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The Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games represent a major logistical challenge for Viaposte, particularly in Ile-de-France. Faced with government recommendations aimed at restricting road traffic during this event, Viaposte, transport partner of numerous companies including its parent company La Poste, adapted its customers' transport plans to anticipate and overcome these challenges.
Christophe Baboin, Director-General of Viaposte’s Transport Management and Director of Transport and Delivery in the Mail and Parcel Division at La Poste, comments cautiously: "We anticipate a drop in the distribution volume of mail and parcels, based on the "experience of the London Games, but we remain ready to adapt to any eventuality."
Logistical challenges for its client La Poste
The Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games present La Poste with two major logistical challenges. Firstly, traffic restrictions may disrupt deliveries to distribution centers. Secondly, enhanced security zones will complicate last-mile deliveries and collections. Christophe Baboin emphasized, "We have distribution centers in the heart of Paris, which represents a major challenge."
Learnings from the London Olympics
The London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games were a logistical test for the United Kingdom, marking a monumental organizing effort. Effective management of the Olympic transportation network required careful planning and seamless collaboration between all stakeholders. The lessons learned from this experience underline the crucial importance of real-time responsiveness and the ability to quickly resolve problems, lessons that Viaposte, a freight forwarder, intends to rigorously apply in Paris 2024.
Government Recommendations
The French government has established several security perimeters around Olympic and Paralympic competition venues. These zones will be activated before and after each day of events, with strict traffic restrictions to ensure public safety. To address these challenges, the government recommends the "4D" strategy: Decrease, Delay, Divert, and Deviate, aiming to adjust logistics flows while minimizing disruptions.
Innovative Logistic Solutions by Viaposte for the Paris 2024 Olympics
Facing the logistical challenges posed by the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics, Viaposte is deploying several innovative strategies:
Close Collaboration with Customers: Viaposte is working closely with its customers to find tailored solutions. This approach requires flexibility and tolerance, especially regarding delivery time windows. Christophe Baboin emphasizes, "Customers seek tailored solutions, and we aim to find a compromise with each of them to ensure optimal service."
Anticipatory and Flexible Transport: By anticipating broader transport windows, Viaposte aims to minimize the risk of delays. Distribution center supplies will be planned in advance, favoring nighttime deliveries over early morning ones.
Delivery on the last kilometer: For densely populated areas, Viaposte, by using La Poste assets, will prioritize the use of cargo bikes and pedestrian deliveries, reducing carbon footprint and congestion caused by four-wheeled vehicles.
Optimized Combination of Deliveries and Collections: By optimizing the combination of deliveries and collections, Viaposte reduces multiple interventions throughout the day, thereby improving operational efficiency.
Real-Time Visibility with Shippeo: Through a strategic partnership with Shippeo, Viaposte will equip its entire fleet of La Poste and its carrier partners, including its subcontractors, with real-time visibility solutions before the Games commence. This technology will enable better transport regulation and enhanced responsiveness to unforeseen events. Christophe Baboin explains, "Our transport regulation team will be fully mobilized. We are committed to being fully equipped with visibility before the Olympics, both with our own La Poste fleet and our subcontractor partners, to better manage the upcoming logistical challenges."
Collaboration with Local Authorities: Viaposte is closely coordinating with local authorities, including the Paris Prefecture and Games organizers, ensuring weekly checkpoints and an operational unit dedicated to continuously adapting logistical processes. This collaboration ensures the safety and smoothness of operations up until the final weeks before the Games.
These initiatives demonstrate Viaposte's commitment to meeting the complex transport challenges of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, while ensuring an efficient and reliable service for its customers and partners.
Role of Real-Time Visibility by Shippeo
Implementation of real-time visibility on a national level Viaposte collaborates with Shippeo to strengthen real-time visibility across its national logistics network through the "Control Tower" project. This ambitious project, selected among the finalists of the 2024 Les Rois de la Supply Chain, involves 500 carriers and more than 5000 drivers. The challenges of this project are, on the one hand, to establish a common reference to facilitate communication with all La Poste IT systems. The second challenge lies in managing change and gaining acceptance from the 500 carriers in the network, as well as the impact on their operational processes. Major carriers, attached to their established methods, sometimes show resistance to adopting new technologies, while smaller carriers may lack the necessary technical capabilities and may not always grasp the full added value of real-time visibility. Despite these obstacles, Viaposte is successfully progressing towards the full integration of the Shippeo solution, which will greatly facilitate the management and supervision of its transport logistics operations.
Acceleration of Implementation in Île-de-France
A specific goal of Viaposte was to equip 100% of its own fleet and subcontractors in Île-de-France with Shippeo's visibility technology before the Olympic and Paralympic Games. This achievement was facilitated by the generally medium size of carriers in Île-de-France, more inclined to adopt innovative solutions. Additionally, the imminent approach of the Olympics acted as a catalyst, accelerating the adoption of this technology. Thus, Visposte boasts full visibility coverage for its carriers in Île-de-France, ready to effectively tackle logistical challenges of transport during the event.
Benefits of Visibility
The implementation of the "Control Tower" has brought numerous significant advantages. On a national level, this control tower allows supervision teams to receive real-time alerts in case of delays and to precisely monitor transport activity. This enables La Poste to streamline its operations, improve the quality of its deliveries, and manage CO2 emissions from its transport operations in real-time.
In anticipation of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, increased visibility through geolocation will allow Viaposte to quickly identify problems, react proactively, and adjust truck routes in real-time. This ability to adapt operations based on current conditions will significantly reduce the need for communication with transporters and make operations more fluid and proactive, ensuring reliable deliveries despite potential disruptions related to the event.
Another major benefit of the visibility solution is the ability to proactively inform customers of potential delays via SMS, helping them better organize their deliveries.
Performance Measures and Indicators
During the Games, Visposte will adjust its performance indicators, showing more tolerance towards delays and measuring strict punctuality less. The goal is to maintain satisfactory service while adapting to extraordinary conditions.
Conclusion
The Olympic and Paralympic Games will be a challenge. Christophe Baboin concludes: "The Games will be a test for logisticians, not just for athletes. We rely on Shippeo to better anticipate." Government recommendations, although restrictive, provide a clear framework for adjusting deliveries and minimizing disruptions, allowing Viaposte to continue delivering quality service during this exceptional period.
Gold Medal Winners at the "Kings of Supply Chain" 2024
On Tuesday, July 2, 2024, the 18th edition of the "Kings of Supply Chain" ceremony was held at the prestigious Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris. Shippeo and Viaposte were awarded the gold medal for the "Transport Control Tower" project. This prestigious recognition is a testament to the hard work, dedication, and innovation of both teams. A huge congratulations to everyone involved in this success!
