LEAD & Company: zero-emission freight solutions presented at the Urban Mobility Days

On September 30th, LEAD participated at the Urban Mobility Days, in the session “Innovative zero-emission freight solutions for cities”. The session focused on different projects bringing innovation into the foreplay of zero-emission freight solutions for cities.

The session recording is now available! You can see the full panel discussion:

Irene kicked off her intervention by describing the context within which LEAD will operate. Namely, the fact that the rise on-demand logistics, currently accelerated by COVID-19 leading to new online purchasing habits), is putting a stress on last-mile delivery systems. This is particularly concerning to costumers who demand a responsive system for customised products, for the industry who needs to provide “instant delivery and for cities to bear possible negative consequences.

LEAD will develop logistic solutions, ensuring low emission operations, adaptive models and  Digital Twins models More specifically, LEAD will create Digital Twins of urban logistics networks in six cities (TEN-T Nodes), to support experimentation and decision making with on-demand logistics operations in a public-private urban setting.

LEAD’s sister projects ULaaDS and SENATOR were also featured in the session. ULaaDS will develop 5 new urban logistics business models and schemes (i.e. Containerised Last-Mile, Marketplace for City Logistics, City-Wide UFT Platform, and Location, Infrastructure and Vehicle Capacity Sharing).   In the words of Michael Glotz-Richter (City of Bremen): “We need new innovative solutions for cities to address the growing demand in urban logistics, especially now with the increased volume of deliveries due to COVID-19 and the e-commerce boom. With the ULaaDS project we will develop a new approach to system innovation in urban logistics.

Santiago Muñoz (Correos – Project Coordinator) presented SENATOR. It aims at creating a “Control Tower” for urban logistics that improve urban planning (SULMP) putting together offer and demand.  The project aims at connecting offer with the demand with the goal of:

1. Increasing quality of life in cities
2. Building an integrative logistics model
3. Creating a tool for urban planning and logistics governance and
4. Developing new services for urban areas.

Lastly, Susanne Wrighton presented the City Changer Cargo Bike project, highlighting the untapped potential of cargo Bikes for zero-emission transport in cities. Cargo bikes have a huge potential to replace car trips (save space for human use, healthy, efficient, fast, help for climate change). Further, they can contribute to safety since they do not have blind spots, unlike trucks.

The potential for a modal shift that can result from the usage of cargo bikes is backed by relevant figures, namely:

• 32 % of all deliveries (goods, transport, postal services, etc.)
• 50 % of service trips (cleaning, plumber, carpenters, etc.)
• 77% of all shopping trips (supermarkets)

LEAD’s presentation at UMD

You can consult the presentation given by Irene Blázquez Jimenez by accessing it here.