Avoiding unnecessary mileage thanks to our growing network of hubs.

One of the main challenges of last mile delivery is the fragmentation of end-customer destinations, which results in unnecessary mileage. VPD is increasingly focusing on sustainability and corporate social responsibility, and last-mile logistics now accounts for 90% of our business. Our goal was therefore to address this challenge as quickly as possible and come up with an environmentally friendly solution.

By analysing our data in depth, we were able to get a concrete picture of our situation. We concluded that the deployment of a national network of local hubs would bring us closer to the end customers. This would allow us to save a lot of kilometres - up to 31%! 

We will therefore devote all our efforts to developing our network of hubs located on the outskirts or in the heart of the city. This network allows us to use fewer vehicles and reduce the number of kilometres driven per vehicle. The journey time to the end customer has been significantly reduced and thanks to the choice of these strategic locations the time spent in traffic jams has also been greatly reduced.

When we set up this system, we were already thinking about carrying out last mile delivery using 100% electric solutions, and our hub structure is now an absolute necessity. Sustainable urban logistics will become more and more important, which is why we will continue to invest in it.

These logistics hubs are true connection points that allow us to deliver everywhere without any access restrictions, thanks to our CO2 neutral fleet. By linking our drop density with the maximum number of kilometres we want to cover per journey, we have been able to determine the exact location of our future hubs, and we have evolved into a structure with a total of 8 hubs spread across Belgium.