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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SENSE (Accelerating the Path Towards Physical Internet)

Teaser

Summary

â€œIf we want to meet EU societal challenges on decarbonisation and strengthen competitiveness of European industry at the same time, we need a transformational change in freight transport and logistics. We need to drive the development of an open network of hyper connected logistic networks to ensure efficient, productive and effective use of resources, transport vehicles and infrastructure. Through this Physical Internet network, the goods will be moved, stored, supplied and used in a manner that is an order of magnitude more economically, environmentally and socially efficient, secure and sustainableâ€

Emissions from freight transport and logistics are still growing, despite combating climate change being a clear international priority. The development of green vehicles: trains, barges and ships, and the supporting technologies which enable more environmentally-friendly transport fleets, is currently forecasted to be too slow to hit our climate change targets.

Cities recognise problems caused by freight transport and logistics such as air pollution, noise, and congestion. As a result, many cities are regulating to protect urban environments by implement stricter access regulations and vehicles standards. They are having to strike a difficult balance between maintaining the life blood of the city - the accessibility of goods and services and the quality of life of the inhabitants.

Logistics companies, manufacturers and retailers are struggling to deliver emissions reduction whilst remaining competitive. Low profit margins combined with the high cost of low emission technologies make investment challenging. As the fight against climate change becomes more of a priority the pressure is rising on the logistics industry to take action.

There are large opportunities for efficiency gains in freight transport and logistics through better use of assets, such as trucks, railways, warehouses and barges and reducing fragmentation, which stifles innovation. a) We know that 24% of goods vehicle kms in the EU are running empty and when carrying a load, vehicles are typically only 57% loaded as a percentage of maximum gross weight. The total cost burden this inefficiency generates is estimated as â‚¬160 billion and 1.3% of EU27 CO2 footprint. b) Transport infrastructure is poorly utilised, especially in the rail sector. While the intensity of use of road infrastructure was 25.3 Million-Ton Kilometre per Network Kilometre, rail was 1.7 in 2009.

One source of solutions to these challenges is the Physical Internet. Moving to â€œPhysical Internet Modelâ€ could: shift 50% of goods transport from road to rail, cut costs by 32%, reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 60%.

SENSE Strategic Objective is to accelerate the path towards the Physical Internet, so advanced pilot implementations of the Physical Internet concept are well functioning and extended in industry practice by 2030, and hence contributing to a 30 % reduction in congestion, emissions and energy consumption.

Work performed

A summary of the work carried out within this reporting period pursuing the objectives of the project are:

O1. Develop the vision and a detailed roadmap towards the Physical Internet until 2030.
A detailed vision of the Physical Internet including five main areas of development and generations have been described. The PI academic vision is being translated into an actionable industry roadmap. The outcomes are being discussed with experts in several workshops and individual meetings.

O2. Monitor and boost Physical Internet development.
Impacts and contributions of industry initiatives (200+) and research and innovation projects (200+) to PI implementation are being assessed. A beta version of a Knowledge Platform to share broadly those findings has been created. This platform includes detailed information of a selected group of the above (i.e. key industry initiatives and projects in support of PI implementation) as well as European, national and regional funding opportunities. A methodology for evaluating and selecting the initiatives collected has also been developed.

O3. Increase support and build consensus on the benefits of Physical Internet realization and engage public bodies, research and industry stakeholders.
A simple analyse by PGBS is showing that PI could have a crucial role towards decarbonization and meeting COP 21 Paris agreements. SENSE is supporting the creation of a Strong Physical Internet community around ALICE in which all involved stakeholders, willing to support and invest on Physical Internet realization, can meet and develop the roadmap implementation (ALICE has already 130+ members). Moreover, SENSE is boosting the International Physical Internet Conference (IPIC) (www.pi.events) to which 60+ contributions have been received in IPIC 2019 call for contributions edition and around 200 participants are expected.

Final results

SENSE major Outcomes & Outlook is as follows:
1.- Achieving wide industry and public bodies consensus and support on Physical Internet vision and roadmap:
a) SENSE is translating PI academic vision into an industry actionable roadmap that is almost finalized (i.e. Vision, Areas of development, Generations & Topics) b) Communication materials will be produced once the roadmap is completely finalized.
2.- Develop and implement a strong methodology to monitor, assess and review Physical Internet implementation status including industry initiatives, Projects and Programs:
a) The developed methodology is aligned with the roadmap areas of development, generation and main topics. b) SENSE is building the reference Knowledge Platform on Physical Internet that will gather these elements and share with the whole PI community. The Knowledge Platform will be launched by IPIC 2019 (www.pi.events)
3.- Better alignment on regional, member states and EU Programs supporting Physical Internet:
a) SENSE partners: DINALOG, VIL and VNL are setting the basis and ALICE Mirror Group is used for further leverage
4.- Reinforced International Physical Internet Community.
a) ALICE is leveraging SENSE through the organization of IPIC 2019 in London that is the major event for coordination of research activities around Physical Internet. This activity will be leverage for the rest of the project to strengthen the PI community.