Geodis teams up with Paris City Council
Jean Depraeter, Executive Vice President with the Geodis Group and Advisor to the Chairman for the Groupage and Express businesses, signed a charter of best practices for the transportation and delivery of goods (in french) drafted by Paris City Council and transport companies at a ceremony attended by Bertrand Delanoé, the mayor of Paris.
The charter will become effective as of 1 January 2007 and comprises a number of commitments from the different parties involved.
On the one hand, the transport company signatories will undertake to:
– limit delivery times to a maximum of 30 minutes in order to minimise disruption to traffic and local residents;
– use delivery vans that comply with the latest European standards.
On the other, Paris City Council is to:
– establish three coordinated time slots for deliveries;
– adapt and improve dedicated delivery zones.
All the parties expressed their desire to encourage the use of environmentally friendly modes of transport.
Geodis has in fact already begun investigating the issue and intends to continue its research and extend the scope of its initial experiments.
Indeed, Geodis BM has been testing vans that run on NGV (Natural Gas for Vehicles) for its deliveries to Monoprix stores in the Paris area. Early results from the operation have led the Group to consider expanding its scope and possibly adopting the technology as standard. Furthermore, Geodis Calberson, which handles over 5,000 deliveries and 2,600 collections per day in Paris, recently launched a feasibility study to look at establishing an urban logistics system using the city’s waterways. The research will be carried out in association with Paris City Council and the Port Autonome de Paris (independent port of Paris).
A second feasibility study is underway to examine the possibility of opening a “city office” (an urban consolidation centre to break down shipments for local delivery) in the Sentier district of Paris to serve the city centre.
These actions are visible proof of the Group’s desire to promote alternative and additional methods of delivering goods in Paris in order to reduce damage to the environment and minimise disruption to citizens.
