Multipurpose, multi-tenant and temporary use of buildings as logistics hub, supported by optimally located smart data collection via road sensors, to help detect freight flows and zero-emission freight transport
The City of Thessaloniki is one of the 100 EU Mission climate-neutral and smart cities by 2030. The City’s challenge is to become a zero-emission city by 2030, achieve optimised use of public space and overall enhanced citizens’ quality of life. Currently, in the historical centre, the main demand generators for last-mile transport are the commercial establishments and, more specifically, from fashion and HORECA.
Thessaloniki has applied, across the whole historical centre, a weight and capacity restriction policy in which vehicles up to 8 tons are allowed to enter at specific time-windows for loading / unloading (L/U) activities. Underreporting of illegal activities and limited control by the city has led to resistance and added conflicts among the society, the public administration, and the business sector.
The Thessaloniki Living Lab will consist in the development of a new business model which integrates urban freight transportation data with cooperative city logistics schemes and space/land data, to optimize the TIF HELEXPO Exhibition Centre’s underutilized space as a flexible logistics hub. The solution implemented aims to achieve the city’s main sustainability targets for a CO2 neutral and zero-emission city by 2030 thanks to the reduced number of delivery vehicles circulating in public spaces, thus reducing traffic congestion and ensure better quality of life.