Mechelen-Rimini Staff Exchange!
On the 4th and 5th of June 2024, the Municipality of Rimini visited the city of Mechelen.
Within SPOTLOG, Rimini is implementing a pilot action aimed at the creation of a city logistics hub. As Mechelen already has an operational city hub, the Staff Exchange aimed at gathering information and sharing experiences as well ideas.
The first day opened with a general presentation on how Mechelen evolved in the last 15 to 20 years, also impacting on urban logistics: squares and streets were redesigned giving more space to pedestrians and cyclists and less for parking cars. Several underground parkings were built. There was also a car-free zones installed with timeframes for deliveries.
These developments resulted in the emergence of bike courier activities and the launch of a city hub.
Mechelen supported these initiatives with financial support and communication.
In line with ‘leading by example’ the city cooperates with these companies and realizes the last mile as much as possible with cargobikes.
The second day started early with a visit to the depot of Bpost, the national postal service, and market leader in the delivery of B2C e-commerce parcels.
Their deliveries are a zero-emission with bikes with trailers and electric vans.
They also installed a dense smart parcel locker network.
The visit continued with an acquaintance with the local bike courier company Ecokoeriers and the city hub.
For Rimini the handsfree shopping project was especially interesting, where purchases from shops were home delivered by the bike courier.
Then the tour continued with a visit to Foodsprint, a bike courier specialised in the delivery of refrigerated goods.
The day was wrapped up with a presentation on the most important evolutions in sustainable urban logistics in the last 8 years in Mechelen.