Night-time deliveries using clean and silent vehicles

Summary

The city of Stockholm is now conducting a pilot project on night time deliveries in partnership with freight owners, educational institutions, and haulage companies. Currently, there is a ban on heavy lorries in the inner city of Stockholm between 22:00 and 06:00. The two vehicles being used in the trial are a hybrid truck running on electricity and diesel and a truck using biogas fuel. In order to collect good data from the pilot project, the city will (as a part of ECCENTRIC) expand the project with one lorry running on an electrical drivetrain.

Implementing sustainable mobility

Together with Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), the City of Stockholm is commencing a new night delivery pilot project. This will see a silent electric plug-in hybrid being used to make night-time deliveries to McDonald’s restaurants in central Stockholm. Experiences from previous off-peak pilot shows that, in addition to having silent vehicles, it is necessary to reduce noise whilst unloading goods. To achieve this, measures like having silent wheels on carriers can be implemented.  

Implementation partners for the new delivery scheme, including the electric plug-in van, were selected via a Competitive Dialogue procurement procedure. The winning consortia consists of Scania, HAVI Logistics, and McDonald’s.

This demonstration project follows on from another off-peak delivery pilot project in Stockholm, which took place between 2014 and 2016. This investigated how the city’s night ban for heavy lorries could be lifted by using clean and silent vehicles to increase delivery capacity using existing infrastructure. The trial's results were positive with regards to transport efficiency and thus emissions. Congestion during the morning was reduced, whilst night-time deliveries were also more efficient due to the emptier streets.

The new night delivery scheme is scheduled to start in October 2018, with data collection conducted throughout of the one year service. A particular focus will be placed on noise emissions, since the disturbance of residents' sleep has been one of the main reasons for banning night-time deliveries in Stockholm.

The new trial within ECCENTRIC will also provide knowledge that will feed into the preparation of a new regulatory framework for night transportation.

Image credit: Scania