Cargo space design for sustainable, urban transport of cold goods

Abstract

The intention of the project was to design a storage solution for the cargo space part of the electric vehicle called Re:Volt that is under development by Clean Mo tion, to facilitate its use for the transport of groceries as part of last mile deliveries in an urban environment. Part of this was to determine the most suitable cooling technology and solution for the vehicle’s cargo space. Research was carried out of what operations within the current industry of last mile delivery of groceries looked like, to understand how different-sized vehicles were used to deliver different-sized orders to consumers within varying time spans. People with responsibility for operations within E-commerce of groceries at relevant companies operating within the industry were contacted and interviewed to understand their current operations and needs. The research concluded that Re:Volt, with some respective adjustments, could fit well for both quick commerce applications with de livery times of within an hour and planned deliveries with delivery times exceeding one hour. Dometic Frigo DC2500 was the cooling solution chosen to offer an air temperature of 2–4°C in the cargo space of Re:Volt, supported by 30 mm thick polyurethane foam insulation panels to line the walls of the space. The final solution mainly consisted of a rollabe shelf unit that could be loaded with goods both outside and inside the cargo space of Re:Volt. It was named Re:Load, with a capacity of 36 standard paper bags for groceries intended to be stored at 2–4°C. Of the 36 bags, up to 16 of them could be replaced with a maximum of four insulated freezer boxes each containing a PCM block, which consequently allowed the storage of up to 12 smaller paper bags at a temperature of -18°C to -21°C. The final offering was a shelf storage solution that could be implemented into current operations of last mile delivery, that enabled a good interaction for the intended user with the goods in the cargo space regarding physical- and cognitive ergonomics. The design of the cargo space of Re:Volt and the shelf solution Re:Load were deemed suitable to be used for either quick commerce or planned delivery applications. It could also result in the potential to shape and establish a new market segment for the food delivery industry where the gap between operations of quick commerce and planned deliveries would decrease. Alternatively, the vehicle could operate within the two areas of quick commerce and planned deliveries simultaneously.