Volvo Cars pioneers two-hour in-car delivery service with Swedish start-up urb-it

Gothenburg, Sweden, 10th May 2016/PR Newswire/- Volvo Cars, a leader in the field of connectivity in the automotive sector, is set to disrupt the delivery experience with the introduction a new service that promises In-car Delivery of your online shopping in under two hours.

The ground-breaking collaboration with Swedish start-up urb-it will enable Volvo Cars to expand its tried and tested In-car Delivery Service and provide a foundation for a game-changing approach to delivery services, while reimagining how we use our cars.

“We understand the value of the In-car Delivery service we have developed. We’ve all had phone calls at work from delivery people trying to deliver packages to our homes that need to be signed for when there is no one home. With our In-car Delivery service we effectively turn your car into a delivery location and assign a one-time digital key to the delivery person, effectively eliminating delivery failure,” said Björn Annwall, Senior Vice President Marketing Sales and Service at Volvo Car Group.

urbers
urb-it’s real-time delivery service ensures you get the item you have ordered within two hours of clicking the buy button on your smartphone, radically changing the online shopping experience people are used to. The Swedish start-up employs students and other part-time workers who get paid per delivery and uses geo-location and availability to choose your personal urber, as the delivery people are known.

Each urber is strictly vetted by urb-it to ensure a high-class service and traceability. You always know the name of the individual urber that is delivering your shopping. Once the urber receives your order on their mobile device they collect the items at the shop by presenting the special order code. They then take your package and deliver it directly to your car in under two hours.

“It’s really quite simple, which is what makes it so effective. You shop online from an urb-it enabled store and simply choose to have the shopping delivered to your Volvo. This can be at a pre-determined time that suits you, or as quickly as possible. You can follow the collection and delivery process on your mobile device if you wish, or just wait for confirmation of delivery. If the package is not delivered in less than two hours, delivery is free,” said Björn Annwall.

Volvo Cars launched In-car Delivery commercially on Black Friday 2015 together with Sweden’s largest distribution company and an online food store. The premium car maker is now offering a range of connected car services to its customers in select markets utilising its digital key technology which allows Volvo owners to grant one-time access to their cars for In-car Delivery purposes. Volvo Cars is working toward expanding this range of services to its customers around the globe.

Volvo Cars is adding urb-it to its In-car Delivery services in Stockholm City for an initial trial period during 2016. Availability to Volvo owners will increase as the urb-it service expands to several European cities this year and over 200 cities worldwide by 2025.

Volvo Car Group in 2015
For the 2015 financial year, Volvo Car Group recorded an operating profit of 6,620 MSEK (2,128 MSEK in 2014). Revenue over the period amounted to 164,043 MSEK (137,590 MSEK). In 2015, global sales reached a record 503,127 cars, an increase of 8 per cent versus 2014. The record sales and operating profit cleared the way for Volvo Car Group to continue investing in its global transformation plan.

About Volvo Car Group
Volvo has been in operation since 1927. Today, Volvo Cars is one of the most well-known and respected car brands in the world with sales of 503,127 in 2015 in about 100 countries. Volvo Cars has been under the ownership of the Zhejiang Geely Holding (Geely Holding) of China since 2010. It formed part of the Swedish Volvo Group until 1999, when the company was bought by Ford Motor Company of the US. In 2010, Volvo Cars was acquired by Geely Holding.

As of December 2015, Volvo Cars had almost 29,000 employees worldwide. Volvo Cars head office, product development, marketing and administration functions are mainly located in Gothenburg, Sweden. Volvo Cars head office for China is located in Shanghai. The company’s main car production plants are located in Gothenburg (Sweden), Ghent (Belgium), Chengdu and Daqing (China), while engines are manufactured in Skövde (Sweden) and Zhangjiakou (China) and body components in Olofström (Sweden).