Electric light commercial vehicles (LCVs) represent a new market with high potential sales in the European countries, due to the new restrictions for old diesel vehicles in European cities, e.g. Paris and London. Nevertheless the uptake of electric vans is still limited and only few logistics chains are renovating their diesel fleets with electric technology. In particular, actors within fresh food logistics chains, which circulate in urban areas to supply local shops and food outlets with perishable goods, appear to be hesitant. This paper presents the ongoing work within the French project Corri-door, co-funded by the European Innovation & Networks Executive Agency. This study focused on the Fruit & Vegetables (F&V) temperature-controlled deliveries to non-corporate retailers. F&V supply chain is a highly complex and fragmented sector, comprised of many small and diverse stakeholders (retailers, wholesalers, service providers) reluctant to change and with limited investments resources. The aim of this paper is to investigate F&V “last mile” operations for independent retailers and hotels, restaurants and cafés (Ho.Re.Ca.), in order to identify technological obstacles to the adoption of electric vans. Based on PIPAME survey (2009) ad on national LCVs survey (2010), the article proposes an analysis on delivery schemes for the Paris metropolitan area, integrated with qualitative interviews with representatives of F&V sector operators and manufacturers. Although the delivery operations result to be suitable with the performance of electric vans, specific constraints, related to converted refrigerated vehicles and their reduced payload, represent relevant technological barriers.
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)