Final Report Summary - FIDEUS (Freight innovative delivery in European urban space)
Urban logistics and delivery operations constitute a vital aspect of the functioning of European cities, supplying local trade and commerce, as well as residents, with essential goods for their daily needs and business. On the other hand, freight transport is both a contributor to and victim of the growing congestion threatening to choke urban mobility, and exposing large parts of the population to unacceptable level of noise and exhaust emissions.
The present situation, which has evolved over the past decades is unsatisfactory from a societal and environmental as well as an economic perspective. Both industry and city authorities are therefore faced with the challenge of bringing about tangible improvements, by proposing efficient means of transport, new technologies and mobility management policies, which will permit a more efficient organisation of urban goods transport.
The FIDEUS project proposed a new approach to the freight delivery through three types of actions:
- the development of a complementary set of vehicles and equipment, specially conceived for undertaking urban deliveries and collection;
- the proposal of new approach to the organisation of urban logistics, involving the co-ordinated use of different vehicle types, an innovative goods container, and support systems to improve the management of delivery operations;
- the provision of tools and information able to offer practical support to city authorities in planning and management of strategies for dealing with urban delivery traffic.
The FIDEUS partners have elaborated an overall solution in order to adapt the logistics chain in urban areas. Such a solution approaches the problem in an integrated way, by proposing a complete range of vehicles with advanced performances in terms of environmental impact, noise level reduction, ergonomics and safety. This new family includes three types of vehicles:
- a micro carrier, designed to move without restrictions and risks in pedestrian areas;
- a 3.5 ton urban delivery van, suitable to reach the downtown neighbourhoods also in case of traffic limitations;
- a 12 ton lorry, to perform especially large supplies.
A telematic tool enables the public authorities to publish on a web site all the traffic restrictions and to detect any violation from feeder vehicles. Moreover, logistics operators are now able to book reserved unloading bays. In order to test the impact of new technologies, RFID tags have been introduced to trace the main phases of the logistics process.
The proposed logistics flow is based on transhipment operations in those unloading bays, where the freight, unloaded from the main vehicles (van or lorry), is loaded on the micro carrier to be delivered to the final customers. This kind of operations is called 'cooperative transport'. The freight handling and the transhipment operations exploited a new generation, handy, secure, size/capacity effective container. We also can talk about 'direct supply' if big stocks are carried towards main customers (e.g. supermarkets or shopping centres) and directly delivered by the vehicle after the unloading operations. Finally, 'parcel delivery' missions consist of delivering loose load and that means to avoid using containers and loading/unloading them.
The present situation, which has evolved over the past decades is unsatisfactory from a societal and environmental as well as an economic perspective. Both industry and city authorities are therefore faced with the challenge of bringing about tangible improvements, by proposing efficient means of transport, new technologies and mobility management policies, which will permit a more efficient organisation of urban goods transport.
The FIDEUS project proposed a new approach to the freight delivery through three types of actions:
- the development of a complementary set of vehicles and equipment, specially conceived for undertaking urban deliveries and collection;
- the proposal of new approach to the organisation of urban logistics, involving the co-ordinated use of different vehicle types, an innovative goods container, and support systems to improve the management of delivery operations;
- the provision of tools and information able to offer practical support to city authorities in planning and management of strategies for dealing with urban delivery traffic.
The FIDEUS partners have elaborated an overall solution in order to adapt the logistics chain in urban areas. Such a solution approaches the problem in an integrated way, by proposing a complete range of vehicles with advanced performances in terms of environmental impact, noise level reduction, ergonomics and safety. This new family includes three types of vehicles:
- a micro carrier, designed to move without restrictions and risks in pedestrian areas;
- a 3.5 ton urban delivery van, suitable to reach the downtown neighbourhoods also in case of traffic limitations;
- a 12 ton lorry, to perform especially large supplies.
A telematic tool enables the public authorities to publish on a web site all the traffic restrictions and to detect any violation from feeder vehicles. Moreover, logistics operators are now able to book reserved unloading bays. In order to test the impact of new technologies, RFID tags have been introduced to trace the main phases of the logistics process.
The proposed logistics flow is based on transhipment operations in those unloading bays, where the freight, unloaded from the main vehicles (van or lorry), is loaded on the micro carrier to be delivered to the final customers. This kind of operations is called 'cooperative transport'. The freight handling and the transhipment operations exploited a new generation, handy, secure, size/capacity effective container. We also can talk about 'direct supply' if big stocks are carried towards main customers (e.g. supermarkets or shopping centres) and directly delivered by the vehicle after the unloading operations. Finally, 'parcel delivery' missions consist of delivering loose load and that means to avoid using containers and loading/unloading them.
