HITS paves the way for sustainable urban transports

- By also shifting to more off-peak deliveries, we can not only reduce daytime traffic but also enhance efficiency in logistics and cut costs,” says Project Manager Elisabeth Hörnfeldt at Scania’s Innovation Office. “The strength of this project is that we’ve engaged those that have the most to gain. While transport companies may not be naturally inclined to initiate change, involving them in the process and highlighting the potential for greater efficiency and cost savings has helped them recognise the advantages. Together, we can pave the way towards more sustainable cities.

The four-year HITS project, Sustainable and Integrated Urban Transport System, has aimed to develop efficient transport solutions and create cleaner and safer cities. It has engaged a large number of transporters, academic and research institutions, municipal authorities, property owners, logistics companies, and waste handling and engineering companies. Focusing on Stockholm, the project initiated several pilot studies to assess the effects of alternative distribution modes, particularly off-peak deliveries in combination with consolidation of delivery goods.

“The City of Stockholm can’t just enact regulations and thereby expect everything to be solved. But off-peak deliveries can form part of the solution for achieving the City’s climate targets and with this project we now have a better understanding of how this transformation can take place,” says Victoria Herslöf, Sustainable Urban Transport Strategist at the City of Stockholm’s Transport Department.
 

Consolidation provides several benefits

Another key finding of the project was that the number of delivery vehicles can be reduced by up to 50 percent if deliveries are consolidated and piecemeal goods transferred from vans to trucks. Presently, deliveries are carried out by vehicles with a low fill rate and the potential for consolidation is therefore high.

The concept for consolidation focused on a downtown area in Stockholm with shops, restaurants, hotels and offices. Several businesses changed their delivery location to a c/o address which was a suburban consolidation centre. Goods were collected at the centre and electrified trucks with consolidated goods drove off-peak to urban consolidation centres. The goods were then reloaded onto light electric minitrucks or cargo bikes for customer delivery. To achieve a sound business case, it is beneficial to combine delivery services with waste handling. 

It was found that real estate owners play a key role in developing and driving an efficient consolidation service in collaboration with hub operators.

“Earlier, consolidation hubs have not always met with success but by engaging real estate owners we found that the chances for success are far greater,” says Jack Lu, Project Leader at CLOSER, a Swedish platform for research and innovation coordination. “I believe that this has been the missing part of the puzzle. Property owners have great opportunities to influence how deliveries are to be carried out through their formal relationships with tenants and contacts with hub operators. For them, it’s a win-win situation whereby the surrounding streets can potentially become more attractive and their tenant customers satisfied with an improved logistics service.”

Despite the benefits for all those involved in the delivery chain there is presently a lack of incentives for voluntary coordination amongst transporters. In the pilot, goods were consolidated by recipients ordering to an c/o address. Other means could be policy measures and regulations that would offer transporters economic or social incentives to consolidate at a hub.

“The broad collaboration in HITS has contributed towards establishing sustainable urban transport systems,” says Elisabeth Hörnfeldt. “It may not be possible to find a single solution that fits all cities or meets all challenges at the same time. However, the results we have obtained in HITS show that there are several viable solutions for sustainable transport solutions – creating a win-win-win situation for all parties involved in urban transport.”

Off-peak contributes to more effecient transports

More heavy transports during off-peak hours rather than during rush hour are positive for cities by reducing congestion, gaining more efficient logistics and providing more attractive public spaces and safer streets. By deploying electrified heavy trucks some of the challenges involved can be offset, primarily by reducing noise. The higher price of electrified trucks can then be compensated by operations during more hours of the day.

“We now have proof that off-peak deliveries are both feasible and possible,” says Isabella Sahlbom, Project Manager Sustainability, Supply Chain, at HAVI Sweden.

However, there are certain challenges that must be handled for implementation on a larger scale. Unmanned deliveries to customer facilities need to consider safety, security, efficiency and transparency. One major insight is that digitalisation can help define respective responsibilities between sender and recipient as well as ensuring the quality of deliveries. 

In the project, the global logistics company HAVI tested digitally connected goods and vehicles to examine whether it was possible to deliver goods with gateways even when restaurants were closed and unmanned. In a related trial, systems with smart locks and key cards were also tested. 

Another off-peak HAVI initiative was nightly deliveries to the Westfield Mall of Scandinavia shopping centre. “With off-peak deliveries, we can utilise our trucks and loading docks more efficiently and thereby simplify operations through less congestion at our facilities. This is a concept we would be interested in scaling up,” says Sahlbom.

“We had previously established that off-peak deliveries could be beneficial but with this project we could incorporate several perspectives to gain an overall understanding of all issues,” says Anna Pernestål at KTH Royal Institute of Technology’s Integrated Transport Research Lab in Stockholm. ”Urban centres are complex environments and here we must consider transporters, recipients, goods sellers, municipal authorities and policy makers. It’s these challenges that we’ve further explored. Implementing off-peak deliveries is simple but most often hampered by the need for recipient staff to handle incoming goods. There are technological solutions but we must also consider other issues such as trust.”

Project partners HITS 2024

The consortium is represented by the entire value chain linked to urban freight transport. 

The project is led by Scania and consists of 16 parties:
Research and academia: University of Gothenburg, IVL, KTH, Linköping University, RISE
Municipalities: The City of Stockholm, Haninge Municipality 
Companies: Axfood, Atrium Ljungberg, CLOSER, Fabege, FTL Logistics, HAVI, M Logistics, Ragn-Sells, Urban Services

HITS is funded by the program "Strategic Vehicle Research and Innovation, FFI".