Floating city warehouse

25 June 2018

The Ports of Paris work with partners on floating warehouses to ship parcels deep into the city which are then delivered by clean cargo bikes and vans, with the aim to reduce truck movements in the inner city and relieve congestion.

E-commerce poses a real challenge for transport and urban areas. The increasing amount of small shipments lead to more congestion. The port of Paris therefore is committed to bring parcels as deep as possible into the city via the Seine river to avoid unnecessary traffic jams.

The port is working towards multimodal transport solutions with partners from the road, waterway, energy and handling sector. Self-unloading ships with on-board handling equipment (cranes or ramps for vehicles) will function as parcel depots and floating stocks.

The general public can collect their parcels at the floating platforms and arrange return shipments. Professionals can organise their order picking and arrange from there the departure of delivery rounds by clean vehicles.

Barges can also provide a floating stock function. This responds to the demand of the distribution sector which needs pick-up points in the immediate vicinity of the sales areas.