Live Trial of Micro-Hub System for Cheaper and 100% Carbon-Free Last-Mile Deliveries

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Our goal is to provide 100% emission-free last-mile parcel delivery in London (and other cities across the world) whilst operating at a lower cost than current van-based methods of delivery.We are going to achieve this by setting-up and operating "micro-hubs" with a footprint of 10-20sqm (1-2 car parking spaces) in garages, car-parks, railway arches and other underutilised spaces in urban areas. Micro-hubs temporarily hold parcels on their way from a traditional warehouse outside of the city to the customer which enables bulk deliveries (with electric trucks) to micro-hubs to be made at non-peak hours. Any micro-hub is no more than 15-30 mins walking distance from the parcel's destination, making the final delivery by foot and/or cargo-bike not only feasible but also highly economical.This delivery process will bring a host of benefits to all stakeholders (residents, retailers and end customers): increased (peak) parcel volume capacity, greatly reduced number of vehicles on the road (and reduction of freight km driven), reduction of delivery vehicle emissions to zero, noise reductions, increased road safety and less accidents, amongst many others. At the same time this approach is significantly more cost-efficient as the number of costly delivery vans can be greatly reduced and overall efficiency is drastically improved.After setting up the infrastructure for our micro-hub system over the 2020 Summer months, we have started to make live deliveries on behalf of retail clients in October 2020. Originally scheduled to end in November 2020, an extended live trial phase with zero-emission deliveries for a number of retailers running until February 2020 will provide detailed insights into the viability and advantages of our micro-hub system for urban last-mile parcel delivery, especially during a peak time such as Christmas.