When the Tram Transports Amazon Parcels

Amazon parcels delivery by tram and cargo e-bike: Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences, in cooperation with Amazon Logistics and Verkehrsgesellschaft Frankfurt (VGF), has presented the initial results of a research project on the last mile.

Man gets off the streetcar with a large package. — Project manager Benjamin Federmann shows how Amazon parcels are transferred from the freight train to the e-cargo bike.

Parcels secured with netting in a streetcar. — The 50-year-old streetcar was slightly modified for the parcel delivery with freight streetcar research project.

Where passengers once sat on red leather seats, there are now large yellow and blue shipping bags surrounded by green nets.

The 50-year-old Frankfurt streetcar of the “P-Wagen” type has been converted by VGF trainees into a frog-green freight streetcar that can transport 600 parcels in one journey. Each delivery parcel contains an average of 19 parcels.

With E-Cargo Bikes to the Front Door

The idea of using streetcars to transport more than just people is not entirely new. Streetcars were already transporting mail in the 19th century. And after the Second World War, the vegetable streetcar ran through Frankfurt to supply the population with food.

Now, as part of a joint research project with Frankfurt UAS and VGF, it is the shipping giant Amazon that used the streetcar for four weeks to deliver goods of all kinds to customers. E-transporters were used to deliver the parcels to the goods streetcar. Electric cargo bikes picked them up at two stops in the city center of Frankfurt and then drove them to the front doors of Amazon customers.

“Everyone likes to order,” said Hesse's Economics Minister Kaweh Mansoori (SPD) at the presentation of the initial project results. However, as transport space in cities is limited, it was “a question of quality of life, which drive technologies we use to get around”. The successful project was a decisive step for the future of urban logistics in Hesse, said the Minister. The state of Hesse has been funding the project with a total of half a million euros since 2018. Frankfurt City Councillor Wolfgang Siefert (Greens) also explained: “Online trade is a key driver of freight transport. With the Gütertram, we are offering an innovative approach to partially replace parcel services and thus protect the environment.”

There's More to it

During the project, an average of 4.8 cargo bike tours with an average of 67 parcels were delivered - due to its pilot status, the streetcar was always loaded with minimum capacity. The parcels were transported over a distance of 22.4 kilometers per tour. The standing time of the streetcar was changed during the practical test because the transfer to the cargo bikes was 5 minutes faster in practice than the calculated 10 to 15 minutes, reported project manager Benjamin Federmann. The transport is always accompanied by two people who were also responsible for reloading. There was also the streetcar driver.

Two men in an outdoor interview. — Andre Lütgeharm (left), Regional Director Operations, Amazon Logistics, and Professor Kai-Oliver Schocke, President of Frankfurt UAS and project manager as a logistics expert, presented the Last Mile Tram research project.

The final assessment of whether the CO2 savings previously calculated of up to 56 percent previously calculated with a digital twin have actually been achieved will only be made after the full project evaluation at the end of 2024. The exact figures for noise reduction are also still to be evaluated.

Amazon transports an average of 10,000 parcels within Frankfurt, explains Andre Lütgeharm, Regional Director Operations Amazon Logistics. The company sees the project “as the right and important step towards sustainable parcel delivery in our cities”.

According to Lütgeharm, the delivery success rate was more than 97.5 percent. There had been neither complaints from the public nor safety concerns. However, according to the VGF, the streetcar only ever ran in the mornings, when the traffic volume is lower.

Professor Kai-Oliver Schocke, President of Frankfurt UAS and logistics expert, explains that the researchers collected data from many service providers in advance in order to calculate the theoretical noise and emissions values. “The results of the simulation proved to be wonderfully accurate,” he says, but points to the final report that is still pending. No final statements can currently be made on the economic assessment either. The fact is that successful implementation must be economically viable. Legal and economic issues are the biggest challenges in this project. Should a public transport company be allowed to offer logistics? This is also a fundamental question, according to project manager Federmann.

Logistics professor Schocke explained that large bakeries and other companies have already been asked whether they would be interested in alternative transportation. “All of them are basically ready for it, but they want to see a price tag first and then decide whether it fits in with their concept.”