New parcel logistics should relieve cities
A pilot project led by the ZHAW is looking for new ways in Zurich to curb the increasing delivery traffic in cities. The fine distribution is to take place from a hub in the city center. Companies such as Zalando, Ikea, the Post and DPD are involved.
A new pilot project by the Swiss innovation agency Innosuisse is testing an alternative distribution system for parcel shipments in Zurich. It is intended to reduce delivery traffic in cities. A media release from the Zurich University of Applied Sciences ( ZHAW ) quoted the Federal Office for Spatial Development, according to which the volume of parcels will increase by 75 percent by 2040 due to the growing online trade and the freight traffic will increase by 37 percent as a result.
The ZHAW Institute for Sustainable Development in Winterthur is leading this project. Companies such as H&M , Zalando and Ikea are involved. In addition to the city of Zurich, the project partners are also Swiss Post , DPD and Cargo Sous Terrain . The desired solution provides for the interaction of three distribution centers, so-called hubs. The project also aims to provide cities with assessment criteria that they can use to find suitable locations.
“Today every truck drives through town once and distributes the goods. With a hub in the city center, from which the fine distribution takes place, you can bundle much better, ”Maike Scherrer from the ZHAW is quoted as saying. A digital backbone based on artificial intelligence is to organize the shipment allocation to different means of transport in such a way that as few transport kilometers as possible are driven. Free transport capacities can be auctioned online. It is important that the distance to the home address is short so that the parcel recipients can walk to the Microhub as much as possible.
