Context and policy framework

The city of London suffers from poor air quality, pollution, and high congestion levels. In addition, due to its status of largest urban area in Europe, London faces a high logistics demand. The British Capital receives approximately 280,000 delivery vehicles every day, the majority of which run on diesel. Moreover, 10% of all freight vehicles are running empty and their average payload reaches only 50%.

London has introduced a series of control measures, such as the Low Emission Zone, time and weight restrictions, to encourage the logistics industry to operate more efficiently and utilise less polluting vehicles. A comprehensive set of actions have also been set in their London Freight Transport Plan and key lessons from the 2012 Olympics Games have helped to further develop London’s freight activities.

In 2015 an Ultra Low Emission Vehicle Delivery Plan was released. This will help to further introduce low emission vehicles in the transport system and includes fifteen key actions to achieve this. Freight and fleet organisations are also addressed in this plan.

Solutions implemented in FREVUE

In London the FREVUE partners concentrate their efforts particularly in two main aspects:

– The expansion of the successful consolidation centre model to new end-user types.

This demonstration aims at enabling public organisations to implement policies which encourage the use of consolidation centres with last-mile electric vehicles delivery. It will build on the experiences of an existing state-of-the-art CC in Regent Street.

– Overcoming grid restrictions to electric vehicle charging and plan the roll-out of larger fleets

In cooperation with the grid operator UKPN, FREVUE intends to optimise existing UPS electric vehicle logistics operations. The aim of the activity is also to understand better the needs of electric freight vehicles in terms of charging in order to develop active management for electric vehicles to offer load balancing services to the grid.

Cooperation between FREVUE and the LoCITY programme*.

FREVUE is working alongside other organisations to help increase the supply and uptake of low emission commercial vehicles through the LoCITY programme. Developed by Transport for London, the industry led LoCITY aims to improve air quality in London.

Along with freight and fleet operators, vehicle manufacturers, infrastructure providers and others, FREVUE  is helping to develop the LoCITY programme and shape its objectives.

Commercial Vehicle Finder

LoCITY provides a Commercial Vehicle Finder tool designed to provide fleet operators with information about the range of alternatively fuelled commercial vehicles that are available in the market. The tool can help fleet operators make informed decisions about vehicle procurement.

Declaration of Intent

LoCITY and FREVUE call on urban logistics operators interested in the electrification of their fleet to sign the Declaration of Intent. This joint declaration aims to highlight the demand for zero emission capable vehicles for urban logistics in and around London.

Highlighting this demand will help to:

1)      persuade vehicle manufacturers to start and/or scale up development and production of (hybrid) electric trucks

2)      strengthen bids for financial support as long as (hybrid) electric trucks remain considerably more expensive than their diesel alternatives

Please return signed declarations to the FREVUE coordinator Tanja Dalle-Muenchmeyer on tanjadallemuenchmeyer@crossriverpartnership.org or send to enquiries@locity.org.uk.

For more information about LoCITY, or to find out how you can get involved with the programme, visit www.locity.org.uk or email enquiries@locity.org.uk.

*LoCITY is a technology neutral programme

Relevant links