Hanjin Enters Delivery Robot Business... Industry's First 'Joint Delivery Center' Operation

Development of Last-Mile Delivery Service Using Twiny and Robots

Nosamseok, President and CEO of Hanjin; Johyunmin, President in charge of Future Growth Strategy and Marketing; Cheonyeongseok and Cheonhongseok, Co-CEOs (from left to right)

Photo by Hanjin

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo Hyun-seok] Hanjin announced on the 18th that it will jointly develop a last-mile delivery service using robots in collaboration with Twinny, a company specializing in autonomous driving robot development, in line with the growth of the last-mile market.

To this end, Hanjin and Twinny signed a business agreement yesterday at the Hanjin Building in Jung-gu, Seoul, with key officials including Hanjin CEO and President No Sam-seok, Future Growth Strategy and Marketing Head Cho Hyun-min, and Twinny co-CEOs Cheon Hong-seok and Cheon Young-seok in attendance.

Through this agreement, Hanjin will promote overall cooperation related to delivery robots, including developing delivery robot business models and jointly participating in demonstration projects, together with Twinny, a startup that possesses high-performance autonomous driving technology and patents.

First, they plan to operate the industry's first "Joint Delivery Center." This reflects the recent increase in parcel volumes and the residents' needs for a comfortable and safe living environment within apartment complexes. The system will shift from each company individually delivering parcels directly to end customers in apartment complexes to a system where the Joint Delivery Center centrally manages parcel deliveries to end customers.

Currently, some large newly built apartment complexes in Seoul and Gyeonggi areas are operating their own Joint Delivery Centers, and this number is expected to continue increasing.

Going forward, Hanjin will build platforms and standardize services to operate Joint Delivery Centers utilizing idle spaces in high-density delivery areas, while Twinny will develop delivery robots for the Joint Delivery Centers and end customers.

Operating the Joint Delivery Center is expected to reduce the workload of delivery workers caused by the continuously increasing parcel volumes, thereby improving working conditions.

Hanjin and Twinny will select pilot operation complexes for the Joint Delivery Center and establish delivery robot operation processes in the first half of the year. In the second half, they will continuously upgrade services by integrating systems with courier companies and introducing platforms, as well as conducting robot PoC (Proof of Concept).

In the future, the two companies plan to gradually expand the platform and delivery robots to cover not only parcel delivery and storage services but also last-mile lifestyle logistics delivery services within complexes, such as food delivery, secondhand trading, and waste disposal.

A Hanjin official said, "We will take the lead in the contactless last-mile market based on parcel delivery together with Twinny, which has excellent technology for delivery robots."