Smart Speed
- Brand
- DHL
- Year
- 2019
- Objective
- Engagement
- Industry
- Other
- Mechanic
- Simulation & Strategy
- Platform
- Installation
- Agency
- Playerthree
Objective
DHL built Smart Speed to make its green-logistics story — electric StreetScooters, cargo-bike Cubicycles, Parcelcopter drones and algorithmic route planning — tangible and competitive for visitors to its Future Lab stand at the 2019 Goodwood Festival of Speed. When DHL later relaunched the game under its esports partnership, the goal shifted to recruitment: reach a young, gaming-native audience, use the game as an informal aptitude test, and funnel players toward DHL's careers pages.
Solution
Players look down on an isometric 3D city dotted with parcels and a DHL hub, panning and zooming to see how far apart the drops are and when each one is due. For every leg of the route they pick which real DHL vehicle should handle it — a Parcelcopter drone for a distant or awkward address, a Cubicycle for a dense inner-city cluster, a StreetScooter for a longer road run — rather than driving anything themselves. Each choice is scored on speed, carbon-efficiency and cost together, so the tension is in the trade-off, not in quick reflexes. At Goodwood, up to four players competed side by side on touchscreens with every score mirrored on a shared big screen; the browser version keeps the same loop as a solo, levelled challenge that ends with a score to beat and a hand-off to DHL's careers site.
- 1
The game opens directly in the browser as a full-screen build, with no install or account required, and sets players a challenge: plan delivery routes that are fastest, most carbon-efficient and most cost-effective across a series of levels, with a PlayStation 5 on offer for top scorers.
- 2
Each level opens on a 3D isometric city rendered in DHL's yellow-and-red livery, which players can pan and zoom to survey before committing to a plan.
- 3
The map shows a delivery job: where the parcels are located, how close together they sit, and the pickup window each one has to meet.
- 4
Players assign the parcels to a combination of three real DHL vehicles — Parcelcopter drones, Cubicycles and StreetScooters — chosen to fit the parcels' proximity and pickup windows.
- 5
Once committed, the assigned vehicles drive, cycle and fly their routes across the city, with pathfinding modelled on the routing engine DHL uses in its real delivery operations.
- 6
Each run is scored on a three-way trade-off between speed, carbon efficiency and cost, so the quickest route does not automatically win; players can replay a level to beat their own score.
- 7
Finishing the game leads to DHL's careers page, which reframes the game's mechanics as job categories — data science, student and graduate roles, and frontline delivery — with a button to return to Smart Speed and play again.
- 8
At the original Goodwood Festival of Speed installation, up to four players competed at once on local touchscreens, with everyone's progress mirrored on a large screen for the surrounding audience.
