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By Ron Coates, 27 November 2000 17:30

NEWS The supermarket giant hopes the 'locked box' method will help attract customers who don't want to be inconvenienced by having to wait in until their groceries are delivered. Mark Lunn, marketing director of the company that makes the boxes, Homeport, said: "The retailer keeps the secure boxes and when it makes a delivery, the steel cable is locked into a very small installation on the wall of the customer's house or flat." "The customer opens it with a smart card. The box attached to the house just needs four strong bolts which we install - when the customer is out, generally," Lunn added. "Anything that will reduce the cost of fulfilment is welcome," said Matthew Peacock, MD of logistics and consultancy company iForce. "The biggest single expense is the last mile - this costs 35 to 50 per cent of the total delivery. You have to remember that, on average, it takes 2.2 tries to successfully deliver something if the customer has to be in to receive it." Steve Ball, senior logistics consultant at computer services house CMG, said: "Companies are trying to get things down to three and two-hour time slots - even one hour - but this still isn't satisfactory for customers. "When you can route vehicles geographically, rather than by time slots, you can really keep vehicle and delivery costs down. Anything that does that will help realise the potential of ecommerce," he added. Food Ferry, a ten-year-old company which delivers groceries in Central London, has had web ordering for three years. MD Jonathan Hartnell-Beavis said that their three-month old trial of Homeport has been successful so far. Other companies trying the system include famous wine merchants Berry Brothers and a London-wide dry cleaner. Sainsbury's will be conducting its trial in Twickenham, West London.