DECARBOMILE “Five pillars to DECARBOnize the last MILE logistics”

Europe

29 November 2022

Coordinators: Interface Transport

European project Horizon Europe
Allocated budget: 7 963 993€
Project duration: 48 months

Gathering 31 partners from 10 different countries, DECARBOMILE aims to trigger an unprecedented improvement of the green last mile logistics in Europe.

To reach that goal, DECARBOMILE relies on a strong experience of decarbonating urban logistics through European initiatives such as CIVITAS.

Partners will build upon all previous results to develop improved delivery methods, tools and methodologies, and implement them across Europe.

The solutions developed in DECARBOMILE will demonstrate the full potential of decarbonised last mile logistics in:

Four living labs (Logrono – Spain, Nantes -France, Hamburg – Germany and Istanbul – Turkey)

And 4 satellites cities (Tallinn – Estonia, Getafe – Spain, Ghent – Belgium and Sarajevo – Bosnia and Herzegovina) will be involved at a smaller scale to test and study the solution in their own local contexts.

To be successful in its implementation, DECARBOMILE will rely on developed methodologies to implement the new solutions and delivery methods in collaboration with all relevant local stakeholders, based on their needs and behaviours. The relation with and between stakeholders will be facilitated by the creation of a collaborative urban consolidation logistics framework that will include a digital platform, methodologies for collaboration, and ICT and IoT tools.

This common framework, along with tailored innovative business models and recommendations on local policies, will allow for a strong collaboration during the project, allow to learn more about the end-users’ needs and behaviours. The delivery methods will be strongly improved with urban consolidation centres, micro urban consolidation centres including smart lockers, innovations on cargo bikes and how they can be used with load pooling for instance, electric barge and more.

The goal is to use and improve existing solutions and allow their interoperability and modularity to improve their efficiency and use their complementarity.

More information

Hambourg

Context

Hamburg municipality (HAM) is involved in the project through the Senate Chancellery (SC), the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Innovation (BWI) and ITS Hamburg 2021, a worldwide congress dedicated to smart mobility (ITSHH).

Cargo bikes and micro depots are already used in small scales, notably though the projects MySmartLife, MOVE21 and RealLabHamburg project. The potentials of making use of urban waterways for last mile transport is already being investigated, and will logically feed the Living Lab activities preparation.

Use cases

Three main use-cases for green logistics have been identified at the proposal stage and will be investigated in the project, others will be identified in the scope of the co-creation process:

Courier, Express & Parcel (CEP) delivery
Trade & industry retail supply
SME-focused B2B transport case

Nantes

Context

Currently, the local regulation supports the green last mile logistics through an environmental bonus for clean vehicles in the city centre.

DECARBOMILE will enable several actions of Nantes Metropole Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan 2018-2027 (SUMP), and support the following commitments for 2030:

Facilitate and support experiments in sustainable urban logistics
Consider more local urban logistics in urban facilities and developments
Reduce the environmental impact of urban goods transport
Support and promote the implementation of logistics spaces and solutions aimed at pooling flows and optimising the transport of goods in cities

The results of DECARBOMILE will make it possible to specify the land logistics plan being developed in Nantes Metropole and will be reflected in the Metropolitan Local Urban Plan.

Use cases

Several use-cases for green logistics have been identified at the proposal stage and will be investigated in the project, others will be identified in the scope of the co-creation process:

Trucks-cycles intermodality for fresh food products with volunteer restaurants (TRI owns 2 active refrigerated containers)
Delivery of heavy loads (such as construction materials) by cargo-bikes
Parcel delivery for individuals by cargo-bikes
Management of waste collection (reverse logistics)
Water-road intermodality, given the proximity of the river

Istanbul

Context

Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) holds responsibility for the entire provincial territory, which spans a total area of 5,343 km2 and 39 district municipalities. IMM is responsible for a wide variety of areas including environment, natural-gas supply, energy, infrastructure, planning and development, IT, transportation, community services and vocational education, healthwellness, food & catering, culture, tourism, etc. The city itself is one of the regions where the densest vertical urbanization is observed not only in Europe but also in the globe (a significant factor increasing the rate of logistics traffic/trips per mile considerably).

Use cases

Several use-cases for green logistics have been identified at the proposal stage and will be investigated in the project, others will be identified in the scope of the co-creation process:

B2C parcel last-mile deliveries with several logistics operators
B2C delivery of fresh food and non-food from MIGROS’ groceries
Use of smart lockers for delivery in densely populated and heavy traffic districts
Water-cargo bike intermodality for bridging the two sides of the Bosporus, the strait splitting Istanbul in two peninsulas. It will also concern delivery in the islands

Logroño

Context

Logroño represents in DECARBOMILE the South Europe context, with its 150 000 inhabitants The historical centre counts on a car and truck access restriction system at the heart of the city’s most touristic area, enforced by traffic cameras, which is part of Low Emission Zone (LEZ) Plan 2023. The district is full of stores, tapas bars, and restaurants and is also crossed by the Camino de Santiago, so there are pedestrians on the streets all the time. The municipality wants to extend it to a wider LEZ and accompany the interventions on the streets with municipal regulations.

Use cases

Several use-cases for green logistics have been identified at the proposal stage and will be investigated in the project, others will be identified in the scope of the co-creation process:

Integration of local retailers in the last mile logistic system, easing their competition against big e-commerce platforms
Parcel delivery with cargo bikes and e-vehicles connected with T&T&M tools and combined with smart lockers
Reverse logistics with local retailers
Fresh and frozen food green delivery for hotels, restaurants and bars
Train-cycles and bus-cycles intermodality, given the proximity of the intermodal hub

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe Research and Innovation programme under Grant Agreement No. 101069806. This output reflects only the author’s view and the European Union cannot be held responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.