Smart Cities May Be the Future, But What Does That Mean for Supply Chain Logistics?
The US Department of Transportation (DOT) recently announced four finalists from its Smart City Challenge that will receive funding.
The grants will go to projects in Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Denver, and Portland to fund technology-driven projects to fight congestions, increase connectivity, and improve opportunity access.
Smart cities seem to be the new wave everyone is riding on but what does that mean for logistics? Self-driving cars and phones connected to the roads are great, but smart city planning could have impacts on urban delivery and logistics long before we see the new technologies rolled into place.
Supply chains will need to utilize new and existing technologies to adapt their logistics to smart city plans by reducing congestion, improving safety, and protecting the environment, all to increase efficiencies.
Because urban centers and metro areas drive our economic activity, most material handling happens in the cities and surrounding regions. In fact, more than 80% of all U.S. goods movement either starts or ends in metro areas. The increasing need to move goods in these urban areas is generating a lot of talk around first and last mile delivery. As online shopping increase the amount of goods shipped from distribution center (DC) to house, logistics providers will need to account for, work around, and hopefully reduce congestion and parking problems that come with increasing traffic. Large trucks usually used to haul goods across long distances simply can’t be used effectively, if at all, in urban areas. Changing or adapting first/last mile delivery methods are an obvious place to start. Utilizing off-peak or overnight deliveries are also another proposed solution along with mini-DCs within the city to work with a last mile delivery system.
As cities become smarter and more connected, live-data logistics and connected supply chains will be a must to move goods in these areas. It’s becoming clear that big data is what will be driving supply chains of the future.
