P-BUD brings Smarcel to market. This is a flexible urban delivery solution that shifts parcel logistics from push-dominated doorstep delivery attempts to a pull-based model where recipients collect parcels at demand-driven locations.
Smarcel copes with rising e-commerce volumes, which challenge carriers through courier shortages and limited availability of parcel shops/stationary lockers. In turn, cities face growing traffic congestion and packaging waste.
Smarcel mobile parcel lockers fit in a standard parking space, enabling fast, flexible rollout without long-term contracts. They handle up to 200 parcels/day, are loaded at depots, deployed during off-peak traffic hours, placed at one location per day and returned in the evening to the depot.
The system is complemented by automated loading and closed-loop reusable packaging to reduce manual work and waste. With all modules prototyped, P-BUD will validate Smarcel in urban pilots and refine the solution towards serial maturity. An independent assessment indicates CO2 reductions of up to 70% vs traditional delivery.
The project’s consortium members are technology partners to co-develop and manufacture the Smarcel products, parcel carriers to pilot the products, and the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flows and Logistics to assess the project progress from an applied research perspective.
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Today’s parcel delivery is not scalable: volume growth exceeds capacity, out-of-home options are constrained, urban traffic congestion is already critical and packaging waste is escalating.
By developing a scalable, sustainable, customer-centric “pull-based” urban delivery solution consisting of mobile lockers, location optimisation intelligence, automated loading and B2B closed loop reusable packaging.
P-BUD will validate Smarcel products with real users, to create a pull-based, customer convenient, cost efficient and sustainable urban parcel delivery ready to be commercialised.
Fraunhofer Society-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.
