Cooperation amongst competitors in Bologna's parcel distribution
The Challenge
In the scope of the URBANE project, the Bologna Living Lab (LL) has been implemented in the historical centre of the municipality, which has an area of about 4 km². The municipality has around 6,866 active commercial businesses, out of which 40% of them (2,656) are in the historical centre, and 2,312 lie within the Limited Traffic Zone (LTZ). As a result, the city centre is highly congested, and freight vehicles frequently turn to illegal parking.
The main challenges of the Bologna LL are:
- Developing and setting up a business model for an innovative delivery method in urban areas.
- Promoting collaboration between logistics operators that can be current or potential competitors in the logistics sector.
- Reducing the distance travelled by traditional delivery vehicles and consequently decreasing the negative externalities produced by them, such as road congestion, noise pollution, air pollution, lack of road safety or lack of urban public space.
- Introducing delivery methods that include the Physical Internet concept.
- Supporting the development of a Digital Twin (DT) of the logistics’ microhub network, fed with real time data and used for planning and implementing measures.
The Solution
The Living Lab aims to fulfil the policies listed in Bologna's Sustainable Urban Logistics Plan, namely the implementation of the first Nearby Delivery Area (NDA), combined with a collaborative approach between logistics operators, and implementing the use of zero emission vehicles.
The NDA is an area dedicated to logistics activities very close to the delivery area, and in the Bologna LL case, it is a micro consolidation centre for the transhipment of freight from conventional vans to Light Electric Delivery Vehicles. It is worth noting that the micro consolidation centre looks like a typical parcel locker, but it functions as a microhub in that it is used for the transhipment of B2B goods rather than for parcel collection in a B2C fashion.
The innovation provided by the Bologna Living Lab is that two potential competitors collaborate in the distribution of the parcels and use the same microhubs. This part of the business model represents a concrete step towards the Physical Internet (PI) concept. To fully achieve the PI vision, the Bologna Living Lab seeks to expand its collaborative network to encompass multiple transport operators and last-mile delivery providers.
