Starting this week, companies making deliveries to shops in Groningen’s city centre can ship their goods to the Groningen Eelde Freight Hub.
Translation by Traci White
Bundling the deliveries at the logistics centre and then bringing them into town should reduce congestion in the city centre.
Deliveries will be stored in a warehouse at Royal Flora Holland and then transported to Groningen by zero emissions vehicles. The hub will focus on shipments to the city centre initially, but there are plans to eventually expand the delivery service elsewhere.
According to Drenthe alderperson Henk Brink, the number of vehicles in cities and towns across the region is on the rise. Brink told Dagblad van het Noorden, “That is due in large part to the increasing popularity of online shopping. If you can combine those deliveries, then you can ensure that one delivery van has to make one trip instead of multiple vans making several trips.”
There may be benefits to this, but there are no “zero emission vehicles”. I understand that electrically powered vehicles will be used. In the Netherlands, 80% of our electricity comes from burning fossil fuels so these vehicles will contribute to climate change. What’s more, electric vehicles produce particulates from their tyres and brakes, just like all other vehicles. The closest thing we have to a genuinely zero emission vehicle is the bicycle.