City Logistics
Time and place:
| Date: | 24 September 2013 |
| Time: | 18:00 |
| Place: | European Parliament (Members Salon) Brussels |
How to tackle future challenges for sustainable urban development
BRUSSELS, 24 September 2013 - EU policymakers and more than thirty industry stakeholders came together to join the second event of the European Logistics Platform (ELP) in the European Parliament on the topic “City Logistics – How to tackle future challenges for a sustainable urban development”.
Markus Ferber MEP hosted the event and emphasized the importance of cooperation on all levels in order to meet the challenges arising from urbanisation and demographic change: „City planners and local authorities should facilitate and support the implementation of innovative sustainable urban freight transport solutions. In order to do so, we need to integrate and consult all relevant stakeholders”.
The ELP dinner event brought together successful examples of cooperation between the public and the industry sector. Ian Wainwright (Transport for London) gave an insight into the extensive planning that took place for the 2012 Olympics and highlighted the measures like the out-off peak hours deliveries that should be carried on in London. Laurent Kamiel (FRANPRIX) presented a multimodal transport solution, in which a combination of road and barge transport is being used to guarantee the on-time delivery for retail city centre distribution in Paris. Finally, Benoit Vaille (Here, a Nokia Business) vividly illustrated the considerable positive impact that turn-by-turn navigation can have on driver productivity, safety and stress.
Speaking on behalf of the European Logistics Platform, Alexander Kirschall, Chairman of the Steering Committee, pointed out that ‘It is crucial that urban mobility planning should take into account all relevant city policies like urban land-use planning or time restrictions for deliveries and be put into perspective of the new demands of the consumers, such as the rapid development of eCommerce’.
The discussion showed that an integrated urban mobility policy needs to pay close attention to the interest of all stakeholders, in particular freight operators. Furthermore, a close dialogue with local citizens needs to be ensured in order to secure public acceptance of the deployment of new delivery solutions.
