23rd February 2012, in the premises of the Maritime University of Szczecin the first working meeting of the C-LIEGE project was held. The meeting was attended by project team members of C-LIEGE from Szczecin and Germany, as well as university and business representatives of the City of Szczecin, West Marshal's Office, the Regional Police Headquarters and the Board of Maritime Ports of Szczecin and Swinoujscie.
23rd February 2012 in the Senate Hall of the Maritime University the first working meeting of the project C-LIEGE (Clean Last Mile transportation and logistics management for smart and efficient local Governments in Europe - Managing clean transport and logistics for the last mile wise and efficient local government in Europe) was held.
The project is to promote joint activities of public and private partners, aimed at reducing energy consumption and environmental impact of freight transport in European cities and regions. The “round table” meeting was the first of four scheduled working meetings during which they discussed the problems of urban freight transport in Szczecin, West Pomeranian region and presented good practices implemented in other European cities.
An important task of “round tables” is to develop guidelines for adapting and implementing solutions already realized by foreign partners. The meeting was led by the local project coordinator Stanislaw Iwan, PhD, and attended by project team members C-LIEGE, from Szczecin and from Germany (Berlin and Stuttgart), and other invited guests. Among them were university and business representatives as well as representatives of the City of Szczecin, West Marshal’s Office, the Regional Police Headquarters and the Board of Maritime Ports of Szczecin and Swinoujscie.
The main purpose of the meeting was to invite present project stakeholders to present some good practices of urban logistics and discuss the conditions of the city of Szczecin in the adaptation of the proposed solutions. In the first part Stanislaw Iwan, PhD discussed the idea of “round tables” and the objectives of each of the meetings.
Then, five papers were presented showing good practices. The first one was Prof. Krzysztof Chwesiuk, MUS, who discussed the solutions included in the BestUFS Project followed by Marcin Foltyński of the Institute of Logistics and Warehousing in Poznan presenting SUGAR Project, while Krzysztof Żarna representing Marshal’s Office of the West Pomeranian Province discussed the assumptions of the green corridor CETC-ROUTE65.
Guests from Germany, Vassilen Iotzov and Ingrid Eibner completed the presentation of good practices. Thus, Vassilen Lotzov representing the company Bermag introduced initiatives within the CIVITAS program, while Ingrid Eibner unveiled a regional center of competence Kooperationszentrum Logistik eV, as its representative and presented logistical initiatives undertaken in the area of the city of Stuttgart, as well as RegLog project, started in 2010 in Regensburg in Bavaria.
The second part of the meeting was a discussion on what it takes to the city of Szczecin in implementing city logistical solutions. The starting point of the discussion was the SWOT analysis of freight current distribution system in Szczecin prepared by Kinga Kijewska, MSc and Stanislaw Iwan, PhD, the Maritime University of Szczecin.
The presented paper contributed to a lively exchange of views. In the final part of the meeting participants were asked to assess the degree of innovation, the difficulty of implementation and the scope of the environmental impact of the set of so-called soft measures, prepared within the project, in the area of implementing city logistics solutions.
Throughout the meeting, all the guests exhibited very active attitudes and willing to ask questions, participated in the discussions, or even controversies. Evidence of this may be the fact that the meeting lasted more than half an hour longer than it was expected. Particularly important for the project is to interest the representatives of many groups with different priorities and expectations in the functioning of urban freight transport.
The support of such a recognized authority in the field of logistics like Prof. Mariusz Jedliński from the Department of Economics and Management Services, University of Szczecin seems particularly significant for the achievement of the set objectives. The next meeting is scheduled for June 2012 and its main purpose is to evaluate selected urban logistics solutions in the context of the potential costs of implementation and the expected added value for the city and region.