Overview
Adaptive and integrated mission management need to be incorporated into innovative vehicle and transport solutions. This will improve and increase the sustainability and the efficiency of urban delivery of goods.
The logistic system of a city can be improved in the following ways:
- Logistic oriented telematic services: this will give an improvement of mission planning processes through optimised routing. It reduces the number of unsuccessful deliveries, thanks to the development of tracking and communication capabilities;
- Vehicle technologies: these increase the operational flexibility of lorries and vans. It improves the interoperability among the vehicles, especially in terms of load unit handling. Vehicles supporting different mission profiles, reducing the number of circulating vehicles;
- Innovative load units: like vehicles, load units will operate in different missions. A re-configurable internal layout is foreseen, that will enable different uses: either as simple container or mobile pack station.
The CITYLOG project aimed at increasing the sustainability and the efficiency of urban delivery of goods by means of an adaptive and integrated mission management and innovative vehicle solutions.
The innovative approach set out to decrease the number of delivery vehicles and optimise the use of delivery trucks in urban areas. It resulted in an increased quality of services. The solutions and technologies are of highest interest due to the increased energy efficiency and quality of services.
The following activities were carried out:
- Organisation of stakeholders' workshops;
- Dissemination of the project results;
- Exploitation plans and deployment perspectives.
The CITYLOG solutions were validated in three European test sites hosted in: Lyon, Berlin and Turin. Several components developed in CITYLOG were deployed according to specific test cases that were discussed by the partners in cooperation with local stakeholders. The project involved partners from 6 different European countries, including industries, research institutes, associations and local authorities.
Funding
Results
The following main recommendations can be pointed out as results:
- Administrators, Carriers and Residents are interested in policy measures which allow for an efficient utilisation of the available road capacity among the different road and non-road users.
- Conflicts should be avoided mainly by policies addressing the aspects of accessibility (of freight vehicles to the inner city or to other commercial zones) and reallocation of road spaces (priority lanes, delivery and parking areas).
- Planning measures (freight plans) and IT based city logistics solutions (optimized routing) are preferred to road pricing measures.
- Urban freight vehicles have to be clean, silent and safe to meet the Administrators and Residents expectation.
- Urban freight vehicles and their drivers have to be assisted by ITS instruments (route planners), right-sized and flexible as regards to cargo capacity.
Innovation aspects
Today's city logistic system can be improved trough innovative load units which can be carefully designed to operate, like the vehicles, in different missions. Therefore, a re-configurable internal layout will enable different uses, either as simple container or mobile pack station (BentoBox concept). In the latter case, the goal is the de-synchronisation of the delivery process between operators and final customers in order to reduce the unsuccessful deliveries.
The innovative approach of CITYLOG will lead to decrease the number and optimise the use of delivery trucks in urban areas, while bringing an increased quality of services.
Technical Implications
The main technical implications for the CITYLOG project were:
- the aim to achieve a full interoperability between the freight bus and distribution van, and also to implement an effective and reliable BentoBox concept;
- concerning the load unit operations, the CITYLOG experts proposed to have a vehicle-centred solution and containers with extensible legs, with no needs for specific infrastructures in the city.
Policy implications
The following policy recommendations were made:
- A policy harmonisation, in particular as regards restriction policies and access to city centres, is needed from Freight Carriers, Residents and Truck & Vehicle Manufacturers.
- Policy measures have to be sustainable for Freight Carriers and Retailers at first (cost effective,standardized and with reduced operating costs).
Policy objectives
Innovating for the future (technology and behaviour):
• Promoting more sustainable development
• Integrated urban mobility