The transport sector contributes to about 25% of total CO2 emissions in the EU and is the only sector where the trend is still increasing. Taking into account the growing demand on the road transport system and the ambitious targets of the EC’s Transport White Paper, it is paramount to increase the efficiency of freight transport. The vision of the AEROFLEX project is to support vehicle manufacturers and the logistics industry to achieve the coming challenges for road transport. The overall objective of the AEROFLEX project is to develop and demonstrate new technologies, concepts and architectures for complete vehicles with optimised aerodynamics, powertrains and safety systems as well as flexible and adaptable loading units with advanced interconnectedness contributing to the vision of a “physical internet”. The optimal matching of novel vehicle concepts and infrastructures is highly important, requiring the definition of smart infrastructure access policies for the next generation of trucks, load carriers and road infrastructure. The specific technical objectives, main innovations and targeted key results are: 1. Characterise the European freight transport market (map, quantify and predict), the drivers, the constraints, the trends, and the mode and vehicle choice criteria 2. Develop new concepts and technologies for trucks with reduced drag, which are safer, comfortable, configurable and cost effective and ensure satisfaction of intermodal customer needs under varying transport tasks and conditions. 3. Demonstrate potential truck aerodynamics and energy management improvements with associated impact assessments of the new vehicle concepts, technologies and features developed in the AEROFLEX project. 4. Drafting of coherent recommendations for revising standards and legislative frameworks in order to allow the new aerodynamic and flexible vehicle concepts on the road. To achieve an overall 18-33% efficiency improvement in road transport / long haulage by 2025+.

“If we want to reach the EU objective on modal shift for all transportation beyond 300 km and attract and strengthen competitiveness of local industries at the same time, we need to drive the development of a network of hyper connected logistics multimodal clusters and their influence areas”. Clusters 2.0 Consortium Clusters 2.0. vision is to leverage the full potential of European Logistics Clusters for an efficient and fully integrated transport system in Europe making optimal use of an Open Network of Logistics Clusters and hubs starting with. Zaragoza (PLAZA), Duisburg (Duisport), Lille (Dourges), Bologna-Trieste (Interporto/port of Trieste), Brussels (BruCargo), London (Heathrow), Pireaus (PCT), Trelleborg (Port), while keeping neutral the environmental and local impacts such as congestion, noise, land use and local pollution levels. Cluster 2.0 objectives and areas of intervention are: Increase the engagement, performance and coordination of terminals and hubs at cluster level targeting: i) increase by 50% the freight managed in the cluster whit current infrastructure, ii) Double the value added activities and iii) increase economic impact in local economies by 5% yearly while keeping neutral local environmental impacts. Build a hyper connected network of logistics hubs and clusters targeting: i) increase average door-to-door vehicle load factor up to 75%, ii) increase intermodal transport in the network by 40%. Develop low cost, low capital and investment intensive transhipment enhanced solutions to reduce operational costs of transhipment by 30 %. Develop prototypes of New Modular Load Units as enhancers of the above objectives.Develop terminal management systems to increase management capacity of the terminals by 20% and reduce associated congestion by 10%. Establish and run 5 Living Labs (LLs) to test, improve an validate proposed solutions as well as to and Develop Business Models and Robust Business Plans for Clusters 2.0 solutions.