‘Click and collect’ comes to London Underground
Picking up shopping on the move is set to become simple for thousands of London Underground customers as Transport for London (TfL) announced that it is entering into partnership working with several major companies. Tesco, Waitrose and automated parcel Locker Company InPost are all set to establish ‘click and collect’ facilities at stations, transforming the services on offer to customers as they move around the transport network. TfL has been developing click and collect services at London Underground station car parks since November of last year, with a six month trial with Asda Grocery Click and Collect services at six station car parks.
The trial has been successful and TfL is in discussions with Asda to expand the service.
Click and collect enables customers to place orders online, which they then pick up from stations or station car parks on their way home. With the rise in smartphone devices and the introduction of Wi-Fi at over 120 LU stations, customers can also make their purchases as they move around the network. As well as providing convenience to customers these agreements will secure commercial revenue for TfL, which will be reinvested into improving the transport network, benefiting all Londoners.
Subject to final testing at the locations, the following services will be introduced this year:
- Tesco and Waitrose will install click and collect facilities at up to 6 stations each;
- InPost, who provide parcel delivery services for multiple retailers, will install lockers at 3 stations.
Mike Brown MVO, Managing Director of London Underground, said:
‘Over 11 million journeys take place on our public transport network each day and there is a fantastic opportunity for us to work with commercial partners to deliver products and services that our customers want, and as a result also grow revenues that we then reinvest in improving the transport network. The primary role of our stations must always be travel and we will never compromise that, but there is much more we can and will be doing to improve and modernise our stations to ensure they meet the wider needs of our busy customers.’
