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Waitrose drivers to deliver and unpack shopping while customers are out

Paloma Kubiak
Written By:
Paloma Kubiak
Posted:
Updated:
05/10/2018

Waitrose & Partners is to trial a service where its drivers will deliver groceries, enter your home and unpack your shopping, all the while wearing a chest-cam for added security.

The ‘While You’re Away’ service will be trialled by 100 customers in the Coulsdon, South London area first before being extended to more than 1,000 customers in spring 2019, if successful.

How will it work?

This will only work if customers use Yale smart technology. In order to give the delivery driver access to your home, a temporary access code for the lock will need to be set which is sent to Waitrose via a secure app.

The code is then sent to the driver’s device at the time a customer has booked for the delivery and is deleted once the delivery is complete.

Waitrose explained that the driver will put refrigerated and frozen goods away and leave other groceries on the kitchen counter, or as instructed by the customer.

For security, the whole delivery will be recorded by the driver’s chest-cam and the video will be available for the customer the next working day.

There’s a minimum order value of £25 and as part of the trial, a minimum six orders need to be made, though Waitrose will review this at a later stage.

Archie Mason, head of business development from Waitrose & Partners, said: “There is certainly an increasing demand among our customers to make shopping with us even more convenient to fit around their busy lifestyles.

“Rather than waiting for a delivery or trying to put everything away, it gives customers more flexibility to use that time differently, including more time enjoying cooking and eating the food they’ve bought.

“The concept of ‘in-home delivery’ has started to prove popular in other countries so we are keen to establish if there is an appetite for it in the UK.”