Today, urban logistics plays an important role in transport flows that occur nationwide. It also constitutes a major challenge for logisticians who must offer new organizational options to respond to mobility issues as well as the commercial, urban planning and ecological issues in urban areas.
Supplying consumers and businesses in city centres is a daily challenge. Dense cities are seeing a proliferation of pedestrian zones which, impact surrounding areas with more limited parking areas, restricted spaces for certain vehicles, difficulties to enter with goods, and even difficulty of access for residents of these areas.
In order to support and facilitate this transformation, Ziegler has implemented a system to streamline the flow of goods in urban areas and deliver large parcels to the heart of Brussels while generating very low CO2 emissions. This system consists of three elements: the consolidation center, the micro-hub and the Cargobike.
Our consolidation centre, located at Ziegler’s head office in Brussels, is where large trucks initially drop off goods of different customers. From there, the shipments intended for the city centre of Brussels are sorted, grouped and consolidated.
Shipments are loaded into our electric vans for delivery to our local micro-hub in the centre of Brussels, at the Albertine car park near Sablon. The goal is to make last mile deliveries as efficient as possible by bringing products closer to the end consumer.
There, our Cargobike picks up the goods and delivers them throughout the city centre of Brussels, in pedestrian areas or areas that are difficult to access for motorized vehicles.
The Cargobike is the key for making the last mile deliveries and will also be used for the ‘first mile’ as well – for reverse logistics flows to return products and materials intended for reuse or recycling. These will follow the same path but in reverse: the Cargobike will collect the packaging and other returns, bring them back to the micro-hub where the electric vans will pick them up and deliver them to the main hub where they will be sorted before being sent further.
Caring about the future of our planet is an essential issue that we must face to ensure a viable future. Ziegler is committed to providing sustainable and environmentally friendly supply chain solutions and is making intentional and purposeful actions in this area with our “Ziegler. Now Evener Greener” programme.
