At the end of April 2022, the first brainstorming session took place with the Dutch municipality of Tilburg, Jumbo Supermarkets, Breda University of Applied Sciences and Simacan. In this session we defined the community of Lastmile.info and the cooperation and exchange between the various parties. Especially the cooperation and exchange between the municipality and the logistics sector were prominent on the agenda.
Municipality important provider of information
The municipality of Tilburg was the first to explain how they formulate their policy and what they want to achieve with this project. Tilburg presented its preferred network or grid of routes for freight traffic, i.e. the roads which they want the logistics sector to use. Freight traffic outside this grid is less desirable because of nuisance in the neighbourhoods. For the city centres hard restrictions are usually implemented like environmental zones (ZEZ) and pedestrian areas. In addition, the municipality is responsible for the planning and communication of road works. Tilburg sees that the communication on these matters can be improved and decided to share that information via the Lastmile platform. In addition, the municipality wants to give priority to freight traffic on the preferred grid during off-peak hours and thus stimulate the use of Lastmile.info.
Information must be unambiguous and accessible
The logistics sector was represented by the planning department and drivers of Jumbo Supermarkets. They see major benefits in the unambiguous sharing of information because the current information is poorly available and a driver and planner really have to make an effort to obtain it. With regard to policy, they see the added value. A driver will gladly comply with the preferred grid if it has finely meshed enough.
Investigation into the difference between preferred and actual driven routes
Breda University of Applied Sciences was present and, based on the discussions, it was agreed to set up a digital twin to compare the actual driven routes to the preferred routes.
