Oslo - Common Logistics functions for shopping centres

Motivation and concept
Shopping centres often represent challenges for logistics service providers, as individual retailers may be located far from the freight receipt area, and the norm is that truck drivers have to bring all items to the shop. In Norway, shopping centres represent around 30% of retail trade. Steen & Strøm AS is a Nordic branch of the Klépierre group who are planning a new shopping centre at Økern in Oslo with a goal to establish common functions for inbound and outbound freight flows. Previous demonstrations and analyses have suggested that such functions should be operationally and financially viable. The implementation will facilitate identification of consolidation opportunities for logistics service providers as well as off-hour deliveries as the transport leg and in-house transport leg in the shopping centre may be decoupled. The shopping centre is expected to open in 2022. An aim of Steen & Strøm is to raise the priority of freight and to include stakeholders early in the planning process in order to improve the delivery of goods. In the present blueprint, although not yet final, the idea is to establish easy access, reduce delivery times and damage (e.g. from trucks hitting infrastructure). The preferred solution will depend on stakeholder views, which stakeholder groups contribute and internal processes at Steen & Strøm.

Implementation status and next steps
The CITYLAB project contributes to the planning of freight receipt areas by facilitating collaboration between relevant stakeholders through knowledge generation and dialogue between different stakeholders in the Oslo living lab. The idea is to ensure the possibility of representation for all potentially relevant stakeholders, thus, providing an informal structure in which the partners can collaborate. Representatives of Steen & Strøm and the Institute of Transport Economics (TOI) participated in a study trip to the Swedish shopping centre Emporia in December 2015 to obtain experiences from common logistics functions there, operated by the company Logistikbolaget AB. In May 2016, there was a large discussion meeting involving logistics service providers, retail chains, a potential service operator (Collicare Instore) and the Oslo living lab partners Steen & Strøm, City of Oslo and TOI. From the initial drawings of the centre, the area dedicated for buffer storage close to the freight unloading areas has been extended to facilitate the common logistics functions – based on input from the other stakeholders during the meetings and discussions.
Local workshop "Logistics strategies for shopping centres - how to improve the efficiency of delivery and service vehicle activity", was held 7 June, 2017 Link to workshop report
Cartoon illustrating the concept

Oslo_cartoon

Cartoon produced by: Matt Sloe Link to full-size cartoon