Antwerp, Kortrijk and Leuven test emission-free deliveries
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Leuven, Kortrijk and Antwerp have been selected for a pilot project on non-polluting city logistics. This should clarify how emission-free deliveries should be made possible in all cities by 2025.
Standard rules for couriers
After all, in three years’ time, traffic minister Lydia Peeters wants to allow cities to enforce only emission-free logistics in the city centres. The Flemish government can choose uniform legislation, whereby cities can choose or they cannot.
Previous studies and pilot projects have already shown the need for homogeneous rules across the different cities, so that the courier companies can also adapt. This concerns, for example, a ban on delivery vans that run on polluting fuels.
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What exactly is needed to enable zero-emission city logistics, the three cities will link in a pilot project, which will start in 2023 and run for a year. Their implementation will lead to a general Flemish agreement in collaboration with the cities, logistics partners and sector federation.
Antwerp is already planning a distribution center on the outskirts of the city, where products are bundled and transferred to electric vans of other environmentally friendly transport, says Antwerp alderman for the Environment Tom Meeuws to GvA. According to Meeuws, the clock is ticking, especially because thirty cities in the Netherlands in 2025 are zones where only emission-free deliveries are allowed. “We must ensure that transport companies do not start using their polluting vehicles in Flanders and Antwerp from that year on.”
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Leuven, Kortrijk and Antwerp have been selected for a pilot project on non-polluting city logistics. The cities will investigate next year how emission-free deliveries can be made in all cities by 2025.