The return of river transport on the Canal du Midi, the green solution to supply the center of Toulouse
The return of freight transport on the Canal du Midi. In recent weeks, with the support of VNF (Voies Navigables de France), three Toulouse-based companies have been experimenting since early October 2021 on transport of goods on board ships from the area of MIN (National Interest Market) in Lalande by taking the canal to the Saint Sauveur port. The traders are then redistributed by cargo bikes to restaurants and traders in the city center. With the establishment of the ZFE, the Low Emission Zone, which prohibits polluting vehicles in the city center, this transport by boat on the canal has no doubt in the future.
The river shuttle, then the cargo bikes
It is 7:30 am this morning of Friday October 29, the flat bottom barge which arrives from the MIN area, Lalande district, docks at the port of l’Embouchure, the first stop for this river shuttle.
On board, big boxes, refrigerated containers. Inside, fresh produce, mushrooms, vegetables from market gardeners, cheeses, directly from the MIN, the National Interest Market which is only 200 meters from the quays of the lateral canal to the Garonne.
In cycling attire, Vincent Monteil, co-founder ofAppliColis comes to receive the goods that he loads on his cargo bike. They will be redistributed by the 25 salaried couriers of the delivery cooperative before the end of the morning with customers, downtown restaurants and shops.
“On the canal, no traffic jams”
“There, we will deliver restaurants, grocery stores, city-shops that produce baskets in short circuits. “
“River transport is very interesting for us” – welcomes Vincent Monteil who has been experimenting with it for several weeks. “With this canal du midi waterway, you can quickly reach the city center. _On the boat, there is no traffic jam_, and in rush hour it’s really an advantage. This allows us to have fixed schedules, we know exactly when the boat will arrive. We can transport larger loads than we can load on our bicycle trailers. The inland waterway allows a great deal of weight and volume to be transported with very low CO2 emissions. The idea is to have boats in the future that have an electricity or hydrogen supply, so a complete logistics system that is 100% green. “
On the return trip, green waste
AppliColis has joined forces with a consortium of three companies to experiment with this river transport.
An hour later, the barge arrives at its last stop at Port-Saint-Sauveur. She unloads her last fresh produce, but for the return trip, she take green waste on board of the recycling and composting company Alchemists and office recycler products from Green buro.
“We recover two tonnes per day of organic waste in restaurants, school canteens, supermarkets and hospitals to process and make compost ” explains Paul Chevallier, the delivery man for the alchemists. “This morning, I made four rounds with my bicycle trailer in the city center and I bring them to the boat which then transports them to the north of Toulouse, where we have our treatment site in Fondeyre, where we do _compost_. As we have all our customers in the city center, the boat saves us from making round trips by bike to our processing center, it is a real time saver. And this makes it possible to have a negligible carbon footprint compared to transport by truck. ”
Even chosen for Green Buro which collects in Toulouse companies the used papers and cardboard, as well as ink cartridges printers which are then recycled. The boat allows them to transport the recycling bins via the Canal du Midi to the port of Lalande, a stone’s throw from their recycling center.
Relaunch freight on the canal
This river transport is currently being tested and financially supported by the Voies Navigables de France, which intends to relaunch freight transport on the Canal du Midi.
“It is about helping companies that want to benefit from a direct access to the very center of Toulouse by the canal des deux mers, with small boats ” explains Alexis Pamier of VNF who does not hide the objective of the Navigable Way of France to relaunch freight transport on the Canal du Midi which had been abandoned in the early 2000s, in favor of tourist navigation.
With the establishment of ZFEs, low-emission zones, which prohibit the access of polluting vehicles in the city center, the return of river transport is perhaps one of the solutions. VNF which already leads the same Strasbourg experience, transport by barge and last mile delivery by cargo bike, has just launched a call for expressions of interest from companies, to revive river navigation in Toulouse.
A vast logistics center to deliver the hyper center of Toulouse
The ZFE has also reshuffled the cards on the delivery of goods in the city center. A big center “Toulouse Urban Logistics” of 19,000 square meters is being born near the MIN in the Fondeyre area where the semi-trailers of the large carriers will deliver their goods to the quayside. They will then be redistributed district by district, zone by zone, on board a noria of electric vans and of cargo bikes. This is called “freight pooling” which will also work for delivery in the midst of the parcel boom.