# What exactly is urban logistics?

**Channel:** Geopost
**Source:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KITugDk3vx4
**Transcript page:** https://www.withtranscript.ai/video/KITugDk3vx4

## Chapters

- 0:05 — Urban Logistics and Delivery Challenges
- 2:34 — Electric Vehicles and City Depots
- 9:15 — Shared Hubs and Smarter Trucking
- 15:31 — Measuring Pollution and Locker Networks
- 22:39 — Reliable Delivery and Future Innovation

## Transcript

**[0:05]:** if I say Urban Logistics what does that make you think of urban Logistics is that like how wouldn't the modern day retailer ships off products to humans I'm not too sure about what that means and if I say transporting merchandise in cities and towns actually I do most of my shopping online it's so convenient because it'll come that day or the next day all across Europe online shopping obviously got a huge Boost from the pandemic

**[0:44]:** is

**[0:48]:** it sustainable especially with a lot of like petrol and Gas and energy used from it a lot of questions and issues that's indisputable but online shopping is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what's carried by an urban Logistics Network flow also supplies shops construction sites restaurants catering operations and more but the online shopping boom suddenly put this major issue for Europe in the spotlight

**[1:25]:** results

**[1:50]:** people want more sustainable Delivery Systems but they don't want to give up delivery that's constantly getting faster and more reliable dpd group opened its doors to us to explore how to meet all these demands what is a solution were different for each location depending on local context infrastructure and culture we went to Estonia Portugal Poland France and Great Britain to meet top experts from the sector and to explore solutions for tomorrow's Logistics

**[2:34]:** according to the world economic Forum the online shopping explosion will increase pollutant emissions in big cities by 30 by 2030 compared to 2020

**[2:49]:** the first solution that comes to mind is to drive more sustainable vehicles in London that's already happening in the heart of the British Capital Westminster palace and its iconic Big Ben tower have been seeing some odd little Vehicles whizzing by little Urban e-bikes cargo bikes and electric vans

**[3:18]:** hello guys that is for you thank you so much Victor have a beautiful day thank you guys ciao since 2018 Mateo and his fellow drivers in the Westminster neighborhood have been making deliveries only with electric vehicles people live in a big city we do lots of mice every day and burning this yellow gasoline it's definitely not a sustainable future so I have been getting excellent reaction from stranger as much as clients as much as my neighbors everybody is quite proud and happy that we made a responsible choice hello sir

**[4:06]:** so when we have Urban Logistics it's a daily footprint that is added to that City not only we talk about air pollution directly from the vehicles but also noise and congestion and therefore all the contributions that we can have to lower this impact are quite significant new vehicles have cropped up to weave through London traffic this Urban e-bike is 100 electric too but it's more compact than a van you can't throw them in and then pick them up you have to have a good organization and keep them organized with not the heart for sure on this side would have taken something around 90 parcel you know so it's it's a good vehicle I find it easy kind of relaxing you don't queue too much you can always find parking most of all everybody is beeping you waving you it's a funny vehicle these sustainable delivery services are in line with the demands of both City dwellers and the cities themselves because more and more cities are mandating the use of decarbonized means of Transport low emission zones are crucial for Europe there

**[5:37]:** are several countries that are expanding these low emission zones basically we are excluding the most polluting vehicles to circulate in these areas most of them are old vehicles but we are already transitioning this to zero emission zones we're starting to implement areas where we only have pedestrians bicycles and electric vehicles without emissions several European cities starting with London have taken the plunge from 2025 on only electric vehicles will be allowed on the roads in the center of the British capital but to achieve that the city will have to be completely reorganized by putting logistic sites in the heart of urban centers

**[6:31]:** the drawback with electric vehicles bicycles and walking is that you just can't go as far as with good old internal combustion engine vehicles so delivering from a logistics center near the customer is the key to the solution

**[6:49]:** is

**[7:01]:** to get closer to the final recipient Urban Logistics have to infiltrate to the heart of large cities

**[7:21]:** this is

**[7:29]:** behind the 100 electric delivery experiment in the center of London there is a micro Depot tucked away amongst the Victorian buildings of Westminster

**[7:43]:** eight seven

**[7:49]:** a hyperactive Hive that takes up just 460 square meters this Depot is the smallest in the network this is a flagship Depot it's a prototype to show what can be done it's important for us to be in the center of London due to the range of the vehicles they're not as large as obviously using a petrol or diesel vehicle and it means there for driver needs to recharge they can come back to the depot and also get more Parcels as well so it's just convenient in order to get a foot in the door in London's dense and expensive city center it's essential to operate efficiently in a very small space in the morning the site is supplied by a truck bringing Parcels from the main London City Depot this site is only delivered with electric vehicles this is the freight vehicle that was lost to arrive into the depot this has about six to seven

**[8:40]:** hundred Parcels on it westminster's mini Depot manages to handle up to 2 000 Parcels a day while emitting 45 tons less CO2 a year compared to when it was operating with combustion engine vehicles now let's go further and imagine that fewer trucks are coming into our cities for that to happen we'd have to have several players sharing the same truck well that solution is already operational

**[9:15]:** currently each Urban Logistics player goes their own way craftspeople shopkeepers and other businesses are all supplied by their own Distributors which means multiple disorganized flows towards City centers in France in the city of Toulouse we put an end to that absurd every man for himself logic ocean is Irby a logistics Hub belonging to the LA poste group that's located on the outskirts of town is

**[10:11]:** to understand this shared system better let's look at midika the town's largest Home Depot store first step the merchandise arrives from all over France in different tracks it's unloaded but that's not all because Irby offers an additional service

**[10:51]:** then merchandise from lots of different suppliers is all loaded into a single truck instead of the 15 separate trucks that used to deliver directly to the store now just a single one will be heading into toulouse's town center traffic has been divided by 15.

**[11:23]:** deliveries begin in the early morning Flora is already on the job assistant

**[11:37]:** when he arrives there's no need to double Park so no Angry horns blowing to lose City Hall places a delivery space right in front of the madika store the temporary spot goes pedestrian again once unloading is over

**[11:57]:** and the truck doesn't drive away empty either the best days cardboard plastic and pallets are loaded to be recycled

**[12:13]:** once the packaging has been dropped off at the recycling center the truck goes back to its base to start The Virtuous cycle all over

**[12:25]:** Solutions exist for reducing the number of trucks inside cities but if you zoom out a bit you'll realize that your parcel's journey started well before then often hundreds of kilometers away so we have to work on optimizing parcel distribution across the entire Logistics Network

**[12:53]:** trucks still do the heavy lifting for the vast majority of merchandise transport they are still indispensable to optimize the number of trucks on the road you should load them fully it sounds obvious but it really reduces the logistics impact let's take a look at how it actually works

**[13:21]:** here's a real-life glimpse of a mega parcel sortation Hub in Poland it's located in stricov a city in the very center of the country this place is over 13 000 square meters which we got more than 500 line holes more than 550 people working on the shift on majority of our Parcels over 50 percent of them going directly to this place where we actually sorting them into 64 destinations in Poland bringing all the trucks to the same place makes it possible to load them fully

**[14:05]:** first the parcels are unloaded and rooted to other trucks depending on their final destination

**[14:15]:** once the parcel has arrived at the right shoot the truck still has to be fully loaded and that requires the right method we're trying to focus to put the parcels in a Tetris way put the heavy passes on the bottom light passes on the on the top so we're actually not going to damage any light Parcels on the end of the line pole we will put any small Parcels that will be in the black boxes we want to make sure that we actually got all Parcels fitted into one line or instead of sending two half empty

**[14:51]:** informed when the truck has been fully loaded and is ready to go and they close the chute the parcels are then directed to the next track so real-time management is key to optimizing operations

**[15:31]:** foreign

**[15:36]:** s aim at reducing their impact they now want to go further by alerting inhabitants about Urban pollution in order to do so they are measuring air quality

**[15:54]:** located where the tagus flows into the Atlantic Lisbon is famous for pastel houses and the futuristic Nations Park but there is a dark side to the Portuguese capital's Beauty like most large European cities its air pollution levels exceed the World Health organization's guidelines in Portugal there is around 6 000 premature deaths per year related with the increased levels of air pollution Urban Logistics shares some of the responsibility for that internal combustion Vans emit the carbon dioxides causing climate change as well as the fine particles that have a direct impact on citizens health people they are not aware that actually they are lives are in danger because of the high levels of certain pollutants so awareness is critical that's why those involved in urban Logistics decided to take action based on a very simple idea what if the vans that are part of the problem could become a solution since 2019 18 dpd vans in Lisbon

**[17:13]:** have been equipped with small sensors that measure the level of fine particles in the air every 12 seconds drivers aren't just delivering Parcels they're measuring air quality along their route in real time

**[17:41]:** the air quality monitoring program allows us the identification of polluted zones that no one had been aware of that was a spot in Lisbon and we were really surprised why the pollution was really high because traffic was not very intense there Etc so we looked around and we arrived to the conclusion that the main question there was a terminal for for big ships and these big cruise ships they produce a lot of pollution outside the data collected by polytrack makes it possible to map air quality for the entire city day by day and hour by hour it's a useful tool for helping Lisbon take action the municipality thinks through our data they have created the low emission zones but also they have got some Avenues their revenues with two ways now they only have one way they have created much more green spaces inside these more polluted Avenues the air quality monitoring program is a

**[18:48]:** tool that's not just for cities

**[18:53]:** it's also a way of raising awareness amongst the people of Lisbon with the help of 20 pickup stations those stations are equipped with sensors too

**[19:09]:** foreign

**[19:13]:** now in Lisbon with every delivery the customer gets a link where they can check the air quality in their neighborhood um

**[19:29]:** following in Lisbon's footsteps the air quality monitoring program has been extended to 27 other European cities Transporters want to reduce their environmental footprint but they also want to provide better service what if the answer came in a box are the automatic lockers showing up in more and more cities the answer for tomorrow

**[19:58]:** perched on the banks of the Baltic Sea Talon the capital of Estonia has enchanting medieval streets bold architecture and hundreds of smart lockers see them everywhere you look I just picked a pack from the Asian Dam and it's very convenient it's close to my house so I just take it and go to home I don't feel comfortable like it's just a strange person comes to my home I don't need to wait for the this driver crawling and so on and so on usually they call they are I'm at work lockers are estonian's favorite delivery option by far they account for over 90 of all deliveries to individuals it must be said they're open 24 7 and extremely practical to use all you have to do is put in the code or QR code that you got on your phone and the locker opens as if by Magic in addition they suit estonian's taste for privacy estonians can choose the time they're going to pick up their their parcels and do it and say by not talking to anyone and

**[21:15]:** since they're located at all of the city's most shopping centers universities business centers you don't have to go out of your way to pick your parcel up or to drop it off I bought Parts a label from online self-service so now I have a QR code in my email and I'm scanning it to get the parcel label and send barcelot

**[21:41]:** lockers mean lower mileage for consumers they also mean lower mileage for delivery people who can drop off dozens of parcels in one place that means lower greenhouse gas emissions and less local pollution

**[22:00]:** alternate lockers I think this is a good thing instead of going around the city and trying to find specific people who live in different locations I think it's making easier the operation of a good transfer and also it makes it more cost effective more environmentally friendly practical and sustainable lockers are an innovation that is gaining ground all around Europe this new trend is especially strong in the Baltic Nations and Eastern Europe however many customers are still quite attached to the idea of delivery people coming to their door

**[22:39]:** home delivery is still most Europeans favorite option according to the 2021 dpd group eshopper barometer 82 of eshoppers have their purchases delivered at home but they want more reliable punctual delivery in Great Britain they have found a solution

**[23:08]:** the city of Oxford is known for Harry Potter its prestigious medieval University and quiet residential neighborhoods with a one-hour delivery window has been adopted customers know what time their parcel will be delivered within a one-hour time window

**[23:29]:** that life-changing Innovation requires careful preparation at the small Depot on the outskirts of the town all the parcels come mixed when they arrive and we we have it root optimized on the Saturn Forest so it'll come up with you know stop one two three four five six seven and they all have one hour time windows

**[23:56]:** and we're off for a loop around Oxford Chris Argo has been riding ride bike for eight years now oh it is he knows shortcuts like the back of his hand so he can adjust the arrival time calculated by the Saturn device

**[24:13]:** everyone looks forward to seeing him in the neighborhood where he usually delivers

**[24:25]:** yeah not too bad so pass it for you I believe definitely prefer human contacts with my Deliverance I prefer to work so he's definitely it's easy and it's safe time thanks so much for that

**[24:44]:** there we go so this one's due between 220 and 320 so we're well within the window and in the green and nice and early and yeah we're gonna go see if the customers in hello everybody I believe I've got a parcel for you a few days ahead of time customers get a message a date and place of delivery on their phone to adjust this information at their convenience that morning the window is narrowed to within an hour and 10 minutes before Chris arrives customers get a message letting them know he's nearly there brilliant thanks so much for that for us as Riders from roundabout on the roads it massively improves you know the ability to deliver the first time I think when people know that they've got a delivery coming that day but it's by the hour it's a much more narrow window that people can work into their days and you know they're happy

**[25:37]:** because they've ordered this stuff they just want it to arrive you know reliably and on time customers no longer have to worry about getting woken up from a nap or disturb during a meeting I think it's Paul isn't it so I've got a parcel for you clients can also track their parcel on the dpd app they can even find out more about who will be delivering it all right thank you very much for that in the in the UK delivery people are happy to share personal information like their hobbies to create a bond I knew this time it was Chris he always delivers to me and then on his profile if I click on that I can see his name where he's from his job is an interest so I know he likes cycling and also you can see the customer rating you can also leave comments so here you'll see Chris has got five

**[26:25]:** out of five we do get offered sort of you know Cups of Tea and drinks whilst we're on the road particularly when you're on the cargo bikes and it's a hot day and it gives us a chance to get to know people around the area I really like that what's it like to drive it's a lot of fun so with the electric assist particularly so but hopefully you'll see more of them out and about and around yeah I'd be really happy to see more of these have a good rest of the day creates unexpected contacts especially when carried out on the cargo bike but it does pose one key problem what happens if what you ordered doesn't suit you how can returning items be made easier

**[27:11]:** returning items you've ordered often turns into something of a headache in Warsaw Poland's Capital they've come up with a solution to make clients lives easier in addition to pick up points with partner stores they've opened spaces that are entirely devoted to picking up and dropping off parcels in Villano a residential district one of those pickup points looks like a Chic Boutique

**[27:47]:** in addition to the coffee machine this Deluxe pickup Point offers a try on room and a counter for preparing parcels

**[28:01]:** Anna is a fashion designer who shops online regularly

**[28:08]:** wrong color or size she knows how annoying it can be to have to send clothes back when I order something online and it doesn't fit me or I don't like the material for example it is sometimes a problem and it is a problem just to contact with a delivery man so when he's going to come and when I can send it back comes to pick clothes up here she only has to go a few steps to try them on

**[28:45]:** thank you

**[28:50]:** and if an outfit doesn't fit she can pack it up and send it back immediately there's a counter with the boxes tape and scissors she needs

**[29:05]:** um

**[29:19]:** Logistics players are constantly offering new services to make delivery more practical to invent tomorrow's Logistics they have to be bold enough to explore and innovate

**[29:38]:** on the roads in Tallinn Estonia there's a vehicle that looks almost like a cute license-free car in except that there's no driver

**[29:54]:** in this small country known for its big Innovations delivery and self-driving cars is already being experimented when the vehicle arrives customers receive a code on their phones that enables them to access the parcel I'm not used to receiving a package like that it's really surprising it looks like a car it's so funny and kind of a bit cute like a small human robot the dpd network started testing self-driving delivery vehicles in May 2022

**[30:34]:** the Estonian startup clever on Mobility is behind this innovation please meet Cleveland one our unmanned delivery vehicle for Last Mile parcel deliveries this vehicle is designed to drive without the driver we have cameras six in total for the whole vehicle that provides it 360 Degrees view around the unit we have also Radars to identify objects so for example if a person steps in front of the car we can apply automatic braking systems and cut the vehicle to stop during the test phase an operator is actually driving it 150 kilometers away from cleveron's headquarters in vilyandi currently we have a safety driver or a tele operator for each of our vehicles but in the next few years we look at getting to 1 to 10 tele operation and only then we are setting ourselves to go the code to be fully autonomous current surge of e-commerce and parcel delivery self-driving Vehicles come as an excellent complementary

**[31:50]:** solution to the fleet of driver-operated vehicles because 100 electric driverless vehicles are a sustainable Innovation supported by the city of Tallinn European green Capital 2023 we have experiments on autonomous vehicles for quite a long time actually Estonia is one of the first countries who made its legislation on autonomous vehicles we are going forward its Evolution at the end of the day and we will never know whether it's the right thing or wrong thing before we actually try Urban Logistics are essential to cities around the world clear that

**[32:35]:** tries to live by innovating Greening their fleets and optimizing their Journeys a company that does not have these goals within their sustainability objectives will in the near future have problems with a society that wants actions from the politicians but also from companies public authorities also have a role to play in assisting businesses in their transition

**[33:11]:** is

**[33:31]:** hand in hand businesses and government policies can invent the sustainable reliable Logistics of the future