As both consumers and governments (with at least one major exception) push hard for carbon reduction, the continued rise of e-commerce and the associated growing need for Last Mile delivery represents a significant problem.
From a carbon footprint perspective, the Last Mile delivery of single e-commerce parcels to individual consumer dwellings is one of the most inefficient, costly and carbon producing activities in the retail and consumer goods supply chain!
Today’s post from Videos & Visions is all about highlighting some emerging potential technologies and providers that are looking to literally electrify Last Mile e-commerce delivery utilizing zero tailpipe emissions delivery solutions.
The first and most promising of these is Chanje a new California based start up OEM organization delivering medium duty electric vehicles and turnkey energy infrastructure services for the last mile industry.
Chanje are focused on creating sustainable solutions that improve how companies move people and packages from transportation hubs to their final destinations. Check out this video introducing their V8070 Panel Van which is the first fully electric designed vehicle, purpose built from ground up in this commercial vehicle category.
Not only does this vehicle produce no tailpipe emissions, but due to it’s quiet electric operation, it also has the potential to work in residential areas at all hours of the day or night taking advantage of quiet streets during these times to create an even more efficient Last Mile delivery system for e-commerce.
Next up is a retro story for the hippie in many of us Boomers that remember the Volkswagen VW Minibus that was all the rage in the 60s and 70s.
Volkswagen will soon introduce the fully electric VW ID Buzz as highlighted in this video.
Highlighting this one as there may be other Last Mile delivery operations which don’t require the full cube of the Chanje vehicle and these smaller cousins might be suitable for independent Express Delivery agents and drivers who also need their vehicles to do double duty for private uses as well.
We often say that many in the logistics and supply chain industry “Are from Missouri!” which means they need someone to “show” them that a solution works before moving forward and rolling it out.
Gnewt Cargo an all electric Last Mile delivery provider started in the UK in 2008 and the Founder Matt Linnecar shares the following case study on Gnewt Cargo from the eDrive conference.
In 2016, Gnewt cargo made over 3 million deliveries and in August 2017 they were acquired by Menzies Distribution. In addition, Gnewt Cargo also works for other traditional parcel carriers such as TNT and Hermes.
As both the e-commerce delivery and environmental improvement trends continue to grow in parallel, look out for electric Last Mile delivery solutions to help make Chanje happen by bridging this dichotomy and providing a key part of the solution.
Cheers
Jeff Ashcroft