The smart last mile of Trento

The Alpine city of Trento will soon launch its "Last Mile Logistics" strategy for a smarter and more sustainable circulation of goods in the city centre.

Trento City Council has approved some operative measures that will enable local implementation of the "Last Mile Logistics" project. This is one of the actions Trento is carrying out as part of the European project STARDUST and it will change the way goods are delivered in the restricted traffic area of the city centre. The "Last Mile Logistics" will rely on two complementary aspects: the construction of different hubs for the collection of goods and the distribution of such goods in the historical center thanks to dedicated electric vehicles.

One central hub will be located in the northern part of the municipality, inside an already existing facility for the shipment and sorting of goods, whereas additional smaller hubs will be created close to the historic center. To optimally implement the "Last Mile Logistics" initiative and best address the needs of residents and local businesses, the Trento City Council, the STARDUST partner Eurac Research and the "Last Mile Logistics" manager Trentino Mobilità have compared best practice measures implemented in other Italian cities and collected the opinions of local stakeholders. Following the example of the city of Padua, the delivery service will adopt a non-coercive model and pursue the goals of increasing the livability of the city of Trento, reducing the number of vehicles in the historic center and, consequently, lowering the levels of air pollution and noise.

To ensure the service will be adapted to the needs of economic operators, relevant stakeholders such as trade associations and shipping and transport companies have been engaged through a survey and a number of meetings. The most recent of these meetings took place in March 2020 and more are planned for the coming months.