Driverless cars delivering anything from toilet roll, wine and iPhone chargers could soon be a regular sight on the city’s streets.

Businessman Edd Withers and partner Sam Eagleson have launched their latest venture, Swif, which allows customers to order branded goods via a phone app and have them delivered to their homes within an hour.

The company will initially employ five drivers to deliver groceries up until midnight.

Mr Withers, who also owns dessert delivery business Bake Mates, says he will initially use a fleet of traditional vehicles.

But eventually, he wants to have driverless cars zipping around the city delivering goods as soon as an order is received.

“It means we can deliver throughout the night,” he said. “We have an alcohol licence until 4am but it would not be cost effective to pay somebody for the odd job.”

Should this brave new world of automated cars become a reality, Swif will continue to have some drivers to help elderly and disabled customers with their shopping, and to maintain that “human face”.

The trend for ordering and buying online has grown rapidly and the former Canterbury Business Improvement District (BID) director says the city is in need of an out-of-hours service.

“There is not much choice for people in Canterbury after 10pm unless you want to walk to a petrol station, and in the villages even more so.

“We even think that some may use the service as their weekly shop,” he said.

Swif’s business model is somewhere between Tesco Direct and Deliveroo. Workers will be on zero hours contracts, but the firm will pay above the national minimum wage.

“We pay £8 an hour and 50p per job to cover petrol and insurance,” he explained. “With tips you could be looking at £13 per hour. We plan to have one member of salaried staff.

The burgeoning business model has caught the eye of multi-national firms keen for a slice of the pie, but Mr Withers is optimistic about the future.

He added: “We know we will have strong competition in future with the big supermarkets looking to do the same kind of thing, but our advantage is we have built this from the ground up. Supermarkets will be bolting it on.”

Delivery costs £3.50 within the city and £4.50 for the villages.