When will the end of delivery vans in city centers? The elected environmentalists of Lyon are champing at the bit, as carbon-free solutions struggle to establish themselves in urban logistics. Launched in June 2022, a transport model combining river transport and electric bicycles was expected to be a game-changer.
This involved grouping the packages in a logistics base located in the Edouard-Herriot port, south of the Lyon metropolitan area, then transporting them by barge up the Rhône to the Morand bridge, right in the heart of Lyon. , where electrically assisted bicycles had to travel the famous last kilometer to deliver them. After four months of activity, the result is mixed: less than 3,000 deliveries made, or around twenty per day. A drop in the water in the daily flow of deliveries to downtown Lyon.
“I would have preferred to announce a figure ten times higher, I know that the elected officials are waiting for that. In fact, change management is really hard”, admits Thomas Castan, president and founder of Urban Logistic Solutions (ULS). With conclusive experience in Strasbourg, where the Alsatian company has been developing sustainable logistics since 2019, by combining canals and bicycles, the operator won, in 2022, the call for tenders launched by Voies navigables de France and the National Rhône Company (CNR).
“Structural and sustainable solution”
The desire to replicate, in Lyon, the Strasbourg model encounters multiple technical and administrative constraints, which range from a lack of power for the bicycles to climb the Quai du Rhône to a problem of prefectural authorization, linked to the signage of the boat, sailing on a river and no longer on a canal. “This time is not wasted, we are building a structural and sustainable solution”reassures Mr. Castan, who promises to fill the boat with 122 tonnes of parcels daily by the end of 2024, with twelve delivery men at the end of the chain, capable of transporting 200 kilos of goods on each bicycle journey.
The project has just gained consistency and credibility, with the signing of a partnership with the Geodis group, Wednesday October 25, in Lyon. Present in 170 countries, for a turnover of 13.7 billion in 2022, the delivery giant ensures, to date, 5,600 deliveries per day throughout the Greater Lyon metropolis, including 1,050 in the center of the city.
The group has decided to partner with ULS river logistics to shift part of its flows to soft mode. “We want to move towards gentler distribution by reducing our carbon footprint. The river route is ideal. We are going to reduce the number of vehicles in the city”predicts Michel Javaux, regional director of Geodis.
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