The NSW Government has announced that it has opened an Expression of Interest (EOI) for the lease of three government-owned sites to facilitate what it calls a pioneering ‘last mile’ delivery trial.
According to the statement, last-mile infrastructure is used worldwide to organise, transfer, and manage freight deliveries, reducing congestion, pollution, and costs.
It says that sites, including an underground car park near Wynyard Station in the Sydney CBD and a property adjacent to Waverton Station on the city’s lower north shore, are in highly sought-after CBD and inner-ring locations ideal for supporting last-mile delivery services.
The Government statement said that the final leg of delivery or last-mile between a storage facility and a customer’s home or workplace is the most complex, expensive and carbon-intensive part of the e-commerce supply chain.
It went on to ay that participants in the trial will need to provide and use environmentally sustainable vehicles, such as low-emissions vans, electric vehicles, e-scooters, tuk-tuks and e-bikes.
The government said that the Wynyard Station hub could potentially service more than 250,000 households and more than 116,000 businesses within a five to ten kilometre radius.
It added that the Waverton Station site could access more than 129,000 households and 94,000 businesses within a five kilometre radius.
It said that the 18-month trial aims to reduce carbon emissions by using decarbonised transport modes, improve pedestrian and road safety, by reducing double-parked vans and sidewalk loading obstructions, reduce congestion by minimising distance travelled by being closer to the customers means less road congestion, reduce air and noise pollution through the use of electric vehicles and fewer trucks in congested areas and reduce delivery costs, with the hubs enabling faster deliveries with less distance travelled.
NSW Minister for Transport Jo Haylen said that getting freight right is a key focus for this government because it means less congestion, less carbon emissions and improved safety.
“We want these last-mile trials to be part of our policy to reduce congestion in the CBD and inner ring suburbs and pave the way for broader implementation across NSW,” said Minister Haylen
The Government says the EOI is open untill 9 December this year, and details are available via the project webpage here.
