Two heavy trucks have been operated in Stockholm city center during night time for e period of one and a half years. New technology has been tested: one the trucks was an electric hybrid with zone management and one was a PIEK certified biogas truck. The two trucks have been operated in different delivery schemes: on dedicated and one consolidated. The off-peak trial has been assessed in from four different perspectives: noise, transport efficiency, users and policy, and socioeconomic aspects. In addition, a literature survey has been performed.
Noise produced while travelling with the two trucks tested is not disturbing. The main challenge is noise produced during unloading, and in particular in areas where the background noise is low.
Transportation efficiency is improved from several perspectives compared with daytime deliveries: transport speed increased, fuel consumption decreased and service times decreased. However, one conclusion from the project is that it is challenging to compare daytime deliveries with off-peak deliveries for an individual truck, since the routing will be different depending on the time of the day even if the delivery points are the same. The reason is that the routing during daytime will be optimized to take congestion into account. Therefore, if general conclusions are to be drawn, data from more different trucks in different delivery schemes need to be collected and analyzed.
Stakeholder interviews showed that the most important benefits are increased efficiency, shorter travel and deliver times, higher productivity both for carriers and receivers, less environmental impacts and fuel cost savings, as well as better working conditions when trucks are moved from rush hours to off-peak hours. The most important social costs are increased noise levels and noise disturbances, additional staff, equipment and wage costs as well as higher risks in handling goods deliveries at night times, especially in the case of unassisted deliveries. In general, the benefits exceed the costs.
From the socio-economic analysis it is clear that the dominating type of external cost for daytime deliveries is contribution to congestion. This cost is reduced is nearly eliminated during off-peak deliveries. In addition, off-peak deliveries reduces CO2 emissions, but even more the emissions of air pollutants and can therefore contribute significantly to improving local air quality. The cost of noise is more than twice as big as for daytime deliveries.
From the city’s perspective the most important remaining challenges are related to 1) Noise measurements and surveillance, 2) general requirements and surveillance, for example concerning vehicles, fuels, and emission levels that are to be allowed, 3) The responsibility for potential additional costs related to infrastructural changes needed.
The overall conclusion from the project is that the benefits from off-peak deliveries exceed the costs. The results from the project suggest that the concept of off-peak deliveries is beneficiary in the Stockholm region, and the off-peak delivery program is suggested to continue and be scaled up to involve more vehicles and other types of goods. During the upscaling it is relevant to continue to study effects on transport efficiency, noise levels, and potential business barriers that may arise.