ALICE Knowledge Platform

Annual volume at global container terminals will rise by a 5.6% rate during the next 5 years and reach 840 million TEU by 2018.The usual way for ports to deal with the increasing demand of sea transport and compete against competitors is to expand the port in the original site. There is scarcity of land available for port expansion in densely populated urban areas where most of European ports are situated. This fact is causing that many container terminals are coping with congestion and capacity problems. Therefore, port managers are searching for more efficient and cost-effective means in the handling of containers while still trying to introduce innovative technical solutions. Container handling equipment automation is an innovative technological solution that contributes not only to improve the utilization rate of equipment and reduce operating costs, but also greatly improve efficiency of terminals.

Smart-Rail has established the following objectives that are aligned with the requirements of the topic MG 2.2 and the various policy objectives:

Introduce a wide set of innovative measures aiming to improve the freight rail services offered to the shippers, focusing on five key topics: reliability, lead time, costs, flexibility and visibility

The U-TURN project aims at addressing freight urban distribution, focusing on food logistics. The project will contribute to our understanding of freight distribution in urban areas, especially addressing the special requirements and needs of food transportation, and will suggest innovative collaboration practices and tools towards achieving more efficient operations from both an environmental and cost perspective.

Small forwarders, carriers and other logistic SMEs are in need of affordable, reliable and trusted data-interchange solutions to take part in international trade and commerce flows. LogiCon aims at setting up, testing and facilitating the adoption of low-cost, low-barrier data connectivity solutions. The above activities will be carried out in four national living labs, each one with specific objectives, dealing with three main challenges: 1) enabling connectivity, by selecting, refining, testing and promoting state-of-the-art solutions and platforms, through involvement of a vast audience of SMEs; 2) engaging communities, either cargo communities around port and inland terminals or business networks run by large companies, to favour standard adoption and to support risk assessment and dashboards for key indicators like emissions and load factors; 3) prepare for cooperation in a global freight management ecosystem, foreseen for the future, where capacity will be optimized and flows will be synchronized among the different involved actors.

Existing frameworks may be inadequate in protecting society, supporting business development and achieving integrated, sustainable mobility. The EU-funded GECKO project will support authorities and advise policymakers by providing evidence-based research, tools and recommendations for new regulatory frameworks needed for the transition to the new mobility era of cooperative, inclusive, competitive, sustainable and interconnected mobility. The project will apply a holistic approach with innovative concepts, methodologies and forward-looking tools to ensure all solutions are co-designed and validated before submission. GECKO will develop the Regulatory Frameworks Dashboard, using several key indicators and cooperation models, outline an implementation plan with actions up to 2040 and identify new regulatory frameworks to be adopted.

Logistics is at the core of modern society and essential to bring food and goods in the heart of cities, where a majority of Europeans live. Transport efficiency in Europe is a challenge, EU statistics show that vehicles are filled on average to only 57% of their weight capacity, and 27% of vehicles are running empty. Significant changes are needed in supply chain operations, especially on the last mile logistics chain. Amongst the EU Green Deal objectives, several aim at urban logistics: 55% reduction of emissions from cars by 2030, 50% reduction of emissions from vans by 2030. In additional, on a local level there is an increasing push for zero-emission zones in inner cities. 26 of the world’s largest cities signed up to the Green and Healthy streets pledge3. Last mile logistics need therefore new urban logistics consolidation frameworks.

In this context, the main objective of DECARBOMILE is to develop tailored solutions and demonstrate the full potential of decarbonised last-mile logistics in 4 living labs in line with their technical, environmental and local socio-economic contexts.

Gathering 31 partners from 10 different countries, DECARBOMILE aims to trigger an unprecedented improvement of the green last mile logistics in Europe. To reach that goal, DECARBOMILE relies on a strong experience of decarbonating urban logistics through European initiatives such as CIVITAS. Partners will build upon all previous results to develop improved delivery methods, tools and methodologies, and implement them across Europe. The solutions developed in DECARBOMILE will demonstrate the full potential of decarbonised last mile logistics in four living labs (in Logrono - Spain, Nantes -France, Hamburg - Germany and Istanbul - Turkey) and 4 satellites (Tallinn - Estonia, Getafe - Spain, Ghent - Belgium and Sarajevo - Bosnia and Herzegovina) will be involved at a smaller scale to test and study the solution in their own local contexts. To be successful in its implementation, DECARBOMILE will rely on developed methodologies to implement the new solutions and delivery methods in collaboration with all relevant local stakeholders, based on their needs and behaviours. The relation with and between stakeholders will be facilitated by the creation of a collaborative urban consolidation logistics framework that will include a digital platform, methodologies for collaboration, and ICT and IoT tools. This common framework, along with tailored innovative business models and recommendations on local policies, will allow for a strong collaboration during the project, allow to learn more about the end-users’ needs and behaviours. The delivery methods will be strongly improved with urban consolidation centres, micro urban consolidation centres including smart lockers, innovations on cargo bikes and how they can be used with load pooling for instance, electric barge and more. The goal is to use and improve existing solutions and allow their interoperability and modularity to improve their efficiency and use their complementarity.

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