The Warehouse trials EV two-hour delivery service

The Warehouse is trialling a two-hour delivery service in Auckland using an electric vehicle (EV) which it hopes to expand nationwide.

The retail group was facing the prospect of increased competition from Amazon, due to set up distribution centres in Australia within the coming year. But The Warehouse chief information officer Timothy Kasbe says it would be trialling the service regardless, Stuff reports.

Customers buying goods from The Warehouse, Noel Leeming and Torpedo7 have been selected at random to receive their purchases within two hours, delivered by a Nissan electric van.

Outside the trial, standard deliveries normally take between two and four days, he says.

The Warehouse might charge extra for two-hour deliveries if it finds the service stacks up commercially.

“For now, we are looking at Auckland but as we learn more about customer needs we will continue to explore opportunities to provide the service in other cities,” Kasbe says.

Software is optimising the service , but the number of deliveries on each run is “confidential”, he says.

The Warehouse has used route-optimisation software developed by vWork – a software company backed by Trade Me founder Sam Morgan and father Gareth Morgan – for some of the trials.