The background
Without freight, London would stop. Freight and servicing are essential for the smooth running of hospitals, other essential services, and the growth and success of retailers, businesses, and the everyday lives of Londoners. However, over the last decade freight operations within London have seen unprecedented growth and disruption. Fuelled by urban migration and the rise of online shopping, London now has more trucks and vans on the road than ever before. This is contributing to London’s poor air quality, congestion and road traffic accidents. To combat this, and deliver the Mayor’s goal of 80% of trips in London by 2041 to be walking and cycling, the Mayor of London has created a freight and servicing action plan, as part of the Mayor’s Transport Strategy.
Utilising the collective power of innovative start-ups and well-established corporates, The Mayor of London’s Civic Innovation Challenge was established to tackle some of London’s most pressing problems. With the Mayor’s action plan highlighting the unique challenges posed by freight and servicing, a freight focussed innovation challenge (FreightLab) was created.
The challenge
The TFL FreightLab is specifically targeted at improving the efficiency of freight and servicing across Greater London. AppyWay, among others, were tasked with thinking creatively about the ways to reduce the negative impacts on London’s route network, and improving the operational efficiency of vital freight and servicing activity. Within the Mayor’s freight action plan it outlines the need to protect London’s thriving economy, allowing continued growth, whilst also delivering its citizens a cleaner, safer, and more liveable and workable city.
The challenge was set to look at new ways for freight and servicing to interact with the city. Could land be freed up for logistics and consolidation? Could parking spaces be used differently? Are depots in the right places and are journeys planned efficiently? AppyWay knew there were ways we could be doing things differently, so we got to work on the solutions.
The solution
Our innovation, to be enabled through a consortium of London FreightLab partners, is a real-time kerbside management and utilisation solution, for freight and service vehicles in London.
The integration of a digital parking and reservation layer with the existing freight and traffic management processes is a quick win for a safe, low emission and thriving London. By tackling these quick wins we can support freight and servicing in their move to EV’s, and beyond, unlocking additional revenue as fleets look to optimise their operations.
The pilot of this innovation will demonstrate the administrative, environmental and commercial benefits of moving to a digitally managed and compliant kerbside. With the AppyWay kerbside management platform Mapper as the interface, the public sector partners will be able to pilot:
- Dynamic Traffic Management Orders (TMOs) to meet the demands of an ever changing network. Under utilised spaced can be freed up for freight to mitigate congestion.
- Real-time availability for freight. By integrating a suite of technologies to monitor the live and historical usage of parking assets
- Connect logistics API. Supporting freight by sharing real-time kerbside and highways restrictions, reducing network disruption, and de-conflicting conflicts with vulnerable road users
And for the freight partners:
- Route planning based on active TMOs. Providing open TMO data to fleets to enable them to plan their routes based on existing restrictions.
- Real-time delivery locations. Support freight movements by sharing the real-time availability of loading areas, waiting areas and free parking bays through the AppyWay Kerbside API.
- Asset reporting. Real-time feedback of network disruption, blocked assets and issue management driving faster resolution and reducing network disruption.
AppyWay recognises freight as a key enabler for thriving towns and cities, and we’re proud to be partnering with TFL, Mayor of London, and our freight consortium partners on this project.
Watch this space as the project develops and the tangible benefits to freight and Greater London are realised through this pilot scheme.
For more information on this project, or if you wish to know more about Mapper or our Kerbside API, speak to our friendly team here.
