Due to population growth in cities, the demand for transport is rising, and therefore an increase in transport movements by trucks and vans can be observed. These movements hurt air quality, liveability, noise, and safety. LEFVs (Light Electric Freight Vehicles) can be a good solution for last-mile deliveries.
Today one can observe a lot of enthusiasm for these types of vehicles. At the same time also, the number of LEFV suppliers is rapidly growing. However, many companies are still reluctant to initiate their business with LEFVs. To overcome this problem, new knowledge needs to be developed on using LEFVs in city logistics concepts.
A paper by Ewoud Moolenburgh and Nick van den Band presents the real-life experiences with a living lab for urban freight distribution based on LEFVs.
The Living Lab has provided all actors with joint knowledge production (Hegger et al., 2012). It has increased the shared situation awareness (Kurapati et al., 2012) of the last-mile delivery with LEFVs. Therefore, it can be concluded that the LEFVs are very easy to use in the city. The municipality of Rotterdam aims to have all supplies in the city center of Rotterdam done by emission-free vehicles from 2025 onwards. Compared to the current situation, the LEFVs (supplied by DOCKR) ensure that delivery can be done without emissions. In addition, deliveries can be made efficiently.
The loading and unloading times are lower than the current situation because smaller quantities are used, and relatively few kilometers are driven per ride, which means several trips can be made. Also, the loading and unloading times are lower than the current situation because smaller quantities are used. As a result, both the E-cargo Bike L and the TukTuk suffer little from traffic jams.
On sustainability, the LEFVs score great with a reduction of 87% CO2-footprint reduction and almost 20% reduction of the NOx-footprint. This is entirely in line with the goals set by the municipality. In addition to the sustainability and efficiency of the vehicles, the new way of delivery also led to positive responses from customers and the environment. Among other things, a higher customer satisfaction emerged from a survey with the hotel and catering industry
Source: (PDF) Real-time Learning with Light Electric Freight vehicles for urban freight distribution. A living lab approach. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/358643608_Real-time_Learning_with_Light_Electric_Freight_vehicles_for_urban_freight_distribution_A_living_lab_approach