New ULaaDs project to deliver solutions for urban logistics in the on-demand economy
A major milestone for on-demand urban logistics was reached this week with the launch of the EU project ULaaDS (Urban Logistics as an on-Demand Service).
Coordinated by the City of Bremen, ULaaDS was launched across a two-day digital kick-off meeting (8 - 9 September 2020). This featured contributions from leading players in the urban logistics world, including Måns Lindberg of the European Commission, Richard Armitage of the European Cycle Logistics Federation, and Fernando Liesa of ALICE.
ULaaDS brings together 24 partners, including city authorities, research institutions, industry and logistics stakeholders, associations, and networks to support the deployment of novel, feasible, shared and zero-emission solutions across a three-year period.
The project offers a new approach to system innovation in urban logistics. Through the relocalisation of logistics activities and the reconfiguration of freight flows at different scales, the project aims to develop sustainable and liveable cities, allowing people and local businesses to easily use alternative modes of shopping and delivery.
To realise this vision, ULaaDS will create five new urban logistics business models and schemes, these being the containerised last-mile, a marketplace for city logistics, a city-wide urban freight transport platform, and location, infrastructure and vehicle capacity sharing.
These will be tested within the three “lighthouse” pilot cities of Bremen (Germany), Mechelen (Belgium) and Groningen (the Netherlands), alongside the four “satellite” cities of Alba Iulia (Romania), Bergen (Norway), Edinburgh (UK), and Rome (Italy).
ULaaDS will then assess their social, environmental and economic impact and translate the findings into open decision support tools and guidelines that other urban areas can adopt to identify, explore and assess different sets of intervention measures to deal with the requirements of urban logistics.
Together with LEAD, the project is one of two new projects under the CIVITAS Initiative dealing with urban freight.
Are you interested in learning more about ULaaDS? Then register for Urban Mobility Days 2020 and join its session "Innovative zero-emission freight solutions for cities", which is taking place on 30 September, 14:00 - 15:00 CEST.
Read the project press release below.
