After Ziegler Laval produced Ziegler-branded honey pots harvested from their very own onsite beehives, it’s now Ziegler Strasbourg’s turn to take the plunge into beekeeping under the guidance of Alexander Ende, Route Inter manager, who is a passionate beekeeper with a dozen beehives he maintains personally. So it’s fitting that he will oversee the installation and operation of two beehives at the Strasbourg branch. Each hive will house 50,000 bees and can produce 10 to 15 kilos of honey per year. The first harvest of acacia honey is expected in June!
Beehives have also been installed on the roof of Ziegler’s headquarters in Brussels.
The goal is that these projects will further ‘pollinate’ the initiative throughout the rest of Ziegler branches in Belgium.
In doing so, Ziegler is taking its eco-responsible approach even further by transforming its roofs and green spaces into refuges for biodiversity and well-being. In this way, Ziegler is doing our part to contribute to UN Sustainability Goal 15, which was established in 2015 by the United Nations as a blueprint for a better and more sustainable future: a world that respects life.
Thanks to the combined efforts of the local Ziegler team in Northampton and the quality department at Ziegler’s headquarters in Brussels, Ziegler Northampton renewed their ISO 9001:2015 certification and scored above average on their SQAS Transport Service evaluation!
ISO 9001:2015 is a standard that establishes the requirements for a quality management system, based on 7 principles; customer support, management, employee involvement, process approach, improvements, evidence-based decision making, and stakeholder relationship management.
The SQAS (Safety & Quality Assessment for Sustainability) is a system of uniform third-party assessments to evaluate the performance of Logistics Service Providers and Chemical Distributors. SQAS assessments cover quality, safety, security, environment, and CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility).
Ziegler Northampton’s scored 73% – considered excellent for a first evaluation. This is a great place for them, given the context and the new features that were recently added for 2022 which added to the already very extensive questionnaire. In addition to operational activities, safety and security topics, the environment and especially the OCS (Operation Clean Sweep) were newly added and were included on the evaluation.
The branch is doing a great job there, and these developments acknowledge their great service, which will certainly contribute to its further expansion as they serve their customers in the Northampton area.
Ziegler Group is continuously striving to develop solutions with ambitious goals for digital transformation that have a strong customer focus while also respecting the environment.
Our digital services are designed to put everything at your fingertips – from the customer’s first point of contact, to scheduling and booking, through to tracking and the delivery.
We are determined to pursue sustainable and digital growth while respecting and protecting what is vital to our planet.
Road freight has always been the centrepiece of the range of transport solutions we offer to our customers. We are proud of our fleet of commercial vehicles, a crucial element for door-to-door delivery and essential for intermediate deliveries and the last mile.
Every day, hundreds of Ziegler-branded trucks and vans get on the road to make deliveries. For that reason, investing in our fleet is crucial to reducing our carbon footprint and improving driver’s safety.
Over the past few years, alternative power sources have exponentially increased in quantity, quality and capabilities.
Electric vehicles have seen viable growth with increased range and better battery performance. And from the renewable fuels side, the ability to produce biofuels from recycled material and more manufacturers innovating and producing alternative fuel vehicles are just a couple examples of the positive developments that we can see for ecological alternatives to traditional fuels.
So the time is right for Ziegler to begin incorporating vehicles powered by alternative fuels into our fleet.
Electrification
Our Cargobike XXL showed us the capabilities of electrically-powered vehicles. One Cargobike can deliver 500 KG of cargo into restricted city centres without emitting any harmful particles or CO2, which is a significant development for the transport sector.
Taking that concept to the next step, Ziegler is currently testing multiple electric vans and is installing outdoor charging infrastructure at all of our branches. The ideal use case scenario we have determined for these electric vehicles is mainly middle and last mile deliveries as well as deliveries in city centres.
We are also evaluating and experimenting with hydrogen and biofuels for our long-haul vehicles. An example of this is Ziegler France where we have been testing and currently using biofuels in our trucks.
And in our facilities, all of our warehouse equipment is also electrically powered which lowers our carbon footprint but also creates a more pleasant working environment for our warehouse employees.
Even with these changes, we are constantly keeping our eyes peeled for other new alternative fuels for existing or new vehicles!
Ziegler. Now even Greener.
Today, urban logistics plays an important role in transport flows that occur nationwide. It also constitutes a major challenge for logisticians who must offer new organizational options to respond to mobility issues as well as the commercial, urban planning and ecological issues in urban areas.
Supplying consumers and businesses in city centres is a daily challenge. Dense cities are seeing a proliferation of pedestrian zones which, impact surrounding areas with more limited parking areas, restricted spaces for certain vehicles, difficulties to enter with goods, and even difficulty of access for residents of these areas.
In order to support and facilitate this transformation, Ziegler has implemented a system to streamline the flow of goods in urban areas and deliver large parcels to the heart of Brussels while generating very low CO2 emissions. This system consists of three elements: the consolidation center, the micro-hub and the Cargobike.
Our consolidation centre, located at Ziegler’s head office in Brussels, is where large trucks initially drop off goods of different customers. From there, the shipments intended for the city centre of Brussels are sorted, grouped and consolidated.
Shipments are loaded into our electric vans for delivery to our local micro-hub in the centre of Brussels, at the Albertine car park near Sablon. The goal is to make last mile deliveries as efficient as possible by bringing products closer to the end consumer.
There, our Cargobike picks up the goods and delivers them throughout the city centre of Brussels, in pedestrian areas or areas that are difficult to access for motorized vehicles.
The Cargobike is the key for making the last mile deliveries and will also be used for the ‘first mile’ as well – for reverse logistics flows to return products and materials intended for reuse or recycling. These will follow the same path but in reverse: the Cargobike will collect the packaging and other returns, bring them back to the micro-hub where the electric vans will pick them up and deliver them to the main hub where they will be sorted before being sent further.
Caring about the future of our planet is an essential issue that we must face to ensure a viable future. Ziegler is committed to providing sustainable and environmentally friendly supply chain solutions and is making intentional and purposeful actions in this area with our “Ziegler. Now Evener Greener” programme.
Cargo bikes, which are showing up more and more in city centers, represent a realistic alternative for transporting goods and delivering parcels. They’re not meant to replace vehicles or vans per se, but to allow for the most efficient means of delivery depending on location, distance and package size.
Besides just logistics, the environmental benefits are integral to this method of transport because of the additional challenges traditional transport is facing all the time. Ziegler’s Cargobike does not emit CO2 and is therefore carbon neutral, which contributes to improve air quality and quality of life for residents.
The Cargobike is quite spacious with a protective tarp covering the cargo trailer, where parcels and pallets are transported and delivered to their final destinations in the city centre. Our Cargobike is equipped with track-and-trace in order to be able to follow the goods along the route. It has a load capacity of 800 kg and can make deliveries to up to 25 customers in two hours.
Delivery by Cargobike has several advantages, such as easier access in narrow streets and the elimination of CO2 emissions during deliveries.
From our consolidation center, our electric vans deposit goods at our micro logistics hub at the Albertine car park near Sablon, From there, parcels are picked up by our Cargobike to deliver to several points in the city centre of Brussels.
By finding new ways to reduce our ecological footprint, Ziegler intends to be a pioneer in the process of CO2 reduction by making our deliveries in more ecological ways.
Placing a distribution micro-hub in the heart of the city brings products closer to the end consumer, making last mile deliveries as fast and efficient as possible. This concept also provides the opportunity to organise the available space for the orders closer to the customer.
In order to make more deliveries and to be closer to the city centre, Interparking and Ziegler have set up a first micro-hub in the Albertine car park near Sablon in the centre of Brussels. This innovative “last mile” delivery solution makes it possible to deliver large parcels to the heart of Brussels while generating very low, (often practically zero) CO2 emissions. Goods are transported by electric van from the main Ziegler distribution hub to the micro-hub located in the Albertine car park. From there, a Ziegler Cargo Bike is loaded for the morning delivery route. And then in the afternoon, the Cargo Bike returns to the micro-hub to pick up packages for a second round.
This approach is not only greener than traditional delivery, but it is also more efficient and optimizes sustainable mobility even further. It contributes to the decarbonization of city center delivery, all the while improving delivery performance.
We are continuing to experiment and innovate in order to offer new and even more efficient urban delivery methods and modes in order to serve our customers in more eco-responsible ways.
Since our very beginnings, ZIEGLER has been a leading specialist in national and international groupage solutions, not only in land transport, but also by sea and air.
Groupage is simply the combining of goods of several customers in a truck or a container in order to prevent it from traveling partially empty.
ZIEGLER is applying the best practices from our success in logistics to the new challenge of last-mile urban micrologistics in order to create the most eco-conscious urban routes.
Our distribution hub in Brussels is strategically located at the entrance to the city where large trucks drop off the goods of different customers. From there, shipments destined for the centre of Brussels are sorted, grouped, and consolidated to maximise available space in the next delivery vehicle.
From there, electric trucks move the goods to our local micro-hub – located in the center of Brussels – to be then picked up by our Cargo Bikes which deliver them to pedestrian areas or areas less accessible to vehicles.
Eventually, the same process will be used for reverse logistics – returning products and materials intended for reuse or recycling. These products will take the same route, just in reverse: the Cargo Bike will pick up empty packaging and other returns, bring them back to the micro-hub, and from there electric trucks will deliver them to the main platform where they will be sorted and reshipped. This method avoids the need for storage of used products and also helps to reduce overall environmental impact.
During this special holiday, we wish that you will experience peace and joy. We’re so thankful for you all, and as the season of warmer weather and longer days begins, we wish that it will also be a time of renewal and hope for our friends, colleagues and for the world.