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“The loading zone analysis we conducted with Vianova gave us a new way to think about our curbside assets. There are a lot of competing priorities, but we can use new data techniques to balance different objectives and make the best use of our limited public space”.

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The Context

The city of Munich, like many European urban centers, faces complex challenges in balancing increasing delivery demand with limited curb space. With one of the highest GDP per capita in the EU, optimising and streamlining Munich’s commercial logistics activity is an extremely important challenge to get right. The concentration of business activity in central areas, combined with ongoing pedestrianization efforts, makes it crucial to develop informed strategies that balance the broad spectrum of affected stakeholders.

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The Problem

Munich's urban logistics ecosystem faces several key challenges:

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• Increasing pressure from e-commerce and urban delivery demand
• Limited visibility into commercial vehicle movements and stopping patterns
• Growing competition for scarce curb space in central districts
• Prevalence of double parking and parking in cycle paths
• Complex coordination of multiple stakeholder needs

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Traditional monitoring methods like cameras and sensors provide only localized insights and are costly to scale. While the need for additional dedicated loading zones has broad consensus and support, identifying where there are gaps in the current infrastructure and where demand regularly exceeds capacity across the city poses a significant challenge using existing methods.

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The Solution

Munich partnered with Vianova to enhance urban freight management through advanced data analytics. Leveraging connected vehicle data from predominantly commercial fleets, Vianova developed a detailed picture of commercial logistics behaviour throughout the centre of Munich.

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Vianova’s Intelligence Platform analyzed over 1.7 million observations in the Munich region and connected information on location, duration, time-of-day patterns, and vehicle types, without requiring additional infrastructure. By integrating over 220,000 freight stops identified from the connected vehicle data with commercial activity information from 47,773 businesses, the project developed a sophisticated optimization model for loading zone placement. 

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This approach combined population density, vehicle activity, and business data with environmental and safety considerations to create targeted recommendations across different urban contexts. Using a gravitational pull methodology influenced by the weights applied to respective datasets, Vianova generated a comprehensive and ranked list of potential additional loading zones in the city.

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The solution evolved through multiple iterations, adapting to the unique characteristics of each district. While central areas required careful balance between intense commercial delivery demand, population density and logistics activity, residential zones like Harthof demanded different approaches that shifted weights towards the different underlying parameters influencing delivery demand. Through a dynamic interface, the flexible methodology allowed for customization based on temporal patterns, stop durations, and vehicle types specific to each area.

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The Results

Through this comprehensive approach, Munich has established a foundation for more informed data-driven urban logistics planning. The project provided actionable insights for expanding the current set of loading zones and implementing dynamic curb management strategies and serves as a model for other cities facing similar challenges in efficiently managing freight delivery. Recommendations included locations for many different types of loading zones, for example:

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• Short-duration zones for easier pick-up and drop-off locations for commercial deliveries
• Longer-duration zones which support tradesmen and construction crews
• Early morning zones which could be used for deliveries in the busiest hours and repurposed for other uses such as taxi stands or general parking at other hours

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The success of this demonstration project positions Munich to further optimize its urban freight ecosystem, with ambitions for citywide expansion through a follow-on project. By leveraging connected vehicle data for analytics and strategic planning, Vianova enabled Munich to ensure that policies and investments are informed by, and tailored to, a comprehensive understanding of their urban logistics ecosystem.

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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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Ready to learn more?  Visit our page to get in touch.‍

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