Flash deliverers better promise, but Amsterdam stays with it: not in residential areas
The municipality of Amsterdam maintains that “residential areas are not a logical place for dark stores of speed cameras”, a code of conduct of the speed cameras does not alter this. That is what Marieke van Doorninck, alderman for Spatial Development and Sustainability in Amsterdam, tells us news hour†
more Dutch cities are popping up under the branches of flash deliverers in reds, but the nuisance is also increasing. Cycling on the sidewalk, ugly facades, noise for local residents and traffic accidents. Yet it is possible, says Sadik Cevik, general manager Benelux at flash delivery company Gorillas. Together with other speed camera delivery services, it includes in the code of conduct, among other things, to “search for new locations for properties that can remove certain complaints.”
The municipality of Amsterdam has decided not to introduce any new dark stores for a year in order to come up with a policy during that period. Darkstores are distribution centers of delivery services located in residential areas, in order to make delivery as fast as possible. The flash deliverers promise to deliver groceries in ten minutes.
Speed cameras are a solution for some, but a source of nuisance for others:
From ‘handy’ to ‘it gives me sleepless nights’: flash deliverers in a nutshell
The flash deliverers do not have to count on the fact that, because of the code of conduct, there can be plenty of expansion in Amsterdam again. “I think it is good that they have come up with their own code of conduct. But that does not relieve the municipality of its responsibility to draw up a good location policy,” says Van Doorninck.
According to her, the biggest problem is the business model of the delivery services. “The pain is in the word ‘flash’. That it has to be done very quickly. That quickly becomes dangerous,” says the alderman, who suspects that the municipality will not completely agree with the flash deliverers.
And it is therefore possible that the speed camera deliverers would soon be in Amsterdam at buildings outside the center. Not a pleasant outlook for Sadik Cevik of Gorillas. “If we do this outside the city, we lose sustainability and savings.”
No ideological discussion
Yet more people use the services of speed camera delivery companies, so the question is whether the development can still be stopped. And municipalities must want that. Walther Ploos van Amstel, lecturer in city logistics at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences: “Municipalities must be careful that this does not become an ideological discussion and say: you, as a lazy consumer, are not allowed to call a speed camera.”
Van Doorninck could not yet say when she will come up with policy. It will be “soon”.