About Elskede by

Unique collaboration contributing to less traffic

The work on Elskede by/Älskade stad (“Beloved City”) has been under way for several years, and is a lasting initiative for a better and more pleasant environment in Stockholm. Stockholm City, Ragn-Sells, Bring and Vasakronan have together created a unique collaboration with the aim of contributing to reducing the impact of traffic in the city centre.

The work on Älskade stad was initiated as far back as four years ago when the then Traffic Commissioner extended an invitation to a workshop with the aim of finding better solutions to the traffic situation in the city centre. ”Ragn-Sells was invited because we had been operating freight handling and waste management in the major shopping centres in the city centre for many years”, says Erik Wastesson, head of facilities management at Ragn-Sells.

The basis for Älskade stad is a strategic plan for better delivery traffic in Stockholm in the period 2014-2017. The strategy has four clear goals: More clear-cut delivery times, facilitating delivery vehicles, enabling more green vehicles and increasing cooperation between the city council and other actors in relation to delivery traffic.

EU funds have helped Stockholm City’s work to establish the right conditions to achieve these goals. One concrete example is the first collective distribution centre, which has now been set up in the Zenit garage on Klara Norra Kyrkogata and the cooperation with commercial actors. Ragn-Sells has been involved throughout the entire process and it all came together when a carrier was found in Bring. ”The basis for this is very simple; the freight carriers enter the city with their trucks full and leave it empty. As a recycling company, we enter the city with our trucks empty and leave it full. Putting this together can save vehicle movements in the city centre”.

Stockholm City’s requirements are that the final 10 kilometres inside the city must be electric powered and that there must be a sustainable plan. Älskade stad is consequently not a project but rather something enduring.

Ragn-Sells and Bring are working together to ensure a better environment in Stockholm through the collective distribution centre. Initially it is an electric trailer that will contribute to less traffic, emissions and noise. Bring’s deliveries to the city centre are driven to the collective distribution centre where they are loaded onto the electric trailer, which is supplied by Ragn-Sells. During its delivery round, the electric trailer collects waste and material for recycling to take back. Another partner within Älskade stad is Vasakronan, which is responsible for the collective distribution premises in its capacity as landlord. ”It has been a major challenge with lots of different issues to work out before this came together. The fact that the electric vehicle is now on the road and at work demonstrates the strength and energy that exists in the desire to change,” Erik Wastesson says.

A collaboration