Last Friday, the programme agreement between the Municipality of Abano Terme and Interporto Padova Spa was presented, extending the Cityporto daily goods delivery service, carried out with ecological vehicles and successfully active for over 14 years in the city of Padua, to the ZTL area of the spa centre.

“After the measures put in place to control access and increase security within the pedestrian zone, we now want to continue the work to make the area more liveable. We will do this through intelligent logistics, which will further limit the passage of vehicles for loading and unloading goods, and through the use of more environmentally friendly vehicles,” says Mayor Federico Barbierato.

“I would like to thank the operators who every day renew their trust in Interporto Padua, entrusting us with their goods for the final delivery of the ‘last mile’, which we carry out with environmentally friendly vehicles. Our commitment is to work towards increasingly sustainable logistics. I would also like to take this opportunity to remember our men who carry out the service every day with passion and commitment. What we are presenting today is an important agreement, which allows the municipal administration to respond positively to the citizens’ requests for a less polluted and less crowded centre with commercial vehicles, without forgetting the needs of commerce and all those activities that need to receive supplies and goods on a daily basis,’ emphasises Interporto Padua president Sergio Gelain

The agreement establishes that from 1 November, a methane-powered Cityporto vehicle will deliver goods to businesses in the ZTL area, grouping the deliveries of as many as ten different operators. A single vehicle, which will also run on methane, will thus replace 10 diesel vehicles, with an undoubted advantage both in terms of polluting emissions and congestion in Abano’s central streets.

For its part, the Municipality of Abano, for a pilot period of six months starting on 1 November, will allow the extension of the time slots for delivery in the ZTL to the morning from 7 a.m. to midday and the afternoon from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. for the Cityporto service vehicles and the operators who, collectively, will use ecological vehicles (methane or electric) for the delivery service.

The figures show that the average weight per delivery is almost 90 kg, which means that these are not small parcels related to e-commerce, but goods destined for hotels and shops in the spa area. A service that is therefore important for the economy of the area and which, due to the volumes and weights involved, is not possible to date with small electric vehicles.

Cityporto’s delivery service is carried out on weekdays from Monday to Friday, with a two-day frequency (one delivery/collection round in the morning and one in the afternoon), therefore without interfering with the tourist presence that crowds Abano most on public holidays and holidays.

It should be emphasised that the agreement does not envisage any additional cost either for the municipality of Abano Terme or for the final recipients of the goods. The cost of the service provided by Cityporto is borne by the couriers who entrust their goods to Interporto’s platform, but it is amply repaid by the savings obtained by not having to send their own vehicle for one or a few deliveries in the centre of Abano, with the hourly access restrictions provided by the ZTL

Moreover, at the end of this first pilot phase of the service, Interporto Padua will evaluate other actions and study the possibility of creating a proximity platform also suitable for more express services and e-commerce.