ECOSTARS project on urban freight recognition schemes kicks off

The scheme will rate vehicles and operating practices using star criteria, to recognise levels of environmental and energy-saving performance. Each operator signing up to the scheme will receive tailor-made support to ensure that their fleet is running as efficiently and economically as possible, to help them progress to higher ratings within the scheme. The scheme will be open to operators of all types of commercial vehicles across all sectors of activity (public and private sector) and of all sizes, with a focus on freight operations.

The project is based on a successful scheme developed by local authorities in South Yorkshire in the UK, which has been operational since early 2009, and is represented in the project by the Metropolitan Borough Council of Barnsley.

ECOSTARS is estimated to save up to 2500 € per vehicle per year through reducing fuel consumption by 5%. This equates to an estimated saving of 6 tonnes of CO2 per annum for a typical heavy goods vehicle.

The project is coordinated by Transport & Travel Research Ltd (TTR), a Britisch consultant which has been involved in the South Yorkshire/Barnsley scheme that will be further elaborated within the framework of the project and will act as leading example to the other cities and regions involved. Cities and regions that will apply the scheme within the context of the ECOSTARS project are Cantabria (through CTL Cantabria) and the Basque region (through the Basque Logistics Institute) in Spain, Ostrava in the Czech Republic, Edinburgh in the UK, Parma in Italy, Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Southeast Sweden (through the Energy Agency for Southeast Sweden).

Other technical partners besides TTR are ISIS (Italy), WSP (Sweden) and CDV (Czech Republic), while POLIS is taking the lead in dissemination.

ECOSTARS is funded by the Intelligent Energy for Europe programme of the European Commission.

For more information, contact kvancluysen@polisnetwork.eu