The reduction of “avoidable” lorry movements in city centres is the motivation behind the growing number of projects on urban logistics. In 2010, Hasselt entered the pilot CityDepot project, which, together with Binnenstadservice of the Netherlands and Denmark’s Citylogistik, has now founded the European umbrella organisation Service2City. Through this, the members want to disseminate their common model, which is based on a clustering of day-today delivery flows for shops in historic city centres.

“Our focus is on products that are easily handled,” says CityDepot manager Marc Schepens. “We offer the possibility to drop off shipments at our site outside the centre, from which we organise the ‘last mile’ using our dedicated lorries and vans and even, when possible, bicycles.”

The concept is primarily aimed at small, often family-owned businesses and – for the time being – is not an alternative to deliveries to the larger chain stores such as Blokker and Kruidvat.

The concept propagated by Service2City should not be misunderstood as a means to ban lorries from city centres. “It is not suitable for every type of business,” explains Schepens. “The larger chains have set up their own systems.”

Expansion in 2013

In just over two years, about 50 shops have subscribed to CityDepot, and, by the end of next year, the concept is expected to be implemented in Leuven, Ostend, Roeselare, Genk and Ghent.

But, in spite of Service2City’s common principles, urban logistics is closely intertwined with the layout of a city. In Amsterdam, for example, PostNL has managed to make use of the city’s world famous canal system, mooring a “depot barge” at a critical point from which the last mile system can be delivered by bike.

That idea has also been picked up by the Port of Brussels. The port wants to develop a network of two major hubs, combined with a number of smaller drop-off and pick-up sites, all centrally located. This network will be interconnected with a “pallet shuttle”, an innovative barge equipped with its own loading platform and crane.

The port intends to collaborate with Blue Line Logistics, which has planned the construction of 20 barges. The project will mainly be aimed at the transportation of building materials and small-scale urban distribution.

www.citydepot.be