Mercedes' new van delivery concept

Mercedes-Benz has revealed a brand new concept van and a wider strategic outlook for urban deliveries, which they call adVANce. Clever.

The intention of the scheme is to discover new ways of enhancing efficiency for the urban delivery market. As demand for quick deliveries continues to rise and companies adopt even shorter delivery times - such as within the hour - new solutions are required.

New van concept

The new Vision Van concept is not a 'teaser' or prototype for an imminently-due new van model. It's a concept, part of a future connected and integrated delivery framework. This framework incorporates all of the people and processes involved in delivering goods, from the distribution centre to the waiting customer.

It features a fully-automated load area as well as integrated delivery drones, providing the driver with the ability to pull over in a designated area and press a button for multiple packages to be autonomously delivered to recipients nearby.

Electrically powered, the Vision Van has a claimed range of 50-170 miles, depending on usage. However, there is little additional detail. It's widely considered that electric delivery vehicles will inevitably be introduced at some point - specifically for late-night deliveries to residential areas.

The Vision Van would be fully integrated with the operator's telematics system, monitoring every aspect of the vehicle's status to deliver real-time reports to the distribution manager. Other predictions include a remote part and tool management system for service vehicles, allowing for automatic inventory management and new parts to be ordered - directly to the van.

Key features

A key aspect of the Vision Van's design is a fully-automated load area. Don't worry - we were confused at first, too. What this means is that instead of manually loading and loading a van, a 'one-shot' loading system would fully load the vehicle with pre-picked parcels and inform the driver where each package is located upon arrival at each destination.

Another exciting possibility for this Mercedes concept is on-demand shared transportation or passengers and goods. As technology advances and autonomous vehicles become ever nearer to implementation, it could be feasible for such a van to collect passengers and deliver parcels on the exact same route.

While you can't buy the Vision Van concept (yet!), Mercedes have a great range of already-available vans which you can view here. If you'd like to discuss a van or get a quote, give us a call on 0845 021 0444, enquire online or visit our Facebook page!