VISION mobility THINK TANK: Sustainable City Logistics Between Wish and Reality

The effort to achieve more sustainable city logistics is currently stuck between desire and reality. This was at least the consensus of the recent discussion round at the VISION mobility THINK TANK on the occasion of the 9th Smart City Logistics Congress by DAKO in Jena, on the topic "Long Last Mile: Opportunities and Limits of Using Cargo Bikes in Logistics". Solutions do exist, as moderator and VM-editor Johannes Reichel explained in his introductory remarks.

However, in the context of the increasingly urgent climate crisis, these solutions are not progressing quickly enough, and green city logistics are not gaining momentum. The target of 30 percent e-cargobikes in inner-city logistics, set by the RLVD and the former CSU Transport Minister, appears as unrealistic as meeting the climate protection targets set by law for the chronically tardy transport sector by 2030. Even in 2022, the sector was far beyond its designated budget. There are only seven years left to fundamentally change habits and processes, Reichel emphasized.

Habits are tenacious

The processes and habits that have developed over decades remain strong in the chronically low-margin city and CEP logistics industry, as Andreas Schumann from the Federal Association of Courier, Express, and Postal Services e.V. outlined the reality. Many subcontractors simply cannot afford expensive new electric vehicles when they are still twice or even three times as expensive. In the tightly-budgeted daily routine, no further questions arise whose answers seem so obvious in a "bubble" of green logistics pioneers.

No time for a gradual market shift

You can't wait for new companies with the right mindset to establish themselves in the market and potentially displace the established ones. Moreover, the advantages of emission-free vehicles are not so compelling in the short term that they make financial sense, even when considering the entire life cycle and using a TCO calculation. Many small entrepreneurs on the edge of profitability would not be able to afford this, Schumann stated.

Felix Dossmann from the start-up Grünfuchs Logistik GmbH in Göttingen admits that he would (still) do better business with purely conventional vehicles, but that contradicts the high ecological and social sustainability standards he sets for the city logistics company he co-founded. Therefore, he relies entirely on E-cargobikes and E-trucks and wants to prove that a "green wheel" can turn today, even under unfavorable political conditions and without subsidies, if done cleverly - and if software, route planning, and intralogistics are also taken into account alongside the hardware.

Cost transparency with CO2 pricing and phasing out fossil fuel subsidies

The problem is that the external costs of conventional city logistics are not factored in. The use of a diesel transporter is still made too cheap compared to an electric vehicle or an E-cargobike, criticized Dr. Tom Assmann, an urban logistics scientist from Magdeburg and chairman of the Radlogistik Verband Deutschland e.V. Brand new and still quite expensive, because non-industrialized, E-cargo bikes can only compete with long-depreciated diesel vans if the true costs for the environment, air, and quality of life in the cities are included, he argued. 

A CO2 tax on conventional fuels would also create transparency regarding environmental and climate costs - and could accelerate sustainable city logistics more effectively than any subsidy. Assmann urged the government to remove subsidies for fossil drives like the diesel privilege and to set up a support framework for E-cargo bikes and light electric vehicles, which must also include leasing options.