Public-Private cooperation for dynamic, data-driven and automated communications, incentivising effective and zero emission operations in last-mile deliveries.
The City of Ghent is a medium-sized medieval European city surrounded by an inner ring and outer ring (R4). In the historic centre, Ghent has a pedestrian area of 2 km². The municipality has incorporated many efforts to green the city including a modal shift as a cornerstone in Ghent’s SUMP 2014 and in 2019, a low-emission zone and a “Vision for the Use of Water in the City” which focuses on developing the use of waterways for freight transport. Ghent also aims to be climate neutral by 2050.
The Ghent Living Lab pursues automated communication of rules, sustainable alternative routes/modes, and in general city access regulations to allow for a pre-trip planning phase of transport network management and to pro-actively engage logistics service providers in choosing sustainable alternative solutions for city logistics. The communication is operated through the integration of Transport Management Systems by providers and advising them on more effective and sustainable options for last-mile delivery. It upgrades the existing Dynamic Access Control thanks to a data space focusing on creating trust between the market and local authorities, so that innovations aim to support net-zero SULP policy making. This system will be fully transferrable and scalable.