Emission-free delivery service in Germany

Fuso eCanters and electric cargo bikes ensure German freight company Dachser is making all its deliveries to downtown Freiburg emission-free.

The newly launched e-mobility service reduces CO2 emissions per shipment by 26%.

Dachser has designated the post code 79098—which encompasses parts of the city’s Altstadt, Neuburg, and Oberau districts—as an emission-free delivery area.

“We successfully introduced electrically assisted cargo bikes two years ago, so this is now the next logical step in doing our part to improve the quality of the air and of life in Freiburg’s downtown,” Dachser’s Freiburg logistics centre general manager Michael Gaudlitz says.

Dachser will immediately deploy an all-electric Fuso eCanter light truck to deliver goods either directly to customers or to the microhub operated by partner VeloCarrier/Roc-Ket Cargo Bikes, There, smaller shipments are transferred to electrically assisted cargo bikes or StreetScooters for the delivery runs.

The eCanter will charge at Dachser’s branch in the Breisgau industrial park south of Freiburg which, like all the logistics provider’s branches in Germany, purchases 100% hydroelectric power.

Taking transportation as a whole – collection and line-haul are done with conventional diesel trucks – this new service reduces CO2 emissions per shipment by 26% on average, particulates emissions by about 47%, and nitrogen oxide emissions by about 41%.

Dachser Emission-Free Delivery, an innovative city logistics concept, is built on a modular toolbox for city-centre deliveries which the company has been putting into practice in downtown Stuttgart in Germany since 2018. It recently rolled out Dachser Emission-Free Delivery in Norway’s capital Oslo as well.

“This is a promising beginning, but there is still a long road ahead of us – for a start, we have to resolve issues surrounding the availability of trucks with alternative powertrains,” Dachser city distribution innovation project head Stefan Hohm says.

“Over the next two years, we will be examining select European metropolitan regions to successively identify the hotspots in their city centres and implement the DachserEmission-Free Delivery concept.”