Private initiatives have begun to flourish

The inhabitants of the cities want to find their products close to home or receive them at home, but they do not like trucks in the streets, charged on the day, to pollute and to hinder traffic or, at night, of making noise. "Yet, what are the trading of goods that are prospering communities." "To survive, a city must fluidity at the best price," said Jean loaded Thévenon urban logistic project at the Center for studies on networks, transport and urban planning (Certu).

Fortunately, the rising environmental consciousness brings a little light. Today 50 of diesel fuel consumed in the city and 35 of emitted CO2 have originated the transport of goods, even though they represent only 20 of the movements, according to the laboratory of Economics, transportation (LET). The burden is aggravated because the cost of land pushed warehouses from the centres. In Ile-de-France, said Jean Thévenon, average distance was 10 to 15 miles in twenty-five years which means 20 to 30 additional km by truck return.

Pressure on major centres

In addition, redensification of the habitat, that accelerated the businesses of downtown and the explosion of online purchases triggering deliveries at home still dangle Brownian movements of pallets and packages. The municipal policies themselves aggravate the phenomenon. According to Sébastien Roux, associate regional Ile-de-France of TLF, there are 42 different delivery regulations in Ile-de-France. This patchwork is always intended to further restrict sites and delivery schedules, vehicle size permitted... Fortunately, the cities came in a logic of dialogue with the Chargers. Since 2004, the Act required large agglomerations to insert a component goods in their plan of urban travel (PDU) and then the Grenelle of the environment has given new impetus. Private initiatives have begun to flourish.

All the elected representatives have the eyes turned to some model cities. In France, the "historical" La Rochelle experience foreshadows the downtowns of tomorrow: bouclé and banned polluting vehicles. The goods are collected in a service management associate, a centre of urban distribution from which they are distributed in small electric utilities.

Chargers, they are sensitive to a financial problem, that of the high cost of the final link in their supply chain. According to Jean-Michel Genestier, Deputy Director General of SNCF Geodis, last-mile represents 40 of the cost of any transport chain for a package of 1 to 2 kilograms. But the problem is complex: the movement of the goods in a city are heterogeneous with each sector-specific rationales: mail and parcels, dry food products or directed temperature, bars, hotels, restaurants, garages and service stations, pharmacies... Need to develop niche by niche.

A return back to the builtup platforms is difficult because of the costs of land and the lack of available space. For example, most of the wasteland bordering entry in Paris rail beams have been transformed into housing, offices, or green spaces.

Search for profitability

The first experiments were "relay package." These microdeposits absorbed part of the consequences of e-commerce (a 60 CO2, according to Kiala economy) because they are consumers who withdraw their packages in a nearby trade instead of waiting for his presentation at home. But these solutions have solved that part of the problem.

Reflections today involve more massive clusters by railway or river, the objective is to reintegrate immediate transit platforms, as close as possible to the dense areas. Then, at the exit of these "cross docking" databases, the question of the fine distribution in the streets of the hypercentres. To make it softer and less polluting, technological innovation is boiling in electric vehicles to CNG, the hybrid engine or silent vehicles to deliver the night. Experimentation of quieter equipment multiplies with Carrefour, Casino or LR Services.

The substantive question for chargers, that of profitability. "We have reached a phase where experienced solutions face always at an additional cost as long as other players are not there to create a multiplier effect," summarizes Céline Bernard, Chair of the sustainable logistics Committee of the Association for logistics (Aslog). All strings should be rethought. Jean-Michel SNCF Geodis Genestier notes that the additional costs are mostly related to load failures and the need to have the least possible. Despite the financial concerns in the short term, additional costs are all or in part offset by time saved truck traffic and a better rotation of vehicles. "We already know what costs the congestion and the impact of more stringent regulations." "It does not know what tomorrow will cost CO2 emissions", adds Céline Bernard. It is also for the pioneers to take advance for a new peak of the course of oil and urban regulations even more drastic.