New Platform for City Logistics Community

With the steadily growing order frequency in online retail and the parallel increased delivery rate, the logistics and delivery sector is increasingly challenged, especially in times when cities are striving to actually improve stay and air quality in densely populated areas and minimize traffic loads. The ecological and political requirements are therefore developing rather contrary to customer demands. They are used to ever higher delivery frequencies and order quantities in all shipping sizes – because the conveniences that are offered are, of course, also taken advantage of.

It is necessary to address this contradiction and several other challenges in the future. This is no easy task, as was certainly recognized by HINTE Expo & Conference. The Karlsruhe-based digital company, together with Tobias Plegge, project manager of Last Mile City Logistics (LMCL), initially built a business network on LinkedIn, which now has around 5,000 members.

The Program

Now it continues with the live event: Last Mile City Logistics will offer a diverse program on two stages from March 10th to 11th on the digital platform "Liveline" Connect, starting with the topic "Best Practice for Last Mile Planning," for which the Swiss Post will give a presentation on "Smart Urban Logistics." Other program points include "The First on the Last Mile," a cooperation with the Digital Logistics Hub Hamburg, which is especially startup-oriented. Lectures on "Digitalization in Logistics" and "The Wheel of the Last Mile" further emphasize key topics.

According to LMCL, there will always be time for personal exchanges between visitors and digital exhibitors, with time slots for networking planned in. This is partly why the premiere has been limited to 25 presenters, despite high willingness to participate. Further events are already being planned, in both digital and hybrid forms.

The Big Names are Involved

The need for networking and exchange is certainly there, as is evident from the interest: The LMCL network includes logistics companies such as DB Schenker, Deutsche Post, DHL, Südmail, FedEx, and UPS, mail order companies like the Otto Group, Zalando, and Amazon, and brands like Hello Fresh, Lekkerland, Alnatura, EY, and Intel. Political representatives are also among them, for example, from the cities of Hamburg, Stuttgart, Zurich, and Vienna. Additional industry drivers from the startup sector are also involved: pickshare GmbH, which offers mobility and logistics services via a digital platform, and onomotion GmbH, which aims to make urban mobility cleaner and quieter with e-cargo bikes.