In the coming weeks, a new innovative mode of transport will be seen on the streets of Mustamäe. The Rimi chain of stores will be testing an electric cargo scooter, created by the Latvian startup Bruntor, for express delivery of orders from the online store. Helen Ledney, head of the Rimi online store, explains: “It is important for Rimi to provide the best service to customers and test various innovative solutions. This often happens in cooperation with startups.” After the test period, some innovative solutions become part of Rimi’s daily work, while others remain pilot projects. “We believe in experimentation. Offering new things to customers is always exciting. We get feedback from people and, of course, we ourselves analyze how the new solution helps us work more environmentally friendly and productively. In most cases, we quickly understand whether the solution is effective or just a nice addition,” she added. Other innovations that have appeared this year include the unmanned Rimi store in Noblessner and smart bags that help increase biodiversity in forests. “We are now testing a last-mile delivery vehicle that reduces the environmental impact in densely populated urban areas. For Rimi, this solution provides an opportunity to deliver products to customers even faster, avoiding traffic jams,” Lednej explained. Bruntor CEO Raimonds Jurgelis believes that such vehicles can significantly optimize the delivery of goods at the “last mile,” that is, at the final stage of the supply chain, when the goods are sent from the warehouse directly to the customer’s home. According to him, these solutions not only make the last-mile delivery process more environmentally friendly, but also add flexibility to the ever-growing labor market, making it more inclusive and diverse in terms of both gender and age of workers. In Latvia, Bruntor’s services are used by the Latvian Post and the city of Riga. Over the course of the several-week trial period, Rimi plans to collect feedback from both customers and employees to evaluate the efficiency and convenience of using the cargo scooter in everyday work. The vehicle is 140 cm long, has a power of up to 1000 W and a maximum speed of 25 km/h. The scooter's energy consumption is only 1 euro per 100 km. More information is available at www.bruntor.com. Read RusDelfi wherever it is convenient for you. Follow us on Facebook, Telegram, Instagram or TikTok.
