Hermes, one of the leading consumer delivery companies in the UK, has partnered with innovative addressing company what3words to provide even more efficient deliveries without the need for additional directions.
From today, customers are prompted to update their profile in the Hermes app with their precise what3words address within ‘my places’ to help drivers conduct convenient and accurate deliveries to their customers’ homes. This single action means that any subsequent orders delivered by Hermes will arrive at the specified 3m square.
what3words is the simplest way to talk about and share location. The app has divided the world into 57 trillion 3 metre squares, giving each square a new, simplified address made up of three dictionary words.
what3words provides a simple and innovative way for couriers to deliver parcels right to a customer’s doorstep or desired delivery point. Street addresses across the UK can be inaccurate: pins can drop in the centre of the buildings leaving couriers struggling to find the correct door or access point, and postcodes sometimes cover large areas. what3words addresses are more accurate than postal addresses and allow customers to specify their precise delivery location.
Customers can update their delivery preferences with their what3words address in the Hermes app at any time to indicate the precise entrance to their property or identify a safe place for their parcel, and the next time they make a purchase online that’s delivered by Hermes, the delivery driver will use the what3words address to drop parcels at that exact location.
Hermes delivers over 400 million parcels each year on behalf of some of the UK’s largest online retailers including H&M, Next, ASOS, JD Williams and Debenhams. At the height of lockdown, Hermes delivered 2.5million parcels in one day – beating their previous record during Christmas 2019 of 2.1million.
Clare Jones, CCO at what3words explained that, “Traditional street addresses aren’t accurate enough to deliver your online orders smoothly every time. This year has shown the importance of e-commerce, and the role it plays in the UK – with record numbers predicted this Christmas period.
“I grew up in a rural area and the postcode of our house always directed people to the wrong place in the village, leaving friends, family and delivery drivers alike looking for the house. These challenges are not uncommon – and even in cities, particular entrances, access points of safe places can be hard to find.
Hermes app users only have to update their preferred what3words delivery address once, to know that every subsequent order dispatched by Hermes will arrive at that three-metre square.”
Chris Ashworth, CIO, Hermes UK said, “We’re really excited to become the first delivery company in the UK to provide what3words addresses for any parcel. Simply discovering and adding your what3words address in our app is another step alongside our existing technology, to ensure that your exact location is available for our couriers. This also adds to our contact-free deliveries option, at a time when we’re seeing even more people shopping online.”
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