Optimising freight deliveries at construction sites

Summary

A logistics centre was established to reduce the number of deliveries to target sites, reducing congestion and improving quality of life.

Implementing sustainable mobility

The new housing district Hammarby Sjöstad, comprising 8,000 new apartments and thousands of new office spaces, is under construction in a former harbour area in Stockholm, due to be completed in 2015. However, access for delivery vehicles is restricted, due to the geography of the site and to existing buildings.

The goal of this measure was therefore to establish a logistics centre to reduce the number of individual delivery trips into the area through co-transportation. Without the logistics centre, the construction site would receive over 400 uncoordinated deliveries per day, or roughly 700 tons of construction material per day during peak periods.

The logistics centre, located in the heart of Hammarby Sjöstad, has a staff of 10 people and a fleet of three trucks with cranes, one large truck with a long crane, three forklift trucks and one pick-up truck. It provides coordinated transportation of goods, temporary storage, and smart traffic guidance.

Progress

Co-transportation Deliveries below four pallets from different suppliers are unloaded by forklift truck at the logistics centre and registered in the computer system. The goods are moved to a colour-coded area, depending on recipient. Trucks make combined deliveries to the site twice a day.

Temporary material storage Each contractor has their own area in the logistics centre for storage, which must be paid for after four days. The space is divided into units and dedicated to contractors depending on their construction volume. Logistics centre trucks then distribute the stored materials.

Smart traffic guidance system In order to prevent traffic jams on the site, deliveries not passing though the logistics centre are entered into an Internet-based calendar. Each contractor depending on the same access road can enter incoming trucks on the same part of the calendar, making it possible to obtain an overview of the total volume of incoming trucks and to avoid congestion. A traffic coordinator was hired to follow up all registrations and to send texts to variable message signs and mobile phones in the event that a road is blocked.

Outcomes

The logistics centre reduced the number of small direct deliveries by 80 percent during peak periods. The centre is a well-functioning part of the supply chain and has achieved considerable savings in energy and emissions during peak periods and has helped to reduce congestion. Users are very satisfied and there has also been a considerable reduction in thefts, losses and damaged materials.

The logistics centre will continue to operate in the next phase of the construction work, although with different financing, as the building companies themselves asked for the service to continue.