Connected Fleets conference: 5 Lessons learned

CONNECTED FLEETS CONFERENCE: LESSONS LEARNED @DieterQuartier & Benjamin Uyttebroeck @uytteb 5

More than 100 fleet and mobility professionals gathered in Brussels on 28 and 29 January to share best practices and the latest trends in last mile deliveries. This is what they went home with.

A room full of managers eager to learn about last mile delivery and connected commercial fleets.

What challenges do today’s LCV fleets face in an urban context? How can fleet management and finance be optimised with connectivity and telematics? What does the future of delivery look like? That’s what the attendees set out to find out, each bringing their experience and expertise from commercial fleets, postal services and parcel delivery companies, online retailers, logistics companies and a wide range of specialised suppliers.

1Plan your procurement to avoid unnecessary costs, but build in a flexible layer to absorb temporary needs. “A van is more than a car,” said Michiel Alferink, Vice President International Commerce & Sales, Athlon International. Choosing a van should be determined by maintenance intervals, by tyre lifecycles and by other aspects that can have a direct influence on availability and costs. At the same time, peak demand requires flexible solutions, which is why Athlon offers rental vehicles that can be used to supplement traditional leased fleets.

2The hardware is one thing, the human element another. Driver monitoring and coaching are key to keep variable costs at bay. Benjamin Kaehler, Head of eDrive@ VANs, recommends fleets to scan all vans as they enter and leave the depot. This has shown to significantly improve driver behaviour, as they know even the smallest damages will be noticed. Importantly, it also reduces downtime and incidents that can potentially damage a company’s image.

Next to learning, the Connected Fleets Conference is very much about networking.

3Collaboration is paramount. It’s what drives innovation, increases security and creates synergies. Opening up your platforms and APIs is not about giving away your competitive advantage, it’s about staying competitive and therefore to survive. Koen Kennis, Deputy Mayor for Mobility, city of Antwerp, is clear: his city only gives the green light for new mobility providers if they open up their APIs. In practice, however, he sees much margin for improvement in terms of commercial applications.

4It’s not only about the last mile, but also the hand-over. Making sure the parcel is successfully delivered is equally challenging. That’s why Frank Rinderknecht, Founder of Rinspeed, came up with a solution to make this hand-over more efficient. The CitySnap is a vehicle that contains a wall of parcel lockers. It can be driven and parked anywhere, allowing consumers to pick up their package when it suits them. In the future, this vehicle will be self-driving.

5Telematics is crucial to go electric. It helps you to determine which vehicles in your fleet can be EVs and it’s the only way to know their location, range and state of charge. When delivery company Gnewt started operating its first EV fleet in London, founder Sam Clarke needed to organise charging using basic clock timers and a spreadsheet to work out a vehicle’s range and covered distance. Today, telematics and smart charging stations make this much simpler.

How close to reality are autonomous pods? A question sparking a lively debate between Frank Rinderknecht (Rinspeed), David Oren (UVEye) and Stefano Peduzzi (Geotab).

CASE STUDY POST NL

Parcel deliveries need to be optimised, but going for the solution with the lowest footprint doesn’t necessarily make sense in all contexts. You don’t want traffic jams of cargo bikes,” explained an inspirational Anna Paulides, Project Leader City Logistics, PostNL.

City centres are becoming less accessible as local governments introduce low emission zones, close off streets for traffic and limit the number of parking spaces. That’s why PostNL has the ambition to make emission-free deliveries with minimal disruption in 25 Dutch cities by 2025. By 2030, parcel deliveries in the Netherlands and Belgium should be completely emission-free. Put into practice, this means cargo bikes can be the go-to means of delivering parcels in the historic centre of cities. In other areas, however, vans are often still the best choice. One large van can be replaced by three smaller vans. In turn, those three smaller vans can be replaced by 12 electric cargo bikes. So if population density dictates a larger volume vehicle, it makes sense to use it. Anna Paulides, Project Leader City Logistics, PostNL: “The lowest-footprint solution does not always make sense.”

SimplyMile city hubs have already been set up in The Hague, Amsterdam and Groningen. In those hubs, goods from various sources can be consolidated, leading to fewer unique vehicles entering city centres.