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In the 1800s, the River Thames was the main cargo artery of an all-powerful, world-spanning empire. As trucks and containerships took over after the war, the river saw waterborne deliveries shrink to almost nothing. But today, with green constraints becoming ever more important, the barges are back – delivering goods to riverside Londoners. By Jeremy Torr.
London, UK. April 2022. “We are constantly looking for innovative (delivery) solutions,” said John Pearson, CEO of DHL in the UK, which delivers many of the 700-or so parcels delivered annually to London addresses. “This includes tapping into new transport modes to reduce road traffic, carbon output - and improve air quality.”
So DHL, using its experience with modern waterborne delivery systems in Amsterdam, is looking to turn back the clock and use barges to help cut down vehicular traffic – much of it carbon intensive – within the city of London.
“The shipment of bulky freight by river takes 200,000 HGVs off the roads.” - PLA’s Mortimer. Courtesy PLA
"This project opens up the movement of small parcels as a new and potentially substantial area of river use,” says Port of London Authority CEO, Robin Mortimer. "The shipment of bulkier freight by river already takes more than 200,000 HGVs off the capital's roads every year.” All with a significant benefit - the PLA has calculated that freight barges emit less than 50% of the greenhouse gases an equivalent journey of trucks and vans would emit for a central destination delivery.
“So (using) a river boat and an emission free last mile delivery is a great innovation. It’s the ideal combination for the city's next (delivery) evolution," adds Mortimer. So far about 50,000 parcels have done the barge-bike route to their London destinations.
"With traffic and poor air quality becoming an increasing problem in urban areas like London, we're committed to finding a better blend of transport," says DHL Express’s top man in the UK, Ian Wilson. "This new and unique service, combining electric vehicles, riverboat and last-mile bikes creates fast and efficient access across the capital."
The DHL barge (actually its new incarnation is a fast cargo-launch) runs daily from its airport-fed loading base at a Wandsworth Pier distribution point, and then runs up the Thames to Bankside Pier for final short road delivery to a wide range of city addresses on electric cargo bikes. The company says it sees the use of river transport as a logical extension of its previous use of electric “last-mile” delivery courier bikes.
“The (recent) rise of delivery vans and Ubers – a product of more recent changes in consumer behavior – nearly grinds our city to a halt every day,” it says. “We have relied on bicycle couriers to handle much of its last-mile express deliveries in central London for some time now. But the packages still needed to be trucked into the city for distribution to couriers. This not only meant more delivery vans on London’s streets, it made fast and reliable deliveries more difficult.”
So the move to deliver urgent and low volume/weight parcels by water looked like a smart move says Sean Collins, boss at Thames Clippers Logistics, operators of the DHL barges.
DHL’s electric bikes can carry 125kg of water-delivered parcels speedily to a wide range of central London addresses. Courtesy DHL.
"The river is a widely under-used natural source of transportation. As we’ve demonstrated over the … years with our passenger services, the river has opportunity to innovate and evolve – and this new high-speed parcel delivery service is a great example of this.” Using the river as a significant inner-city mode of transport that should continue to reduce congestion on London's roads and make good use of the Thames as a conduit for cargo – and business - is a no brainer, asserts Collins.
“This unique blend of transportation modes is not only cleaner, it’s faster and more efficient than the more traditional alternatives,” adds Wilson. “While we have previously proven the effectiveness of combining land and waterways in places like Amsterdam and Venice, this is the first time we are using high-speed boats to both improve access to urban areas and reduce transit time.”
And even better, it also takes traffic off the roads, uses a more direct and untapped access route into London and helps reduce emissions as well.