I’m a fan of Rivian and I especially like their EV vans used by Amazon to make deliveries. I continue to believe that Rivian should create a new company for their van production to make it completely separate from the passenger vehicle business – Rivian Commercial Vans, for example.
Before continuing, I must mention that I also like vans being manufactured by BrightDrop. FedEx is a customer of BrightDrop. It’s going to be interesting to watch how many customers BrightDrop can sign up to use their vans.
Rivian and BrightDrop have proven they’re experts at making and delivering electric-powered vans for commercial use. Drivers I’ve spoken with told me they like the vans and that they’re glad EVs are being manufactured. However, what’s next for the vans? What’s next for Amazon, FedEx, and other customers? In my opinion, I believe the next challenge for Rivian to solve will be installing technology and robotics inside the vans to automate most of the processes related to loading, sorting, and delivering packages.
Those who read my posts or who listen to me speak on the topic of automation know that I believe in the concept of ‘Mobile Retail’ and ‘Mobile Fulfillment Centers’. As an advisor to the company Zume, which used ovens inside vans to cook pizza as the van was being driven, I saw that the real opportunity for the software and robotics being used was making parcel deliveries more efficient.
The process for preparing vans to make deliveries of parcels is a time-consuming and labor-intensive process. On average, it can take between two to four hours to load packages into vans. In addition, the process drivers go through as they search for packages when they arrive at a customers home can be confusing and time-consuming. Worse, drivers are only able to deliver to one home before having to return the van and driving to the next home.
I believe the entire process is broken, and I believe software and robotics can greatly improve package delivery. Rivian and Amazon should partner on developing a modular unit that leverages a conveyor for speed of package loading. As packages are scanned, they’re automatically loaded into a vertical tower with multiple shelves. Each shelf will have omnidirectional sortation capability.
Once the tower is full, software is utilized to create an optimized route for delivery. As soon as the vans are being driven out of the loading facility, the software begins to automatically arrange the packages inside the tower using the omni-sortation capability. Packages are pushed to a pickup slot that drivers can easily access from the driver’s seat when making a delivery.
The tower should be able to dispense packages into mobile robots to perform what I refer to as ‘Multi-Package Delivery’ in neighborhoods with the right delivery density.
