STADSBOX - City Box - Small loading unit for urban distribution
Overview
Background & policy context:
In order to reduce hindrance from vehicles in city centres, a lot of measures have been taken in The Netherlands in the field of city distribution. Retailers are confronted with restraints in terms of area, weight, volume of the vehicles and the access regime, consisting or routes and time frames. In this project a central role is predicted to shopping centres and supermarkets who make use of trucks and semi-trailers (loaded with pallets and/or roll-containers)
The restraints in city centres cause difficulties for the above mentioned vehicles. Problems to be faced are:
- accessibility of inner-city destinations,
- regulation of vehicle characteristics,
- environmental and safety issues,
- image problems.
Objectives:
Goal of the city box project is investigating the feasibility and determination of characteristics of a new logistics concept for city-distribution and supply. In the project, a nw multi-functional standard loading unit will be introduced.
The ultimate goal is to realise a multi-purpose deseign, that can solve the problems of all retailers / transport operators who are confronted with lacking accessibility of city centres.
Methodology:
The main parts of the research consist of:
- technology,
- organisation,
- ICT and
- financial aspects.
The first phase of the project results in a working prototype of the new concept loading unit in a selected city. In the first instance, logistics concepts and accessory vehicles, loading units / carriers will be developed. Starting point in this development is the current distribution patterns of the Albert Heijn Supermarket chain.
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