Electric Mobility for Innovative Freight Logistics in Austria
Within the framework of the EMILIA lighthouse project, a broad-based consortium led by AIT developed logistics concepts and e-vehicle components for clean and efficient urban logistics
About twenty percent of daily urban traffic is related to the transport of goods and freight. The market for courier and parcel services in particular has grown steadily in recent years, resulting in an increasing demand for transport services in cities. Exhaust fumes, noise and land consumption are the negative side effects of this challenge in the transport sector.
With novel logistics concepts and technological optimisations, deliveries in cities are to become environmentally friendly, flexible and efficient - through the use of electric vehicles.
Thus, algorithms for route planning were developed within the framework of EMILIA in order to minimise travel times, optimally utilise capacities and enable the efficient use of electric vehicles in innovative logistics concepts - all with the aim of improving efficiency, sustainability and customer service in one go.
Express food delivery at BILLA within 60 minutes
Ordering groceries online and having them delivered to your home the following day has become standard. EMILIA goes one step further and enables express orders for the first time: In future, customers will be able to order groceries online and have them delivered within 60 minutes by e-load bike. These short-term orders will be dynamically integrated into the already planned daily routes with the help of a planning tool developed at AIT.
Cross-postcode parcel delivery with Schachinger in the regional area
Items are usually delivered according to postcodes, which can lead to unnecessarily long routes. The logistics concept developed by AIT breaks up this system and distributes the parcels among the vehicles in such a way that the tours can be made more efficient. It analyses which routes can be completed emission-free with electric vans - taking into account the battery range and additional customer service parameters.
Opening of a local parcel shop "DPD City-Hub" in Seestadt Aspern
In September 2016, the first DPD City Hub in Vienna opened for urban parcel delivery in Seestadt Aspern: Here, parcels are delivered from the depot on the outskirts of the city in an e-van and distributed from the City Hub on electric cargo bikes - environmentally friendly and with low noise and CO2 emissions. A smartphone app supports the driver with optimised route planning. The City Hub serves both as a temporary storage facility for the parcels and as a parcel pick-up and drop-off station.
Improved vehicle technology for electric vehicles
The innovative logistics concepts are combined with technologically optimised electric vehicles - an electric cargo bike and an electric van. The drive converter with integrated vehicle control developed at AIT is the digital "brain" of the electric cargo bike and enables a data connection and additional functions based on it, such as optimal route and charging stop planning. A new type of high-current inverter with integrated water cooling is used in the electric van. Through intelligent re-design, AIT scientists were able to more than halve the volume of the predecessor model. The improved vehicle technology is expected to increase vehicle ranges by 15 % while reducing manufacturing costs.
