12.7 million Dutch people, that's the number of consumers who shop online. Who also order more and more. These are very interesting figures for webshops, but not for municipalities. Because all those parcels are delivered to homes and therefore mean traffic on the road. For the most part, diesel vans with their accompanying emissions of CO2 and particulates.
The flow of orders is increasing rather than decreasing. It is therefore necessary to develop good alternatives. We list three of them.
Electrification of the delivery fleet
What if we replaced all buses with electrically powered vans? That would at least help in reducing emissions. However, you have to ask yourself whether it is realistic to replace transport vans in the short term. First, it involves a huge cost. Second, it is questionable whether the battery of the electric bus can handle surviving an entire working day without being recharged.
Pick-up points
Consumers can also pick up their parcels themselves at a pick-up point. De Buuren's lockers are a good example of this, but so are UPS access points. The downside to this is that consumers tend to pick up these parcels by car. This still ensures that this method of delivery is not environmentally friendly. However, it is possible to have parcels delivered to Albert Heijn, as Bol.com currently does. This allows consumers to pick up their parcels right after they have done their shopping.
3. Cargo-sharing
Cargo-sharing is widely experimented with in logistics. Trunkrs extended this approach to parcel delivery: letting parcels hitch a ride on commuters' traffic. In the evening, they drive back home from work. On that route, they receive parcels at a petrol station. They then drop these off at recipients who live along their normal route. Managing a large number of commuters is a major challenge here.
Which alternative would you choose?
Jan Wijn - Ceo Trunkrs
Jan Wijn is speaking at ICT&Logistics in Jaarbeurs Utrecht on 2 November. Would you like to attend? You can register here.
