City logistics Reutlingen

Reduction of inner-city traffic congestion through intelligent parcel delivery and control in the city of Reutlingen

By providing a transhipment point close to the city centre, Reutlingen is making an important contribution to sustainable city logistics. With the help of a targeted environmentally friendly bundling and delivery of the parcels of all courier express parcel service providers at parcel lockers, Reutlingen is creating an intelligent logistics solution.

The ESB Business School City logistics Reutlingen project

1. Objective

The "deliveRT" project aims to develop a solution for smart city logistics together with the city of Reutlingen and various SMEs, taking into account the urban structure of a 'small city'. This should minimise the volume of delivery traffic caused by combustion vehicles in the city centre, increase the efficiency of urban logistics, improve the quality of life and at the same time enable new business models, especially for local SMEs.

TO THE PROJECT WEBSITE

The project has three main goals:

Cost savings through increased efficiency
Additional services
Reduction of environmental impact

2. Background

In autumn 2020, the city of Reutlingen launched the pilot project "Reducing inner-city traffic congestion through intelligent parcel delivery and control in the city of Reutlingen". The background to this is, among other things, an EU target that calls for 50 percent emission-free parcel delivery by 2030. This primarily affects delivery on the so-called "last mile", the last link in the supply chain to the recipient or customer.

The project "Reduction of inner-city traffic congestion through intelligent parcel delivery and control in the city of Reutlingen" with the brand name "deliveRT" is funded by the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Interior, Digitisation and Municipalities as part of the appeal for funding "Innovation Partnerships for Municipalities and the Mobility Economy 4.0 (InKoMo 4.0)".

3. Progress of the project

At the centre of the delivery concept "deliveRT" is a micro-hub close to the city centre at sMail GmbH where parcels from different parcel service providers or from retailers in Reutlingen's city centre are bundled. From there, the parcels are consolidated and then in a next step delivered in the city centre. The delivery location can either be a parcel locker, a parcel shop or the customer's personal address. There is currently a parcel locker situated at Reutlingen's town hall. Two more parcel lockers will follow soon. By entering the micro-hub address as the delivery location and a personal identification number, in the c/o address line, the parcels are assigned and consolidated in the micro-hub. The citizens of Reutlingen will then receive their parcels at a place of their choice (e.g. parcel locker) at a freely selectable time by means of emission-free delivery by means of electric cargo bikes.

Logistics flow of the concept

A pakadoo user can have parcels delivered to the central hub using their primary point delivery address and their Pakadoo PAK ID. On the pakadoo website and in the user app, the user is shown the pakadoo points and multilabel shops in their region. The user can freely decide to which pakadoo point they would like to have the parcel delivered. Pakadoo points and multilabel shops can be found via the app or via the web. A map view and a postcode are available as aids.
Staff at the hub accept the parcels from all CEP services. After the parcels have been accepted, the hub staff record the parcel data in the system using the pakadoo point app. When a consignment is entered, a new label is generated that contains information about the pakadoo point to be used as well as how to get there. The new label makes it easy for the hub staff to sort the consignments for transport to the actual pakadoo point (pick-up point).
Depending on the locker system, the service operator stores the parcel in a pakadoo locker directly at the pakadoo locker display or with the help of the pakadoo point app. The recipient of the parcel is informed of the storage by email and push notification. The notification includes the address of the pakadoo point where the parcel is ready for collection.
The final customer can buy parcel labels using the pakadoo user app or myPakadoo. The parcel labels can be printed directly by the user at home or with the help of a QR code in one of the multilabel shops. For this purpose, pakadoo provides the option of printing parcel labels in the multilabel shops with the help of the point app. These consignments are taken back to the hub during delivery by the hub staff and handed over to the CEP service there.

An overview of the ESB Business School City Logistics Reutlingen project

"Fewer delivery vehicles mean less noise, fewer exhaust fumes and accident risks in an attractive city centre. Not only customers and visitors benefit from this but also retailers and restaurants", summarised Mayor Thomas Keck at the inauguration of the "deliveRT parcel locker".
Mayor Thomas Keck
at the inauguration of the "deliveRT parcel locker"

Our project partners

In addition to the city of Reutlingen as the overall project leader, other cooperation partners support the "Citylogistik Reutlingen". The Logistics Research Center at Reutlingen University took on the project management and provided scientific support for the project. The start-up Pakadoo, which was spun off from LGI as a limited liability company in 2018, provided the necessary IT system and the parcel locker. Later, the local postal service provider sMail also supported the project. sMail set up the mini central warehouse (micro hub) near the centre and managed the electromobile delivery for the "last mile".