In line with increasing e-commerce, the number of delivery trips in urban areas grows as well. One of several approaches to reduce these journeys in the future is to bundle goods at a central goods transhipment point. The “Hubert” hub is intended to provide a sustainable and efficient supply of commercial and business operations in the city of Vienna. Especially the first and last mile represents a particular challenge in freight transport, which calls for innovative logistics solutions, as it is partiuclarly in this context, that good utilisation of the delivery vehicles and bundling of goods flows are important.
In the Hubert project, goods are temporarily stored in the HQ7 – a commercial area near the Port of Freudenau belonging to the Port of Vienna – and subequently bundled and delivered with electric vehicles, as well as vehicles of Wiener Lokalbahnen Verkehrsdienste GmbH (WLV) to B2B recipients. Bundling of parcel flows avoids multiple trips, which not only reduces CO2, but also reduces traffic and particulate matter emissions, and improves the traffic flow.
Deliveries with Hubert are made with two own electric vehicles. Thanks to the cooperation with Wiener Lokalbahnen Verkehrsdienste (WLV), which is also based at the same location, their 120 vehicles can also be used for delivery trips, depending on capacity utilisation. Hubert uses the local synergy effects and existing resources, and also takes care of the disposal of the packaging material and returns.
Hubert is the further development of a long standing business model from the Netherlands. The project was developed in close cooperation with the City of Vienna and Wirtschaftsagentur, and funded by the Port of Vienna and the City of Vienna. The costs for the customers amount to 130 Euro per month per customer location and include two deliveries per week as well as the packaging waste collection.
