ULaaDS

The on-demand economy is growing at an unparalleled pace. Consumers have the increasing habit of making small orders each day while demanding more immediacy. The growing number of vehicle and transport needs in urban areas is having a severe impact on cities’ quality of life. According to ALICE (Alliance for Logistics Innovation through Collaboration in Europe), urban freight is a major component of traffic (10-15 % of vehicle equivalent miles), emissions (25 % of urban transport CO2 and 30 to 50 % of NOx and particles) and noise in cities.

The roadmaps of the two main European networks, ALICE2 and ERTRAC (European Road Transport Research Advisory Council) clearly define what the proposed solutions need to focus on:

• Increasing energy efficiency through more efficient vehicles and urban logistics systems, to therefore improve the sustainability and liveability of cities
• Improving reliability of systems
• Increasing customer satisfaction
• Increasing safety and security
• Reducing the risk of road injuries and fatalities
• Increasing the quality of life in the cities

Goal

A consortium led by 3 European cities, Bremen, Groningen and Mechelen – the so-called ‘Lighthouse cities – committed to zero emissions city logistics, has joined forces with logistics stakeholders to accelerate the deployment of novel, feasible, shared and zero emission solutions addressing major upcoming challenges generated by the rising on-demand economy in future urban logistics.

Specific activities

ULaaDS will work on 3 key focus pillars:

• Multi-stakeholder process to collaboratively assess the future of on-demand urban logistics
• Development and demonstration of logistics practices and solutions for sustainable, cooperative and cost-efficient UFT based on the sharing economy
• Full integration of logistics activities into urban planning at local and regional level