It’s been a year today [21 February 2024] since APCOA officially launched its Urban Mobility Hub in Carmarthen, Wales and the company has revealed its sustainability benefits.
This project saw a car park in the Welsh town transformed into a hub for urban logistics and the local community, winning the ‘Smart Parking’ category at the 2023 CiTTi Awards. Judges were impressed by the connection offered by the hub to transport in the area, from charging facilities to support for cars, bikes, mobility scooters, trains, buses and taxis, with an information screen displaying live departures of trains and buses in the area.
They were also impressed by the project’s focus on accessibility, through disability inclusion schemes and multiple language options for interactive screens including Welsh. The CiTTi Awards judges’ official comments noted: “The hub seamlessly integrates several features executed to a high standard, recognising responsibilities of government, private and public sector to reallocate and share parking to meet the mobility needs of all.”
Installed at the hub are five 22kW AC fast chargers, 12 V3 Tesla Superchargers, three banks of delivery lockers and pre-bookable, soundproof and private workspaces for up to four people.
According to APCOA, energy consumption for lighting at the site from February to December 2023 was reduced by 55% due to the installation of new LED systems. During this time, it recorded over 6,000 EV charging transactions, equating to almost 250,000kWh of person.
Furthermore, it says that the hub ‘negated the need for over 1,000 individual emission-heavy drop-offs by taking receipt of parcels in its three banks of courier lockers’.
APCOA is shifting focus from just car parks to more projects like this, and is ‘forming an integrated ecosystem of Smart City and Smart Mobility services and actively contributing to the sustainable transformation of urban areas and the reduction of CO2 emissions’.
This is not an isolated occurrence. Rather, it is indicative of a recent trend in using urban spaces like car parks to support transport and logistics in the area.
In August, Logistics Manager spoke to Kevin Savage, COO of Delivery Mates, about the logistics company’s involvement in the foundation and operation of a micro hub in a Q-Park car park in Westminster, London. He said: “We need to move away from large depots and distribution centres and need to put product in the middle of cities.”
To read the full feature on urban logistics and micro-hubs from the August 2023 issue, click here.
Cross River Partnership and Westminster City Council supported the project, and have this week announced that at the end of a nine-month trial, it will be extended for a minimum of 12 months. The trial was deemed a success, with the e-cargo bikes travelling a total distance of 14,029 miles. This, Cross River Partnership said, led to ‘significant emissions reductions of 4,186kg of CO2, 15,141g of NOx and 303g of PM2.5, when comparing the e-cargo bikes to polluting van deliveries on the last mile’.
For more on this project and e-cargo bikes in general, look out for news and features in the March issue of Logistics Manager!
Plus, click here to find out more about some of the experts speakering at the 2024 Sustainable Supply Chain Conference, including Fiona Coull. senior programme manager at Cross River Partnership .
