A nearly year-long autonomous delivery pilot program in Northern Europe has become business as usual for parcel carrier DHL Express, which continues its mission to reach net-zero emissions worldwide by 2050 through a variety of eco-friendly logistics projects. DHL Express is partnering with autonomous delivery company Clevon, implementing the latter’s autonomous robot carrier (ARC) for urban last-mile deliveries in Tallinn, Estonia. The robot carrier can be seen daily throughout the Baltic city, including in its Old Town, a UNESCO-listed World Heritage Site where vehicle access is strictly limited. The ARC’s compact size and quiet, emissions-free operation make it an ideal urban delivery vehicle—and the success of the partnership will spur further collaboration in the year ahead, according to both companies.
“Initially, there was a lot of uncertainty because neither our nor DHL’s global team had previously tested such a solution,” Kristina Laaneots, managing director of DHL Express Estonia, said in a statement describing the project last fall. “However, over the past year, our extensive collaboration has proven that this technology has great potential.”
“DHL Express is our longest-standing partner [and one] who is very much open to innovations,” added Sander Sebastian Agur, Clevon’s CEO, in the statement. “We have tested several approaches with them and received valuable feedback on our product and end-customer expectations. This, in turn, has set a good starting point for growing DHL’s last-mile autonomous service in Estonia and elsewhere in the world.”
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
Clevon was founded in 2022 as a spinoff from Estonian company Cleveron, which makes robotics-based parcel delivery solutions, including parcel lockers and similar “click-and-collect” terminals. Clevon and DHL Express Estonia began test deliveries with its newest ARC, the Clevon 1, in Tallinn during the summer of 2022. The fully electric vehicle weighs less than 1,200 pounds (it’s lighter than the average small car) and includes a cargo box for parcel storage. The vehicle is not completely self-driving yet but runs via “tele-operation”—there’s no driver onboard, but remote tele-operators supervise its movement and are able to take control of the robot carrier if needed. Clevon says this increases safety and allows the company to develop and test its autonomous driving system on public roads.
After a series of test phases, Clevon and DHL developed an optimal service model for the ARC that combines middle- and last-mile operations: Traditional DHL Express vans, which can carry more and travel longer distances, transport packages from DHL’s terminal to designated locations in the city (the middle mile), and Clevon’s carrier handles the most time-consuming part, the last mile. This reduces the robot’s empty trips and increases the overall delivery efficiency, according to Clevon.
The partners started with a single ARC, which transported more than 1,200 parcels and traveled more than 4,400 miles in all seasons during 200 days of testing. By late September of last year, the ARC had delivered more than 1,600 parcels and traveled more than 5,000 miles—all with no safety incidents.
The companies haven’t revealed the next step in their expansion plans, but local DHL leaders like Laaneots say the future is bright: “I’m so pleased that it’s here in Estonia where we can experiment with new technologies and then introduce them within the DHL Group, which is interested in self-driving solutions, although big wheels turn slowly.”
