In Ireland, city of Cork, on October 17 and 18, 2023, a second masterclass was held on the topic of urban logistics and the introduction of mobility on alternative fuels, which was attended by project partners and interested stakeholders from nine European countries.
Cork City Council, in collaboration with the Erasmus Center for Urban, Port and Transport Economy BV, organized another training session on the deployment of alternative fuel infrastructure and mobility. This time’s topic addressed the challenges and advantages of introducing cargo electric bikes for the purpose of transporting cargo in urban environments, consolidation centers, emission-free urban zones and local policies that encourage the introduction of this type of mobility. In addition to the honorary speaker, Mayor of Cork City, Cllr Kieran McCarthy, keynote speakers included Darren McAdam-O’Connell, Co-ordinator of the Cork Mobility and Transport Forum, who presented on Mobility in Cork City, Justine Looney, entrepreneur and owner of Douglas Street Flower Shop, who presented the operation of the local initiative for sustainable delivery, M. Nefs from Erasmus UPT, who presented the role of consolidation centers and networks, type centers and logistics hubs (multimodal, urban, micro, parcel, construction, coal, etc.). SENATOR, a transnational last mile delivery project co-funded by Horizon 2020 between An Post, the National Post Office of Ireland, the Spanish city of Zaragoza and Dublin City Council, was presented by Aoife O’Connor. The types of cargo bikes and their use in Europe were presented by Tom Assmann from the University of Megdeburg. Bart Dumoulin, Bond Beter Leefmilieu, presented the Flemish Green Deal experience for sustainable urban logistics and recommendations. In this part, there was an open discussion about the green agreement and its political ambitions, challenges and solutions in the introduction of sustainable urban logistics and about recommendations for regional and local governments. The epilogue of the discussion was that, despite certain advantages of this type of transport, it is necessary to take into account the economic sustainability and justification of such investments, the readiness of the workforce to use such means of transport, investments in public charging infrastructure and the purchasing power of the inhabitants, who in any case are the payers of the green transition, directly through payment of services or indirectly through taxes and some other issues as well. The second day was partly devoted to education and exchange of experiences, partly to a partnership meeting. In the first part, cargo bikes were again discussed. This time the Swedish experience was presented, by Andrè Benaima from the Energy Agency of Southern Sweden. This was followed by an interactive workshop for the exchange of opinions and impressions from the education of the first and second day.