Many of us know that anxious feeling that comes when Amazon texts a notification that it has delivered your package, except you’re nowhere near home at the time to receive it. The mind races: is the package sitting out in plain view for would-be thieves to notice? Will it be destroyed by a passing downpour? Will it even be there by the time I get home?
Amazon has tried various methods to ensure more secure delivery, including enabling drivers to access consumers’ homes directly. Today, the company went a step further when it announced it has partnered with Ford to bring its customers a vehicle-to-vehicle drop-off option called Key by Amazon in-car delivery service.
Eligible Ford and Lincoln owners can now have their Amazon Prime packages delivered to their vehicles parked in publicly accessible areas. In a Medium post, Lorin Kennedy, a FordPass Ecosystem executive, says the service is “a convenient, secure way to ensure your packages are delivered directly to you when you are out for the day.”
Key by Amazon in-car delivery can be used by owners of select Ford 2017 model year and later vehicles equipped with FordPass Connect, and Lincoln 2018 and later model year vehicles that come with Lincoln Connect. To use the service, consumers download the FordPass or Lincoln Way app and create an account activating the car to accept deliveries. The Amazon Key app then enables vehicle-to-vehicle deliveries by linking the consumer’s Amazon Prime account to their FordPass or Lincoln Way accounts.
Consumers receive notifications throughout the delivery process, Kennedy writes, including a head’s up right before delivery takes place and a confirmation that delivery is complete and that their car has been securely locked. Packages can be placed in the vehicle’s trunk to keep them from being displayed openly.
According to Amazon’s FAQ page about how the service works, in-car delivery has also been available to other supported vehicle models, including “2015 model year or newer Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Cadillac, and Volvo vehicles with an active connected car service plan such as OnStar or Volvo On Call,” since 2018. Consumers can check their car’s eligibility here. Amazon says in-car delivery is available in more than 50 US cities, including Detroit, Boston, San Francisco, San Diego, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Denver, Dallas, Seattle, and Charlotte, NC.
Kennedy says that Ford consumers are always in control, so if they change their mind on the day of delivery, they can block access to the car, rerouting the delivery to the building where the car is parked. They can also reschedule delivery for the next day. According to Amazon, in-car delivery is not available for vehicles parked in garages with restricted entry or multi-level or underground garages due to lack of a GPS signal. The service is also not available for certain Amazon Prime items, such as those that weigh more than 50 pounds, those that require a signature, and items fulfilled by third-party sellers.
In Kennedy’s Medium post, she says Key by Amazon is just the beginning of Ford’s vehicle-to-vehicle services planned for the future.
“For example, in addition to Key by Amazon, we’re also working with several different on-demand car wash services through FordPass and Lincoln Way, to give people the option to purchase eco-friendly car washes from Spiffy, Rub A Dub, and Sparkl wherever these services are available,” she writes. Spiffy is finalizing the launch of on-demand car washing for Ford and Lincoln vehicles in Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Raleigh and Charlotte, NC. Sparkl recently launched its on-demand service in the Chicago metro area, and Rub A Dub will launch later this year.
As Kennedy points out in her post, the on-demand economy is drawing more than 22.4 million consumers annually and generating $57.6 billion in spending, according to the Harvard Business Review—and those numbers are only expected to grow. It’s not hard to imagine a day in the future when pizza might be delivered to hungry customers stuck in a traffic jam, or a replacement car charger dropped off to a family on a road trip.
“At Ford, we are committed to working with these service providers to bring valuable, convenient options directly to our customer —or at least their car,” Kennedy says.
