Highlights from the MED COLOURS Stakeholder Involvement and Capacity Building Workshop for Last Mile Urban Logistics in Lisbon

On Thursday, 14th November, the first MED COLOURS project event was held in Lisbon, hosted by partner Lisboa E-Nova – Lisbon’s Energy and Environmental Agency, in collaboration with Lisbon Municipality – CML. The workshop, focused on “Stakeholder Involvement and Capacity Building for Last-Mile Urban Logistics”, brought together local and national logistics stakeholders working in Lisbon, plus industry and international stakeholders at the Centro de Informação Urbana de Lisboa (CIUL).

Highlights from the Workshop

The MED COLOURS last-mile logistics workshop began with opening remarks from Carlos Contente de Sousa, administrator at Lisboa E-Nova, who outlined the goals of MED COLOURS and Lisbon’s commitment to achieving climate neutrality.

Following, Fernando Rosa from Lisbon Municipality, explained the role of the MED COLOURS project for the municipality and the city, and its objectives. Bernardo Pereira, mobility specialist at Lisboa E-Nova, moderated the workshop, with technical assistance from João Gameiro, Marta Peixinho, and Filipa Cabral Sacadura.

Presentation and Discussion Panels

Participants were engaged in a series of discussions and presentations, including:

• Lorenzo Cello (ITL, MED COLOURS Coordinator), and  Teresa de la Cruz (ZLC), who explained the MED COLOURS project, its aims, coordination, timeline, and the related work packages;
• Anna Paulides, Project Manager for Sustainability and Innovation – E-Commerce Operations at PostNL, the Dutch national postal company and one of the leading delivery operators, shared the Dutch approach to zero-emission logistics and the pioneering use of zero-emission delivery solutions in Dutch cities, involving the use of small vehicles in the most central areas of the cities and emission-free vehicles and vans in the outer areas.
• Francisco Simões Travassos, responsible for CEP Express Products at CTT, Portugal’s national postal company, and a major courier, express and parcel operator in Portugal and in Spain, explained CTT’s initiatives in digitalization, zero-emission vehicle deployment, and the most efficient means for delivery with the least climate and environmental impacts.
• Pedro Ventura, founder and CEO of Camisola Amarela, Lisbon’s first cargo-bike delivery service, in operation since 2009, highlighted Lisbon’s first cargo-bike delivery operations, also outlining its challenges and emphasising the need for supportive city policies to incentivise fewer vehicles, safer streets, and cleaner deliveries.
• Nádia Moraisexplained the Bicicultura project Veloteca “library of bicycles” that is being launched including many bicycle types for different uses, including cargo bikes.

This session was followed by a coffee-break with great discussions among different speakers, participants, and observers, including city-level and national-level decision-makers.

In the questions and answer’s discussion in one of the following sessions, Teresa Santos from Portugal’s Secretary of State for Mobility announced the national government’s cargo-bike purchase assistance programme, a subsidy fully aligned with the need to improve and decarbonise last mile urban delivery solutions.

The event continued with speeches by:

• Rosa Félix,Territory Engineer, active mobility researcher and guest professor at the University of Lisbon’s Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), and member of the U-Shift laboratory, who presented research on last mile meal deliveries, mostly done by bicycle in Lisbon, with new insights on social, economical, environmental impacts, future tendencies, and carbon emissions for the different modes used, with a discussion on impacts.
• Maria Rebelo, Director of Sustainability at CTT, Portugal’s national postal operator, and the Iberian Peninsula’s largest courier/express/post operator, explained last mile delivery measures for greater sustainability and goals to reach zero emissions. Maria Rebelo also brought an electric last-mile delivery tricycle for display and participated in the wrap-up round table with insights on current challenges and CTT’s responses.
• Gil Nadais, secretary general at ABIMOTA – Portugal’s National Association for Two Wheel Industry, also known as Portugal’s cycling industry association, discussed the capacities of Portuguese bicycle manufacturing, the possibility of manufacturing cargo-bikes and responding to last mile solutions in cities, the role of ABIMOTA’s Portugal Bike Value programme, and the importance of measures to be implemented by city governments, starting with the need for city-wide speed limit reduction to 30km/h in Portuguese cities.
• Samuel Pierce Project Manager at Cycling Industries Europe (CIE) presented new insights and data on Cargo Bike capabilities and uses in Europe, the role of Cycle Logistics, and Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS), and the state of the art for last mile urban logistics at the European level, and also industry’s response.
• Michel van Eijnatten co-founder of Fulpra, Dutch manufacturer of heavy duty professional cargo bikes presented the advantages of cycle logistics in last mile deliveries, adaptation to different cities, and explained the capacities of Fulpra cargo-bikes, able to transport up to 350 kg, climb steep roads, and new models which protect cyclists from rain and wind.
• José Mota, CEO at Light Mobi.e, one of the largest bicycle factories in Portugal, presented mobility solutions, bicycles and components manufactured by Light Mobi.e, responding to major challenges in the global sector, and opportunities for existing and new cargo-bikes.Light Mobi.e also brought for exhibit an older model of CTT cargo trike still used for deliveries in three Portuguese cities.
• Nuno Peixoto, commercial and marketing manager of 2AB, national representative BKL in Portugal presented the BKL heavy duty cargo bikes manufactured in Seville, Spain, their capacity and brought two heavy duty cargo bikes for exhibit.

The round table

The workshop wrapped-up with a round table on last mile urban logistics in Lisbon, with Maria Rebelo (CTT), Anna Paulides (PostNL), and Fernando Rosa (Lisbon Municipality).

Anna Paulides shared her first impression of Lisbon’s last mile urban logistics from her visit to the city and from the discussions in the MED COLOURS Workshop, including a question of how deliveries are done in the compact city central historical neighbourhoods with some streets with steps and steep climbs. Maria Rebelo expanded on Anna’s commenting on Lisbon’s downtown and the steep hilly historical neighbourhoods, where some postal and CEP deliveries are done walking, using public transport also, and smaller vehicles. It was discussed that with car-free neighbourhoods other solutions, especially cargo bikes will emerge, and commented that despite Lisbon’s historic centre, 75% of the city’s street network is quite flat, only 15% very steep. Fernando Rosa did a quick wrap-up of Lisbon’s current municipal approach and new insights discussed and collected in this workshop.

Finally, Miguel de Castro Neto, President of Lisboa E-Nova closed the workshop with observations regarding the city’s logistical system and goals and underscored Lisbon’s progress toward sustainable urban logisticsas an important part of the city’s effort to achieve climate neutrality.

The exhibit of last mile solutions followed in the venue’s courtyard.

Last-Mile Solutions Exhibit

The last-mile urban solutions exhibit presented an electric motor cargo tricycle from CTT, an older CTT Orbita cargo-trike and a long-tail cargo-bike brought in by Light Mobi.E (who purchased the iconic Portuguese bicycle brand Orbita), two BKL heavy duty cargo-trikes brought in by 2AB, and several other bikes and cargo-bikes brought in by different participants who were in the audience.

The exhibit session continued at Picoas Plaza courtyard well beyond the closing session, with participants experimenting and discussing the cargo-bikes which could maneuver safely and easily in this pedestrian space.

Media Coverage and Closing Remarks

Portugal’s national broadcaster RTP appeared at the Workshop after the coffee-break, with a journalist from radio channel Antena 1, Gonçalo Martins, who interviewed Pedro Ventura from local delivery operator Camisola Amarela and Bernardo Pereira from Lisboa E-Nova, live, in daily a programme called Portugal em Direto.

The event was a resounding success, with almost 50 participants, fostering meaningful discussions and paving the way for innovative solutions to the complex challenges of urban deliveries. MED COLOURS continues to work toward a sustainable future, aligning urban logistics with more liveable communities and climate neutrality goals!