More than half of the world’s population live in urban areas. In Europe, the proportion is over eighty per cent. Supplying all these people with the stuff they need is a huge undertaking. In the Paris region alone, some 4.3 million deliveries are made every week. It’s everything from fish fingers to face packs, from pharmaceuticals to photocopiers, from books to boots to beef to bags to batting bats. We could go on.
In the 2022 Toyota Logistic Design Competition we’re asking you to get your head around the enormous issues involved in urban micrologistics. And suggesting ways of dealing with the rising problems. As well as improving expediency. The stumbling blocks we’re up against when it comes to urban logistics are many and variegated. For one thing, cities are getting more and more congested, so cars are increasingly banned in city centres. This move is also a way of combatting pollution.