City-wide platform for integrated management of urban logistics
All urban delivery capacities run on a single platform neutrally organised – operated by themselves, a city-owned company, a third party or as a Public Private Partnership (PPP). The platform pools the flow of goods across all providers and uses decentralised warehouses to optimise last-mile deliveries, while the city defines the framework within which the platform can operate (e.g. criteria for selection, regulatory interventions).
The platform relies on:
- The existence of decentralised warehouses in the city (some will be made available by the city as shared facilities)
- The technology on which the platform runs, which brings together the supply and demand for deliveries out of the decentralised warehouses, allocates jobs and handles payments based on the defined criteria (e.g. prices for end customers, service level or rules for subcontracting).
The main advantages of this scheme are:
LSPs will be able to deal with peaks in vehicle or personnel needs by having any volumes in excess of a defined base load delivered by other players on the platform, boosting network efficiency
Busy routes can be made more flexible to accommodate additional courier-type deliveries at short notice
Easily accessible logistics depots will enable a fragmented hub-and-spoke system to operate with the involvement of varying delivery partners (incl. taxis/on-demand transit and food delivery couriers or the option of customer collection)
AI will support the management of the integrated system built as in a Physical Internet (PI): not on fixed routes but always finding whichever is the fastest and most affordable route
Improved service level to outlying areas (e.g. peri urban) thanks to corresponding framework of specifications
Containerised urban last-mile delivery
Sharing economy platforms for on-demand city logistics
Dual MobiHub
