Goods Hub Eelde in Drenthe
As part of SURFLOGH, the Province of Drenthe initiated an Urban Consolidation Centre (UCC) pilot, located in Eelde, a small town in the province of Drenthe. The primary delivery area is the city of Groningen, the largest in the North of the Netherlands, approximately 15 kilometers from the hub.
The ‘Goederenhub Groningen-Eelde’ (goods hub GHGE) officially opened early in 2018 and kicked off with a 6-month pilot focussing on servicing the centre of Groningen - with room for expansion to serve as a logistics hub for the whole region of Groningen-Assen.
GHGE is located on the premises of the flower auction business Royal FloraHolland, that had unused space in their warehouses. It is extremely accessible for larger transport vehicles and forms the perfect spot to overload to smaller, cleaner cargo-vehicles so that the last mile of delivery is carried out as green and efficiently as possible, with a reduction of traffic movements.
A range of different services are offered to make the business proposition attractive to potential customers, including extra flexible delivery, storage space, sustainable deliveries and taking return flows such as cardboard.
Pilot progress:https://northsearegion.eu/surflogh/news/hubs-hiccups/
Results:
GHGE was managed by an entrepreneur, who was responsible for starting and operating the UCC and using this experience to develop the business model. The pilot ended in the summer of 2019 and GHGE’s operations were stopped as well since there was no prospect of a viable business model.
Report: