Cenex in collaboration with Flexible Power Systems (FPS) has completed a project exploring how smart city data can transform urban logistics.
Project SLICED (Smarter Logistics through In-vehicle, City and Energy Data), an Innovate UK-funded feasibility study, explored how the integration of city, vehicle, and energy data can assist logistics operators in reducing emissions, preventing accidents, and enhancing operational efficiency.
The project’s findings demonstrate significant potential for smarter, data-driven decision-making in fleet and urban environments.
Insights gathered have informed a set of use cases that guided the development of a proof-of-concept system.
The final report details the priorities of fleets and cities and how they can work more collaboratively, including:
- Fleets most commonly report that inefficiencies in cities are primarily due to delays caused by congestion and challenges related to vehicle routing.
- Safety and compliance are top priorities for these fleets.
- Fleets agreed that incorporating more data use was beneficial, but key barriers include the complexity and costs of incorporating multiple systems and hardware devices on vehicles.
- Many areas that could be optimised through fleets and cities working together and sharing data.
- Joint areas of interest are strongest when considering the efficiency and safety of the city road network.
The study highlighted that logistics fleets and cities rarely engage in collaborative discussions. Therefore, it demonstrated the value in facilitating dialogue between the stakeholders and recommends that fleet and city decision makers expand areas of data co-operation, research and demonstration activities.
Following the success of SLICED, Cenex and FPS are working together to develop demonstration projects allowing first of a kind implementation of connected city logistics to monitor the benefits.
Steve Carroll, Head of Research and Technical Services, Cenex, said:
“As we move to smarter, more efficient and resilient cities, it is vital that information is shared across all city stakeholders. It was a pleasure discussing opportunities in this area with fleet and cities contacts and getting a sense of what could be achieved. Working with fleet technology provider, FPS, we look forward to realising these improvements across their customer base. Watch this space as we are working on pulling together a demonstration to bring these forward-thinking ideas into reality.”
Michael Ayres, Managing Director, Flexible Power Systems, said:
“The road to sustainable fleet operations in cities is a connected one. Fleets and cities have access to more data than ever before. If harnessed correctly, this data can unlock cost and risk-reducing decisions in planning and real-time operations. There’s a risk, though, of fleets and cities being overwhelmed by a deluge of data that become worthless. That’s why automated systems like FPS Operate can produce so much value, they ingest this data and generate insights and beneficial automated actions in the real world.”
Image courtesy of Cenex/FPS
The news comes ahead of T+E’s inaugural Fleet Electrification Forum on 9 July at Warwick Conferences, where FPS will be exhibiting. Find out more about speakers and the event here.
