Tag Archives for: Grid Smarter Cities

GRID SMARTER CITIES WINS INNOVATE UK FUNDING CONTRACT TO BUILD NEW FREIGHT SOLUTION TO EASE CONSTRUCTION CONGESTION AND POLLUTION

November 07, 2019

 

 

GRID SMARTER CITIES WINS INNOVATE UK FUNDING CONTRACT TO BUILD NEW FREIGHT SOLUTION TO EASE CONSTRUCTION CONGESTION AND POLLUTION.

 

 

 

The North-East based technology house and smart solution provider Grid Smarter Cities has won an Innovate UK contract, looking to create an innovative Freight Traffic Control Platform to help manage construction freight movements and deliveries in congested urban centres.

 

Partnering with Croydon Council in London and EB Charging Ltd (an electric vehicle infrastructure business) – the Innovate UK funded project award, worth in excess of £485,000, will see Grid working with the partner organisations to develop and pilot an ‘alpha’ product in a live construction development in Croydon borough from March 2020. Grid is working in parallel with a number of specialist partners to investigate the potential of vehicle telematics, 3D mapping and Electric Vehicles on the future of construction logistic operations.

 

The foundations of the solution are found in Grid’s award winning Intelligent Curbside Management solution, ‘Kerb’, a patented system to manage our city curb space, reducing congestion, increasing efficiency and improving air quality. Kerb has previously been granted Innovate UK funding to build the Kerb prototype, trialing the solution across the UK and internationally through 2018 and 2019.

 

Kerb enables the digitisation of the curbside, allowing drivers to park on restricted curb space for fixed periods of time and providing real-time, dynamic management of the road network. Awards over the past year include the IoT Global Award for Smart Cities, the Computing Rising Star Award, the British Parking Award for Intelligent Parking and winning the North East Times Impact Awards for Innovation.

 

The FTC solution looks to build on the foundations of Kerb, improving ease of movement commercial operators when heading into and around the construction site, whilst reducing congestion and the environmental impact of HGVs.

 

This comes at a time of increased awareness around air quality, the effects of harmful pollutants and increasing congestion. Diesel emissions, largely attributed to freight vehicles account for 85% of NOx emissions in urban ambient airspace, with air quality now being recognised as the cause of more than 40,000 deaths in the UK per annum.

 

Neil Herron, CEO and Founder of Grid Smarter Cities stated “the Kerb FTC Project represents a great opportunity to showcase how practical innovation can deliver real impacts and we are excited to be working with the Croydon Council who are a trailblazing city authority intent on leading the way. Improving air quality is a key issue for society to address, and we are intent on being able to deliver technology that offers simple, easy to adopt process improvements to assist in construction freight logistics and the wider transport sectors.”

 

Councillor Stuart King, cabinet lead for environment and transport at Croydon Council, said: “This is an innovative project that will help us to monitor, manage and regulate HGV journeys across Croydon. This will help us try and make sure deliveries arrive not only in a timely manner but even more importantly that the journeys are as safe and green as possible.”

 

Karla Jakeman, Innovation Lead for Connected Transport & Communications at Innovate UK explained “This project is a great example of how an SME can work with City Authorities to solve real life issues around freight. This can provide a blueprint which can transferred to other city authorities around the UK. The potential spin offs from this project due its boarder thinking are particularly exciting.”

 

 

Grid Smarter Cities

 

Grid’s mission is to enable the smarter management of curbside by using technology to connect communities and people with transport, parking, goods and services.

 

In 2018 Grid was ranked 7th on the Metis Partners and Clydesdale Bank IP100 Intellectual Property League Table for their patented solutions that offer them the unique ability to carve out new space in the Smart City Landscape, proactively solving the problems that others can’t. Their 16+ registered patents underpinning their technologies cover the UK, USA and other International territories.

 

www.gridsmartercities.com

Twitter: @gridsmartercity

 

CONTACT

 

Please contact dom.hyams@gridsmartercities.com

 

Dublin City Council piloting Intelligent Kerbside Management Solution with Grid Smarter Cities

May 23, 2019

 

Dublin City Council piloting Intelligent Kerbside Management Solution with Grid Smarter Cities.

 

Newcastle based Smarter Cities is delighted to announce that they have been selected to partake in Phase 2 of Smart Dublin and Enterprise Ireland’s SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) program to support Last Mile delivery in partnership with Dublin City Council and Belfast City Council.

 

Grid Smarter Cities have been working with Dublin City Council to better understand and analyse potential use-cases for Kerb, their Intelligent Kerbside Management solution in the city centre — with the ambition to dynamically manage the kerbside with the use of Virtual Loading Bays (VLBs).

 

Kerb is an app that gives commercial vehicles the ability to book a Virtual Loading Bay (VLB) on previously restricted kerb space in the city.

 

Kerb helps highway authorities reduce pollution whilst reducing the cost of administering Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs), as well as creating atool to assist with managing traffic flows at peak hours to help reduce congestion in the city centre. For commercial vehicle operators, Kerb saves time and fuel by creating more efficient deliveries and drop offs.

 

With the use of the virtual bays, loading and unloading operational efficiency is increased, and costs of administering PCNs is reduced as previously restricted kerb space is allocated as bookable VLBs.

 

For residents, the improved traffic management results in roads becoming clearer, with less idling in traffic and ultimately shorter journey times.

 

“Our Phase 1 funding allowed us to establish that there is a fantastic opportunity for Kerb in Dublin and Belfast, with Grid being able to use our solution to better manage the demands on our already restricted kerb space” said Neil Herron, Founder and CEO of Grid Smarter Cities. “In Phase 2 we are looking forward to being able to trial Kerb to be able to empirically demonstrate how the solution can support commercial operations as well as aiding traffic management and tourism in the City Centre.”

 

Jamie Cudden, Smart City Programme Manager, Dublin City Council stated, “The concept of Kerb is simple and highly innovative, and has the potential to transform how cities manage kerbside in the future. We are delighted to partner with Grid Smarter Cities and look forward to piloting the Kerb solution on the streets of Dublin as part of the phase 2 deployment”.

 

The Phase 2 project, anticipated to start in June 2019, will see Grid Smarter Cities use delivery operators in Dublin to pilot Kerb by utilising Virtual Loading Bays at locations across the city centre. This pilot will demonstrate the benefits of the solution for all stakeholders — and act as a foundation to determine how the solution can be scaled up across further locations in Dublin, Belfast and beyond.

 

A video explaining a bit more about our work in Dublin can be found here.

Relevant Images can be located here

 

Grid Smarter Cities

 

Grid Smarter Cities is an eco-system of smart solutions — connecting communities and people with transport, parking, goods and services. In 2018 Grid was ranked 7th on the Metis Partners and Clydesdale Bank IP100 Intellectual Property League Table, for their patented solutions that offer them the unique ability to carve out new space in the Smart City landscape, proactively solving the problems that others can’t.

 

There are a number of inter-connecting companies under the Grid umbrella, including Kerb, a real-time, dynamic, Intelligent Kerbside Management solution. Kerb allows commercial vehicle operators to opt to book and park, load and unload on previously unavailable kerb space in high density, urban areas or to extend loading periods in time restricted locations.

www.gridsmartercities.com

 

Smart Dublin

 

Smart Dublin is an initiative of the four Dublin Local Authorities that uses new technologies to improve services and enhance quality of life in the Dublin Region. Smart Dublin works through collaboration; reaching out and engaging with technology providers, researchers and citizens to co-create solutions to regional challenges.

https://smartdublin.ie/

 

Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)

 

This SBIR project has been co-funded by Dublin City Council, Belfast City Council and Enterprise Ireland (EI). Enterprise Ireland’s SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) programme is a pre commercial procurement initiative. The aim of SBIR is to drive innovation across all sections of the Irish Public Sector via robust engagement with technology rich companies and organisations, through competitive challenges.

 

Dom Hyams

Digital & Communications Director

 

M: 07843261475

W: gridsmartercities.com