The delivery of the future: From A to Green
I’ve been quite busy the last few weeks working on my MSc. graduation project, and so I haven’t had much time to do any new updates here, but since a while ago I found out that one of the projects I worked on had been published on the website of the European Commission for Transport, I figured that was worth a mention.
As I’ve showed in previous posts, I worked together with a group of colleagues in a project developing a new concept for delivery trucks of the future. My posts were focusing mainly on the application of the Vision in Product Design approach (ViP), which was just but a part of the project.
Later in the process, this vision and future product which we had designed was translated into a product that could be introduced to the market in the near future and it had a strong relation to the Civitas initiative sponsored by the European Union (hence, the publication of our project in the commission’s website).
The final design is described as follows:
The Micro Delivery system:
The Micro Delivery System (MDS) is a new kind of business for Combigroep Carrosserieë in order to extend its potential market following the regulations and trends about transportation and logistics in the European Union. It is a new perspective for Combigroep Carrosserieë to work with (and in) different business like night delivery services, e-shopping or integrated deliveries.
The basic idea is to divide the big container on top of the truck into Micro Delivery Modules to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the distribution of goods in cities, decreasing the amount of kilometres per route. The Micro Delivery Modules can be detachable to be loaded in the Delivery Centers (business) and to be unloaded and (or) used in the different contexts (users, which could be business or consumer). The modules also become a new channel for the collection of recyclable material.
Components of the system (for the case study – e-grocery):
g-combi – The g-combi is a platform with g-modules, the platform has a system with winches, locking mechanism and rails.
g-module – The g-modules are containers with empty space to organize different kind of goods. For the case study this container has a system of panels that provide room for the g-boxes with a locker system, a card reader (to activate the lock system) and a podium with wheels. The g-module works as a dispenser of g-boxes in the P+R (Park and Ride).
g-box – The g-box is a plastic box to carry groceries (35cm x 35cm x 50cm) to deliver goods in P+R. It is only for the case study.
Underneath, you can find a video of the expected interaction between the new service and the users of this Micro Delivery System.
If you are curious about the project, you can find a bit more detailed information in the following PDF.
PDF Link: From A to Green – A future vision of coachworks (PDF)
