« A billion packages delivered in Ile-de-France in 2020, a number which is expected to double by 2030. That’s the equivalent of a Black Friday every day! »: this is the order of magnitude set by the economist and geographer of the Paris Region Institute, Lydia Mykolenko (1).
Encouraged by ever stronger demand, the success of “B2C” (more than 1.5 million online buyers in France in 2021), growth in demand for last km delivery estimated at 78% by end of the decade (2), and the flourishing results of “B2B”, last mile delivery is booming.
But how can we guarantee fluid, efficient and environmentally virtuous urban logistics?
In the French capital, as in all major cities, the task promises to be daunting. Because today, the latter is responsible for more than 30% of urban pollution (3), representing 20% of city traffic and occupying 30% of roads. At issue: its massive, almost exclusive reliance on the road. A number of light utility vehicles (LCVs), with an often aging fleet, and diesel heavy goods vehicles ensure even more than 90% deliveries within Paris!
A real headache when it comes to air pollution and traffic congestion. There is even more urgency to change the model given the emergence of low-emission zones and other urban tolls which promise to exclude gasoline engines and the most polluting vehicles from our city centers. One last figure to convince yourself: nearly 2.7 million LCVs are already prohibited from entering the Paris metropolis due to lack of a compliant Crit'air sticker.
Carbon-free logistics, airy cities
So much for the challenges to take on, the passes to cross. Good news, in this long-term race at high altitude, last kilometer delivery benefits from a valuable teammate: cyclo-logistics. The first obvious virtue of the bicycle, with or without electric assistance: its limited carbon emissions and noise pollution make it a valuable ally for city dwellers and the environment. Available as a cargo bike or a three-wheeler, equipped with a box or a trailer, with or without electrical assistance, the machine also surfs on urban infrastructures in full “velourution”. Reduced speed to 30 km/h and pedestrianization of city centers, large-scale deployment of cycle paths, emergence of favorable rules on the road (right turn sign at traffic lights, possibility of going up against the flow of certain one-way streets…) are all measures which have favored the growth of two-wheelers. And above all, which is an essential quality for logistics, it allows it to escape traffic jam and the congestion of city centers.
So much so that today, by bike, we far outpace cars, traveling at a speed 1.6 times higher than a LCV (4). Not to mention its ease of stopping almost anywhere, without the risk of annoying parking or fines.
Bottom line: When a van is limited to 3 or 4 deliveries per hour, some cyclists manage to deliver up to ten customers in the same time frame! A victory by KO, without possible dispute, for a solution “low-tech” which has a regulatory and technical head start on drones and semi-autonomous delivery robots.
Technology for intensive transport of heavy loads
But if cyclo-logistics is on the rise, it remains to change gear in its deployment.
As long as you play on several levers. Technological, first. A lock that the K-Ryole motorized trailer has undoubtedly forced since its first turns of the wheel, in 2016. Capable of loading up to 350 kilos of goods, without effort for its driver, its effectiveness no longer needs to be proven when it comes to covering the last few kilometers in the city. Whether they are delivering groceries from the capital's Monoprix stores, mail from postal sorting centers (with Stuart or Chronopost), construction site materials from the Building Platform stores or even unloading cargo from a barge docked on the banks of the Garonne, it has proven itself as an all-terrain vehicle.
With the partnership established last year with DB Schenker and SprintProject, the company has added yet another string to its bow, by developing a K-Ryole Pallet Holder. A new capacity capable of lifting up to 350 kilos of freight, replacing a 20 m3 truck with tailgate. The tool guarantees the German transport and logistics giant – 106 million shipments per year, 2,800 trucks and 70,000 depots per day, a quarter of which in city centers – to increase its soft mobility deliveries by 10% . It also promises to bring cycle logistics into a new era, with 90% goods around the world being transported on pallets!
An essential market therefore, at the time of greening the transport sector and offering alternatives to carbon-intensive vehicles. Challenges that K-Ryole seems all the more ready to take on as the French company has since its first steps put in place an industrial process worthy of automotive standards. On the three production lines of its 4,500 m2 factory, guaranteeing standardized assembly, a range of vehicles is designed, manufactured and crafted to meet all the wishes of urban logistics. Capable of delivering a package, recovering bulky items, transporting temperature-controlled products – medical, cosmetics, food, etc. – and therefore now transporting goods on pallets.
The French company also demonstrates an essential professionalization of the sector, already initiated by the offer of assistance, maintenance and training that the French company provides to all its customers. An after-sales service with countless benefits, from minimally reducing the downtime of equipment for repairs to increasing its lifespan, including improving the working conditions of staff. With a better maintained bike and trailer, serious accidents will be rarer, as will fatigue and work stoppages.
Essential professionalization of the sector
However, there remain a few pitfalls to overcome to definitively supplant LCVs in the hearts of city(ies). It will undoubtedly first be necessary to further regulate the transport sector, set common rules on a European scale, and open the doors of the city to the most virtuous. An urban toll could be a clue. Relying on the giants of the sector is another: « Let's not forget that half of Grand Parisian logistics is provided by a myriad of subcontracting VSEs and their old polluting utilities, whose low margins hinder the renewal of the fleet. Hence the need to see larger players in the sector, who have completely different means, investing in electricity, cargo bikes, motorized trailers, etc. », alerts Laetitia Dablanc, director of the “urban logistics” chair at Gustave-Eiffel University (5). Finally, it will be necessary to deploy more warehouses and other urban hubs, the inevitable logistics platforms for lighter delivery methods. A challenge in metropolises where every m2 is subject to serious competition. But certainly not an impossible mission, as demonstrated by the successful conversions in Paris of underground car parks, under the Beaugrenelle slab or under the Place de la Concorde, into postal sorting centers. Or the construction of the Chapelle International multimodal hotel, in the 18th arrondissement, making the link between rail freight and last km delivery.
When it comes to cycle logistics, you must always let the imagination take over.
To discover K-Ryole: www.k-ryole.com
(1) Interviewed by Grand Paris Développement magazine
(2) See https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Future_of_the_last_mile_ecosystem.pdf
(3) Figures to be found in the following study: Urban logistics facing economic and environmental challenges (FM Logistic / Roland Berger)
(4) https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5d30896202a18c0001b49180/t/61091edc3acfda2f4af7d9 7f/1627987694676/The+Promise+of+Low-Carbon+Freight.pdf
(5) In the Grand Paris Développement magazine
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