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Last-Mile Logistics
Cooperative solutions for sustainable and efficient provision
The recent massive disruption to global supply chains has revealed the role that logistics plays in our way of life. At the local and regional level, too, functioning logistics is essential for everyday life. Same-day or even same-hour delivery services have been booming since the outbreak of the pandemic, if not before. In many fields, they are more than a mere convenience – they contribute to the provision of essential services. The transport and mobility transition does not end with passenger transport or individual mobility. Goods transport is just as important in the drive to make mobility climate-friendly and sustainable. We are only slowly realising that logistics must be seen as an essential public service. But what responsibilities does this entail for local authorities?
Ecological, electric, sustainable: solutions for the future of last-mile logistics
A variety of solutions for future-proof last-mile logistics are largely already available. Regional and inner-city micro distribution centres from which electrified delivery vehicles are dispatched on the last mile – increasingly autonomously – will shape the future. Electric vehicles – whether they’re vans or cargo bikes – are already part of everyday life in many cities. The modal mix is becoming increasingly important here: Delivery drones are every bit as conceivable as CEP vans that autonomously follow their drivers on their tour of the inner city as a mobile package store.
Solutions for the last mile: urban logistics requires cooperation
The challenges lie in the operational, area-wide roll-out. Last-mile solutions must be developed jointly by all stakeholders – local authorities, service providers, operators and logistics specialists.
Attention is increasingly shifting to the transition from funded project to permanent operation. Intelligent and successful field trials are too often forgotten. Funding must have a more sustained impact and open up direct prospects for transfer into everyday use. And finally, we must answer the question of which operating models make sense in the private sector and where local authorities must take the helm. This will determine how public administrations must be structured and the human resources that they need to assume this role.
But two questions remain crucial: How can local authorities speed up the roll-out of end-to-end solutions, and how can planning processes and timelines be brought in step with the pace of the CEP market?
polisMOBILITY brings practitioners, decision makers and experts together to answer these key questions.
