La Poste and Toulouse want a second logistics center
La Poste is giving itself four years to decarbonize city deliveries. A new logistics site south of Toulouse could see the light of day in Cugnaux.
The figures revealed by Jean-Luc Moudenc make you dizzy. “Logistics flows in Toulouse represent two million km traveled per week, 12,000 hours of double-queue parking, 30% of greenhouse gas emissions, 40% of particle emissions and 50% of diesel consumed in the city! quantified the president of Toulouse Métropole on Friday. We are tackling this hidden part of the iceberg of travel in large cities”.
To achieve this, the metropolis will deploy a clean last mile strategy. A first agreement signed with La Poste had made it possible, in December 2021, to inaugurate the “Toulouse Logistique Urbaine” platform in Fondeyre (19,500 m2, the largest in France after Paris) managed by Urby* to pool deliveries to the center -city (70,000 parcels per day) with electric vehicles or cargo bikes. On Friday, Jean-Luc Moudenc signed with Philippe Wahl, the president of La Poste, a second agreement to accelerate the decarbonization of deliveries in the city. “We promised Toulouse Métropole to have all the logistical capacities to decarbonize all our deliveries as quickly as possible. This renewed partnership will allow us to do so,” confides the boss of La Poste.
25,000 m2 of logistics to the south of Toulouse
Because if the flows from the north of the metropolis are now committed to decarbonization with the platform of the avenue des Etats-Unis, La Poste does not yet have a logistics site in the south of the metropolis. The agreement will allow the search for this strategic land. The studies lean towards a warehouse of 20,000 to 25,000 m2 near Francazal. “Cugnaux could host this future site in the Ecopole area, but we must ensure profitability according to town planning rules,” says Albert Sanchez, Mayor of Cugnaux. However, this project could be driven by the rule of zero net artificialisation (ZAN) imposed by the Climate & Resilience law which requires halving the areas to be built. “We are going to ask for a relaxation of the law for the construction of equipment that contributes to decarbonization such as the clean logistics project” warns Jean-Luc Moudenc.
In addition, La Poste is committed to continuing to green its vehicle fleet. Already since October 1, letter and parcel deliveries for the “31,000” have been carried out by twelve cargo bikes replacing internal combustion vehicles. Fondeyre, five cargo bikes and soon from a 16-tonne electric truck (then two other currents in 2023) ensure deliveries to the city center.
Deliveries: a new charter from 2023
“We are going to renovate the delivery charter from 2023” warned Jean-Luc Moudenc. New rules will be defined “by moving towards decarbonization obligations for deliveries”. The goal is to establish a progressive but rapid schedule in consultation with the CCI, carriers and local residents.