Business Design & Innovation
Shared trailer parking
On certain roads, freight transport companies account for a third of all traffic. They suffer tremendous damage due to the frequent congestion and traffic jams. With this project we researched whether the use of shared trailer parking lots could offer a solution.
Problem
A Belgian transport company loses on average 335 hours per year per truck because they are stuck in traffic jams. These traffic jams are often found at known bottlenecks in the road network but also while waiting in line at shippers or terminals. With an economic value of 50 euros per hour, this amounts to a loss of 16,750 euros per truck per year. So it won’t come as a surprise that the sector is looking for solutions.
Solution
By using shared parking lots a transport company can avoid some of these lost hours. A shared parking lot for trailers is a secure parking lot located near a road often subject to congestion. Transporters can temporarily leave loaded or empty trailers, which gives them more flexibility in loading/unloading times, congestion, waiting lines and clients’ opening hours. This enables them to reduce the number of lost hours and empty trips.
Project Development
Together with the sector, the Expertise Center Smart Mobility ran a pilot project for 12 months. In the project, several transport companies used a shared, secure terrain in the port of Antwerp where they could leave their trailers, either empty or loaded.
Advantages
The shared parking lot for trailers:
- enabled transport companies to have more flexibility around waiting times, loading/unloading times, congestion, drivers’ hour compliance, etc.
- increased the reliability of service, which allowed for better planning.
- allowed optimization of journey planning in case of unexpected changes.
- improved synchronization with the (un)loading dock to avoid long waiting lines.
Result
No less than 26 transport companies took part in the pilot project. Together they realized 9,264 trailer changes with an average changing time of just 11 minutes.
At the start the trailer parking lot had room for 38 trailers. This has already been expanded to 100 spots, since the project revealed that the advantages transport companies experienced from using the shared parking spots outweigh the costs. Virtually all participants in the pilot project decided they wanted to continue using the trailer parking lot.
Dit project kwam mede tot stand dankzij de financiële ondersteuning van Agentschap Innoveren en Ondernemen
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