We all know how annoying it is when you miss a parcel delivery - or the delivery driver considers your dustbin a 'safe place'. Now retail giant Amazon may have come up with a solution.

Amazon customers could soon be able to collect their parcels from the regular bus, train or tube they use on their daily commute, as reported by Retail Gazette.

The online retailer recently won a patent for "mobile pickup locations", in which packages could be collected on a "vehicle which the user takes every day travelling from the office to home".

And if passengers aren't sure exactly which bus they will be travelling on, they could collect their parcels from local bus stops or other convenient locations on their journey, using GPS to track the package and be alerted by text when it is approaching.

This is the latest in Amazon's endless 'drive' to find new and innovative delivery methods to make its products accessible to everyone. We've already heard about delivery robots and drones, as well as schemes which allow Amazon delivery drivers to securely gain access to houses, garages and even cars to drop off a parcel.

This latest patent, which was reportedly filed five years before being granted, would expand the company's reach to customers who either don't want items delivered to their homes, or are usually on the move.

It's not clear at this stage whether Amazon plans to go ahead with this patent.

Punchline said: "We've been saying for a long time that Amazon has created a very uneven playing field in retail and this latest innovation goes to prove that point further. The inconvenience of missing a delivery is one advantage the high street has over online retailers. But if our parcels are going to travel to work on the bus with us, what chance does the high street have?"

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