New inner city networks
The volume of goods delivered to urban centres is growing. At the same time, the general conditions for city logistics are becoming ever-more difficult. Christian Doepgen recently attended events at which Dachser’s Dr Andreas Froschmayer and Camion Transport’s Josef Jäger showed how a cool head, strong climate awareness and a little élan can help to find sustainable solutions for these areas.
Urban logistics is looking for new and environment-friendly solutions today, to overcome the acute transport problems facing inner cities. From an economic point of view, flexibility is in high demand for the last mile, which traditionally represents the largest cost factor in the transport chain. Recent events have illustrated the innovative approaches that are being pursued by Camion Transport in Swiss agglomerations and Dachser in a series of European cities.
Powering the inner city
The German logistician Dachser has devolved the issue of city logistics to the local level; to branch managers. “Once a rapport has been established with the local authority, then we provide the requisite support from headquarters,” Dr Andreas Froschmayer, Dachser’s corporate director of corporate development, strategy and PR, told the ITJ. “Our city logistics toolbox contains a whole bundle of modular measures the manager can then implement,” he continued.
First the overall geographical situation of the location concerned is analysed, then the appropriate technical solutions are planned accordingly. “For a city suffering from a high level of particulate matter pollution – Stuttgart is one example – we’ve ensured since July 2018 that deliveries are made to B2B customers with emissions-free vehicles in a 5 km² delivery area in the city centre.”
Camion Transport (CT), in turn, has elaborated a concept entitled ‘Into city centres – without emissions’. In this context it is testing more sustainable modes of transport in the Swiss cities of St Gallen and Basel. The focus is on electric mobility and muscle power.
The goods arrive in CT’s city hub overnight by rail. Mercedes-Benz Trucks’ first ‘eActros’ elec tric lorry co- vers the route from the lar ger city hub to a micro hub, which in the St Gallen pilot project is a cycle courier. Project manager Fredy Würzer is pleased that CT can use the eActros truck as a test customer.
In addition to the eActros, Dachser also deploys the same manufacturer’s Fuso eCanter electric trucks in Stuttgart. In the course of 2019 the company will deploy them in Paris, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Freiburg and Mannheim.
The eActros works well in practice, but is not a transformer. Irregularities occasionally occur during the loading process, and there are also some payload restrictions, compared with conventional trucks. Its range of approximately 200 km, however, is enough for a full day’s normal tour.
Electricity and muscle power
Deploying electrically-assisted bicycles over the last mile requires the right partners and business ideology. In Europe Dachser, together with its partner Zedify, launched electrically-assisted bicycles, the ‘Triporteurs de l’Ouest’, in four French citiesin 2017, including Rennes. London followed in 2019.
In Basel CT relies on the company Kurierzentrale as its partner for the last mile. The cycle courier loads the vehicles directly at the ramp and delivers consignments to recipients in the city silently and without any emissions.
‘Armadillo’ model electric cargo e-bikes and ‘vRBike’ model cargo e-scooters are in use too. Dachser, in turn, relies on ‘Pedelec’ units, which can transport a payload of 250 kg, thanks to their high superstructure.
CT director Josef Jäger has a clear timetable. “We want to be in a position to supply all Swiss inner cities with zero-emissions vehicles from around 2025 onwards. From 2030 onwards this should apply to all urban regions.” Dachser, in turn, is set to implement emissions-free deliveries in Oslo by 2021, for example.
