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The Context

The City of Stockholm is a global leader in the development of new and innovative forms of mobility. The largest city in the Nordics, Stockholm has set the global standard for decarbonization, including the implementation of one of the oldest systems of congestion pricing, and a recent commitment to a large zero-emission zone in the center of the city.

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The Challenge

Today, approximately 80% of commercial vehicles are connected, yet cities still struggle to understand their movement patterns. While Stockholm has a limited number of cameras and sensors at certain locations, it isn't financially or operationally feasible to deploy an entire citywide network. Without insights about commercial vehicle behavior, the city risks increasing chaos at the curb and competition for limited loading zones.

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Benefits of Implementation

With a better perspective on curb behavior, the city can develop new enforcement strategies to prevent double-parking which poses a risk to cyclists on their morning commute. Stockholm also intends to dramatically increase the availability of loading zones and micro-loading hubs throughout the city, but wants to place them in a strategic and useful way. Understanding existing patterns can guide this strategy in a cost-effective manner.

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Technical Approach

Vianova partnered with the City of Stockholm to bring new insights through its Curb Analytics data product. Aggregating and anonymizing the location information of thousands of commercial trucks and vans in the Stockholm region, Vianova provided specific information about stop behavior, such as the duration, the time of day, and the emissions profile (electric vs non-electric).

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When combined with Vianova’s Intelligence Platform (VIP), the City of Stockholm was able to perform useful and powerful analyses about the behavior in a particular area and quickly identify hotspots for early morning loading areas. The VIP permits a user to easily add data from their own databases or open data sets, making analyses easy without the use of additional GIS tools.

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The Results

The analysis revealed distinct delivery patterns. Weekday deliveries maintain consistent volumes between 19,000-21,000 stops, dropping dramatically to approximately 2,000 stops on weekends. Morning hours (6:00-10:59) account for over 50% of daily activity, highlighting the concentration of deliveries during peak commuting times.

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Most stops are brief, with 85% lasting under 45 minutes and an average duration of 35.2 minutes. This fast-paced delivery ecosystem is primarily served by trucks (59.3% of stops) and Light Commercial Vehicles (34%), with diesel vehicles dominating at 83.5% of stops.

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Of particular importance for Stockholm's zero-emission zone planning, only 1,204 stops were recorded in the planned Miljözon 3 area. Here, 96.1% of deliveries are currently made by vehicles that won't meet future requirements, with only 7 stops (0.6%) made by battery-electric vehicles.

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The Next Steps

This pilot project, analyzing 332,872 stops over six months, has provided Stockholm with its first comprehensive view of urban freight patterns. While these initial insights are valuable, they also point to exciting opportunities for expanding this data-driven approach to freight management.

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Based on the pilot's success, Vianova recommends several key steps to enhance Stockholm's understanding and management of urban freight. First, expanding data coverage through additional connected vehicle sources - from logistics providers to delivery apps - would create an even more representative picture of delivery patterns. This expanded dataset, combined with real-time monitoring capabilities, would provide a more dynamic view of freight movements while maintaining strict data privacy standards.

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Understanding complete delivery journeys, not just stops, represents another crucial opportunity. By analyzing origin-destination flows, Stockholm could uncover critical patterns in goods movement across the city, helping inform decisions about infrastructure placement - from EV charging stations to strategic freight hubs.

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The creation of an integrated data platform would take these insights further, combining freight data with air quality and traffic information to create a comprehensive "one-stop shop" for urban freight management. This platform would give city officials and stakeholders easy access to the data they need for informed decision-making.

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Digitizing curb management policies represents another important step forward. By standardizing these policies and making them accessible via APIs, Stockholm could create a more transparent and consistent system for managing freight operations. This digital infrastructure would support more efficient enforcement and better communication with freight operators.

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Finally, leveraging successful approaches from other cities, Stockholm could develop strategically placed freight micro and macro hubs, optimizing loading zone placement based on actual usage patterns. These infrastructure improvements would help alleviate curbside congestion while supporting more efficient delivery operations.

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Together, these steps would help Stockholm build on the pilot's findings, advancing its position as a leader in sustainable urban freight management while creating a model that other cities could follow.

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About Vianova

Vianova is the data analytics solution to operate the mobility world. Our platform harnesses the power of connected vehicles and IoT data, to provide actionable insights to plan for safer, greener, and more efficient transportation infrastructures.

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From enabling regulation of shared mobility to transforming last-mile deliveries, and mapping road risk hotspots, Vianova serves 150+ cities, fleet operators, and enterprises across the globe to change the way people and goods move.

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