Project Summary

Roads are increasingly congested with travel times going up and air quality continuing to decline. Congestion is exacerbated by growing demand for parcel delivery with increased online shopping and consumer convenience expectations.This industrial research project ‘RADBox’ will prove, with an on-water prototype, the principle of a ‘last blue mile’ marine delivery solution and  intermodal freight transfer concept. The Smart use of the UKs waterways will cut reliance on road and rail transport and significantly reduce CO2 emissions.  The system will exploit the future of multi-modal freight and also parallel exploitation in industrial and offshore wind applications.

Project Achievements

The core activities of the project were successfully completed and comprised the following Work packages: • WP 1 – Project Management. • WP 2 – Concept design of RADBox – all electric automated vessel, picture shown on the right. • WP 3 – Concept design of RADNode – charging/inter modal transfer point. • WP 4 – Trials planning and safety were completed successfully and led to efficient and safe trials. • WP 5 – Procurement/assembly of parts for prototype to allow Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 4 achievement. • WP 6 – Assurance, compliance and safety process. • WP 7 – Commercialisation and business planning to achieve TRL 5 – 9. • WP 8 – CO2 reduction and through life sustainability assessment. • WP 9 – On water Trials. • WP 10 – Impact and report writing, white paper and exploitation campaign. T D p e o l 0 a w T g W

Conclusions

The project has been successful in many dimensions and RAD are grateful to the DfT and the CPC for their support, project guidance, workshops and funding. The project has successfully delivered a working, rugged and reliable 5.5m long electrically powered ‘last blue mile’ delivery vessel that can be operated in crewed or uncrewed modes. The sustainability study has shown that in comparison to a light goods vehicle, it’s in use-operational emissions will be lower, resulting in 0.247 kg CO2-eq per km across 2,500 charge/discharge battery cycles. The WP6 assurance study has built knowledge around operations in port and inland waterway areas which lines the system up for next step trials and operations. The project has shown the concept is viable economically and environmentally, has generated interest with logistics stakeholders and allowed RAD and its partner Williams Shipping to secure a place on the Freight Innovation Fund programme.

Next Steps

The project has assertively moved along the engineering, economic, regulatory and sustainability topics of achieving a feasible inland waterway last blue mile delivery system. They mainly focus on real world operations and trials to collect meaningful, quantified data on costs and efficiency. RAD wrote an application to FIF Cohort 3 and has been successful in securing £145k of funding (matched by £145k from RAD and partners) to undertake trials in Southampton Docks and on the river in Cowes. We are also exploring the opportunity to run proof of concept trials on the River Thames at Tilbury Docks. We will continue to build our relationships with Williams Shipping, CoolRun (Hubl), Zedify, Ocean Infinity, SkyPorts and the Royal Mail to get an operational system profitable by 2026. The aim is then to develop different sizes of the system and work with partners to build vessels and operations in geographically and economically appropriate locations.