quality of city life,” added Dr Ulrich.

Along with its dynamic route-planning system, the Smart Truck uses radio frequency identification (RFID) tags attached to parcels to manage the loading and delivery of packages.

A traffic light display in the vehicle ensures exactly the right packages have been loaded on the right vehicle – giving the driver a red light if anything is amiss. The technology updates itself each time the driver stops and takes packages out of the truck.`

Anil Khanna, managing director of Blue Dart Express, said the pilot in Bengaluru would operate on five routes with Asia-Pacific inbound shipments.

Progressing from last year’s German pilot, the latest trial has adapted its approach to the local situation in the Indian city..

Khanna explained: “To successfully launch the pilot here, we have made adaptations to the original system to additionally overcome problems with consignees’ addresses and lack of postal codes.”