Kopi af:
How to get started with EVs and smart logistic solutions
URBAN LOGISTICS
SAFE
How to get started with EVs and
smart logistic solutions
INTRODUCTION
This report is produced by the SAFE Urban Logistics project - a Norden Energy & Transport project that aims to study and analyse the prospect of integrating electric vehicles in the goods distribution of urban areas. The goal of the project is to create best practice solutions, offer promising opportunities for urban logistics operations in order to become both more efficient and more environmentally sustainable.
The SAFE Urban Logistics aims to match business model for making the application of elec- tric vehicles within inner city logistics happen. The project will also create proposals for sus- tainable suitable technical solutions associated with these business models. This is one out of four reports produced by the project. Read more about the project and get access to all the reports on www.safeproject.eu .
This report describes how to get started with EVs and smarter logistic solutions for goods distribution. It is supposed to act as inspiration and a draft manual on how to carry out the work when introducing EVs and new logistic solutions.
Knowledge and experiences in this report are mainly taken from Denmark, Norway and Swe- den. When it comes to logistic recommendations and experiences, influence from other parts of Europe have also been included.
HOW TO GET STARTED WITH EVS
many markets a demand for green energy production catalyses the interest!The arguments are plenty and the process is accessible with 6 steps.
1) Establish a small team for the development
Start by putting together a team responsible for the work. It is very important to involve the users at this early stage. Do not make the team too large – three people are enough. If the group is kept small the team can easily overlook the work and it is easier to keep focus and
drive. A smaller group has easier to communicate with each other too.
2) Map the existing vehicles in the fleet and how they operate
It is wise to do the mapping over a large part of the organisation, since a lot of capacity is often available but hidden in single departments. The following bullets are to be used as guideline for the mapping:
• How many and what kinds of vehicles do you have?
• How are they operating today (km/vehicles/day/year)
• How is the operation spread geographically?
• What parts of the organisation uses the different kinds of vehicles?
• When is it time to exchange the existing vehicles (age of the vehicles, end of leasing contracts etc)?
• Where are the vehicles parked today, in- or outside, possible/easy to equip with charging units?
Establish a small team
for the development
Analyze the actual operation
need with focus on the entire organization
Start changing your vehicles to
EVs
Secure the financing Map the
existing vehi- cles in the fleet
Decide how to secure the energy supply
Make sure the users accept the
vehicles
Market your work
Electric vehicles are promising technol- ogy; they make less local emissions and less noise. It is very energy efficient; around three times better than petrol and diesel vehicles. An electric vehicle has less wear and tear due to fewer moving parts, which means less spare parts to be exchanged. In
Foto: Mosebacke Media, Stockholm, Sweden
3) Analyse the actual operation need with a focus on the whole transport solution for the entire organisation.
Often departments are reluctant to give away the freedom associated with the ownership of their own car, but their needs rarely add up to actually giving them one full car. The concepts of benefitting from electric vehicles apply with the usage of car sharing between departments.
Use the following questions as a help for the analysis.
• What is the real transportation need? Try to separate nice from need.
• What different types of vehicles is there need for (passenger cars, vans, trucks, bicy- cles)?
• What parts of the organisation can easily move over to EVs because of operation pattern, type of vehicles used and age of the vehicles etc?
• How many vehicles is there actually a need for? Can vehicles be shared in a car-pool by several operators?
• Can money be saved through vehicles optimization to be invested in EV and reduce the investment costs?
Dansk Transportoptimering A/S states that in accordance with the existing vehicles- and leas- ing prices:
Vehicles that are used less than 3 hours a day should be excluded from the car park and car- pooling or other solutions is more suitable here.
Vehicles that operate less than 70 km/day can definitely be exchanged to EVs.
4) Decide how to secure the energy supply
Decide what technical specifications are needed for the charging of the EVs.
• Volt and Ampere? We recommend 230 Volt and 16 Amps for normal charging at the ordinary parking facility for the EV.
• Is it possible to get normal charging where the vehicles are parked today?
• Look into cost for the installation of charging?
• What will be the price of the electricity?
Several energy suppliers and charging infrastructure suppliers have developed models for buying or leasing this kind of equipment. Find out what they recommend and offer for your organisation. Remember if you wish to have a vehicle fleet with an environmental concern you need to have electricity from renewable sources. You can look into the opportunity to produce electricity yourself through photo voltaic installations or wind power generators or you can approach utility companies, who often offer an energy package based on renewable.
No matter the choice of energy you need to create a booking system where the time for nor- mal charging is linked with the usage of the vehicles.
5) Start changing your vehicles to EVs
A change to EVs involves investments and costs for other things than only the vehicles them- selves. The charging of the vehicles, the information to all personnel, the booking system etc.
The EVs are currently more expensive to buy or lease but the operation cost is lower due to lower cost of fuel and less service and maintenance. Study the market and make contact with
– they will have great knowledge to share and often be motivated to do so.
Give the new EV drivers information on a wide range of topics connected with the vehicle – how to operate the vehicle, how to charge it in different ways, how to book it for usage, repara- tions and service intervals, where does the electricity come from, environmental benefits etc.
It is important that the driver understands why a technology in chosen that initially can seem less user friendly.
7) Secure financing
Today the electric vehicles are more expensive to purchase than their petrol or diesel equiva- lent. However, operation costs are lower. Electricity is a much cheaper fuel than petrol and diesel and service and maintenance costs are lower for the electric vehicles. The lower opera- tion costs do, however, not quite make up for the higher purchase price.
Operational or financial leasing of vehicles is becoming very common among municipali- ties and companies. The calculated residual value of the vehicles has a large impact on the monthly leasing costs. Since electric vehicles are fairly new and have not been in operation for a long time it is difficult to know what the second hand value of the car will be. A few auto manufacturers offer leasing of batteries. The customer may buy the car but the batteries are leased for a monthly fee.
It this stat up phase for electric vehicles it is important to secure financing for the roll out in a municipal or private company fleet. This can be done in different ways:
• By using the vehicles smarter you can reduce the number of vehicles in the fleet. In- the vehicle manufacturer. If you are a local authority you need to prepare and carry out a
procurement for the vehicles needed, if EVs are not included in your already existing frame work agreement for vehicles.
Pay attention to:
• The range of the EVs in different weather conditions (cold and warm). How are the vehicles heated/cooled and how much will it affect the driving range? Battery life time, guar- anties, service points are other important factors
• Buy or lease? Look into what is the best for you? Some vehicles manufacturers offer battery leasing whish can be a good option.
• When carrying out a procurement pay attention to issues like safety, number of pas- sengers and loading capacity, service and possibility for local maintenance within the reach of where the vehicles will be used, charging possibilities (standard and fast), time for delivery, different types of tires (summer and winter).
6) Make sure the users accept the vehicles
A good way to introduce EVs is to rent or borrow them for a short time to test drive before implementation. A recommendation is to buy one EV initially and use it as a test vehicle and have different units of the organisation try it for a short period e.g. a week. Once this test vehi- cle has been used by all interested it can be placed for daily operation within the organisation where suitable It is very important to inform the users and make sure they feel comfortable and secure with the EVs. These first EV drivers will be key ambassadors and need to be treated as such. Make sure to get information from these early users once they start operating the EVs
troducing car sharing among users and departments is one solution. Less vehicles also means less parking places and other surrounding costs. The mapping and analysing activities de- scribed above will most likely help you find possible savings.
• Make the none environmentally adopted vehicles in the organisations fleet pay an extra fee that finance the additional costs of the electric vehicles (and other alternative fuels vehicles as well perhaps). This has been applied in many years in the City of Göteborg, Swe- den.
• Apply for extra funding internally within the organisation or through demonstra- tion and research projects nationally or internationally.
8) Market the electric vehicles
Make sure to inform about your work! Put large signs on the electric vehicles so that others will notice and see them. Most of the electric vehicles look just as an ordinary car and could be hard for most people to recognise. By making electric vehicles visible and known to a larger audience they will be able to spread more easily. It will also make you drivers even more com- mitted and proud. Make inaugurations and celebrate your electric vehicles when they arrive.
The same is important if you introduce fast charging or normal charging facilities – especially if they are open to the public as well. Invite the press and make press releases. Inform on your web-sites etc. If possible arrange test drives for journalists and others.
Case studies
Case study; Fredricia Municipality, Denmark
The work to do the initial mapping was more extensive than initially expected, however, the result was better than expected as well. During the work several new possibilities became ap- parent and worth consideration. In the end the mapping showed that the potential for savings was as large as 25 % of the current costs of the vehicle fleet/year. The results showed that it would be possible to introduce 10 % EVs, without any increase of costs. If a more optimized vehicle fleet would be adopted a CO2 reduction of 20 % within the vehicle fleet would be pos- sible, again without any extra costs. The mapping showed that 21 vehicles were used so little that they were actually not needed. Other transport modes could be used instead (car-pool, taxi, bicycle etc).
Case study: City of Stockholm, Sweden
Electric test car:
One of the first electric vehicles bought to the city fleet in Stockholm in year 2011 was pur- chased by the Environmental and Health Administration as a test car. The electric car was offered to all administrations and city owned companies as a loan for up to a week at the time.
This was much appreciated since it gave the different users a good idea of the performance, benefits and constrains of the EV. After only six months of use as a test car, over fifteen dif- ferent organisations within the city have tested it and a total of twenty-one EVs have been
Energy Agency is providing financial support by compensating for additional cost of the first 1000 vehicles that are bought through the procurement frame work contracts. This means that organisations will receive up to 25 percent funding of the additional cost, maximum SEK 50 000 (approximately € 5 000). The additional cost is the difference between the cost of an electric vehicle and its closest counterpart among combustion engine vehicles. There were no limit to the number of suppliers that could be contracted in the final agreement.
The chosen vehicle supplier are:
- Passenger cars
- Chevrolet Volt (PHEV) - Citroën C Zero - Mitsubish iMiEV - Renault Fluence - Vantage SUV - Transport vehicles
- Renault Kangoo Express ZE - Vantage Minivan and pick-up The suppliers may include new models later on.
For more information see www.elbilsupphandling.se Procurement of electrical vehicles:
The City of Stockholm and Vattenfall have together with SKL Kommentus Inköpscental AB carried out a national procurement of electric vehicles (cars and vans) during 2010 and 2011.
The procurement resulted in frame work agreements regarding electric vehicles (pure electri- cal vehicles and plug-in hybrids) from six different suppliers, starting on October 1, 2011. Both public bodies and private companies were invited to join the procurement. A total number of 296 partners/buyers have stated an estimated purchase volume of 1 250 electric vehicles/year.
The contacts are for two years but may be prolonged for a total time of four years. The Swedish
Foto: Mosebacke Media, Stockholm, Sweden
setter-europe.org . Consolidation of goods is one good solution to the problem, but it can be handled in a number of different ways. There are also a lot of obstacles to overcome before the situation is entirely solved. Good examples of how to succeed and recommendations are presented below. A main conclusion and recommendation from Stockholm is that a lo- gistics centre is more efficient and successful when the area is well defined and when it has evident problems. This, together with a well planed placement (depending on city structure and objectives), are crucial prerequisites. The city can act as a facilitator and provide benefits i.e. like longer delivery hours for vehicles operating through a consolidation centre. The city may also act in the opposite way and put restrictions on vehicles not operating through a consolidation centre, or perhaps provide both benefits and restrictions.
General success factors seem to be:
• Find and engage a convinced and convincing leader.
• Gather the organisations that are going to be involved in the solution and find out threats and opportunities with/without the solution.
• Define targets together based on possible problems (do not find the solution without defining the problems first).
• Find the right location for the warehouse or logistics centre at the city border or next to the area for consolidation of goods.
• Design the supply chain (branches, areas).
• Offer value-added-services.
• Find financing solutions.
• Start with bigger partners and use them as core partners for smaller companies
• Stick to the decisions by signing agreements in advance.
• Award the partners at the beginning by offering special delivery times, use of tram, logistic supply, electric vans/trucks etc.
• Clearly delimited geographical area for pilot project. It is easier to motivate consolidation if there are obvious physical delimitations and problems in
the area, and if there are clear benefits with consolidation of goods.
HOW TO GET STARTED WITH SMART LOGISTICS
Previous experiences with smart logistic solu- tions and consolidation of goods in Stockholm and other CIVITAS projects (for more infor- mation on CIVITAS please see www.civitas- initiative.eu) have given lots of information for even further development of how to handle the problem with increasing number of heavy vehicles in general and goods distribution ve- hicles in particular. For experiences from the CIVITAS project Trendsetter see www.trend-
smaller EVs (or other renewable fuelled vehicles) for this last part of the transport chain has shown to be successful, but has so far only been applied in small scale.
Synergies
Synergy effects of the storage function in consolidation centres are for example avoiding thefts, destruction of material by weather or other, loss of materials etc. This has been particu- lar evident for consolidation of building materials to construction sites.
The storage function generates extra value of the service.
If there is an obvious delimited area and there are physical delimitations that hinder the goods transports in an area, it is probable that consolidation of goods will lead to better opportuni- ties for shops etc. to make their entrances more attractive for customers. Tourist attractions will be nicer to visit and may in the long-term lead to an even more attractive area. Other synergies with such areas are that it is much easier for another comparable area to implement similar restrictions, if there is a case of good practice. The old town area of a city is often very attractive for tourists and has narrow, steep and winding streets. In areas like this, a smarter goods distribution can give many positive synergies.
Political and Administrative issues
A lot of the successful consolidations trials in Europe have emerged through discussions among local politicians, officials, NGOs and small/medium sized distribution companies.
Among them there is often a high approval for a project or trial, but it has not emerged from
General worst practices are:
• Change of managers without passing over information about the projects.
• Change of politicians and senior officials without passing over information about the projects.
Technical issues
Food handling creates barriers in consolidation projects. If there is a wish to consolidate food with other types of goods, a number of special permits, regulations and restrictions need to be considered. The vehicles need to be equipped with refrigerators to be able to handle food.
In the Old Town of Stockholm where consolidation of food to restaurants has been ongoing for several years now LIC-cooling techniques have been applied. This is a new type of envi- ronmentally friendly cooling. This technique uses natural refrigerants connected to batteries instead of diesel units. This technique is very suitable for EVs.
IT-connections to customers with the same interface are needed to get a good survey of goods, deliveries etc. These connections could be used for notes about when goods are arriv- ing, delays, planning the transports etc. Different types of transport calendars like this seem to be very useful and helps prevent a lot of problems with congestion. This is a solution that in particular is good for small areas with a lot of transports connected to the same system.
The size of the vehicles can sometimes be crucial. Goods distributions in old towns in many European cities with small narrow streets are difficult if the trucks are too large. Reloading to
Strong, devoted and engaged leaders for the projects are needed to gain success. It could also be a help if a company with a known name and label is driving the marketing campaign.
Customers tend to trust established companies with a known competence more than newly formed organisation in new types of services.
Economic issues
Value-added services offer extra profit for consolidation and logistics centres. The building material logistics centre at Hammarby Sjöstad in Stockholm offered their customers a stor- age function that was highly appreciated. This helped avoiding theft, destruction of material by weather or other, loss of materials etc. A lot of money was saved by the contractors using this facility. For small/medium-sized companies high economic risks and big investments are difficult. It is also difficult for a small company to cooperate with big political bodies, e.g. the city or its departments and officers. It is difficult for the respective parties to understand each other’s problems. It becomes easier if the city takes the responsibility for the project, calls it their own, initiates a procurement for the actual contractor and takes all the investment costs.
With a city supporting the project economically, e.g. by covering its investment costs or extra costs related to environmental issues, and other expenses, it becomes easier for the small company to continue. City logistics systems often need know-how support from experts and financial support by way of public spending at the starting phase.
general, logistical problems. They do not organise and market themselves as for example
“Restaurants of the Old Town”.
To the stores/restaurants/building companies etc and their suppliers a consolidation centre would objectively be good, both for the economy and the efficiency. But as long as they believe that deliveries are free of charge and independent of others’ it is difficult to achieve a change in structure.
The city should actively support co-transportation politically, by facilitating the contact with departments and politicians so that their demands and possible solutions to different prob- lems can be considered. Another arrangement could be that the town has a communication partner, an employee, for discussions and decisions. Much time is often spent on searching for the right communication partner. Regulations for handling food should be evaluated and the demand of the actual customers. The
actual customers being i.e. the stores, the restaurants, construction companies on a building site and their suppliers, have not always been part of the discussions.
They are on a low level of inclusion when it comes to finding common solutions;
they try to find individual solutions to
• Less wear and tear in city centres, this is perhaps most important in medieval city centres with narrow streets where buildings and pavements are more exposed to wear and tear.
• Improved mobility, safer traffic situation, less emissions and less noise in the area gives added value for visitors and citizens and positive effects on restaurants and shops
• Some areas are suited/less suited for consolidation centres. The localisation of the consoli- dation centre is crucial for the benefits of the project (increased vehicle kilometres should be avoided)
• The possibility to establish a consolidation centre varies between different customer groups
and areas. It is easier with construction materials than with food, which demands special delivery circumstances and permits
• Added value can be less theft, increased security, increased traffic safety, less damaged goods, deliveries on time, higher usage time and load factor for each truck
• Consolidation of goods is usually less restrictive than access restrictions, but there is an in- dication that the best performance is reached if goods consolidation is implemented together with access restrictions
• Local authorities need to be the catalyst in many cases. The entrepreneurs are important for success
• Implementation and decision making is often time consuming
• Resistance exists to initiating goods consolidation centres. The customer does not see the transportation costs, which prevents fair competition between companies
• Fewer deliveries with larger volumes could create problems for many shops and small res- taurants. Staff being able to spend longer time on each delivery and storage facilities are cru- cial and usual limited.
Conclusions
• The total number of transports can been reduced: resulting in less air pollution and noise as well as less energy con- sumption
• Emissions can be reduced but also relocated geographically from sensitive areas to less sen- sitive
Case study: Consolidation of building materials to constructions sites in Stockholm, Sweden
Hammarby Sjöstad was a large construction site in Stockholm, more or less already complet- ed. The very intensive construction period lasted for several years and during this time offices as well as apartments were inhabited. The project built and operated a consolidation centre for building materials during peak periods to reduce the number of heavy vehicle movements in the area. The project was successful and managed to reduce the number of delivery vehicles to one compared to six during peak periods. The carbon dioxide emissions were reduced by 100 tonnes per year during the operating period which was a 90 % reduction. The experiences from Hammarby Sjöstad will now be transferred to a new urban district – Stockholm Royal Seaport (Norra Djurgårdsstaden) – that is starting to be developed in eastern Stockholm close by the Royal National Urban Park. Here, modern architecture and environmental thinking is being combined, creating a new vibrant district for sustainable living, business and recrea- tion. A former brown field area of 236 hectares is being transformed into a state-of-the art waterfront area. On completion Stockholm Royal Seaport will house 10,000 new dwellings and 30,000 new office spaces – from the port and its associated trade to media and finance companies. The ambition is to offer one of Europe’s most modern and attractive living envi- ronments. Dwellings, workplaces, parks and open spaces will have environmentally adapted and energy efficient solutions. The district will mix housing with different types of businesses.
During the large construction phase a consolidation centre for building materials as well as a transport calendar for full loads will be in operation starting in the beginning of year 2013.
Case studies
Case study: Consolidation of food transports in Old Town, Stock- holm, Sweden
The food consolidation project in Stockholm, O-centralen, is owned and operated by a small company Home 2 You. Together with the local Agenda 21 group and some help from the En- vironment and Health Administration of Stockholm they took the initiative to start a project with consolidation of goods to the Old Town in Stockholm. The area is situated in a separate island and consists of medieval buildings, narrow and steep streets and is a very popular tour- ist attraction of Stockholm. There are a lot of restaurants and shops in the area and especially for the restaurants a coordination of supplies would reduce the number of vehicle movements in the area effectively. A Logistics Centre (LC) was created in a building just outside the Old Town and a biogas vehicle was purchased for the purpose of delivering the goods. The project has had a lot of problems along the way but is still running since the start in 2003. Currently two biogas vehicles are in operation for the distribution. The number of suppliers now deliv- ering the goods to the LC rather than directly to the customer has increased. The project got some EU-funding in the start up phase but has run entirely on its own terms since 2005. For more information see www.trendsetter-europe.org
goods will be established. Both consolidation centres will be operated by electric vehicles. For more information see www.trendsetter-europe.org
Case study: Co-transportation of goods to a large department store in down town Graz, Austria.
In Graz a large department store situated in the narrow city centre, was going to be rebuilt – a five storey parking deck was installed below the store. It was difficult to carry on with normal transports to the shops, which were still open as usual during the construction pe- riod, because at the same time construction vehicles and deliveries of construction materials burdened the area. In this situation a consolidation scheme was created and a forwarder was contracted in the project, in order to handle all the deliveries to the department store. This system worked very well during the construction period that lasted a few years in the mid 2000. For more information see www.trendsetter-europe.org
References:
• Grønnbil – Veileder for innkjop av elbil, mars 2011
• Syv Trin – Kom godt igang med elbiler, med erfaringer fra Fredericia Kommune, 2011
• Evaluation report – New Concepts for the Distribution of Goods (WP 9), June 2006 Trendsetter Project
• www.trendsetter-europe.org
• www.civitas-initiative.eu
