Grid Smarter Cities Ltd Public Funding

"Construction activity is essential to ensure the regeneration of not only London but also all UK cities and ultimately all cities around the world. With growing populations and increased urbanisation there's an ever-increasing need to provide more buildings for offices, retail and leisure and transport infrastructure to facilitate urban mobility. Whilst this growth potentially poses a problem it also creates opportunities for cities to develop new systems and processes facilitating and enabling streamlining of existing operations and develop new commercial models. The benefits of co-ordinating existing technologies and enabling user adoption through a nudge approach has the ability to deliver not operational benefits but also new revenue streams from optimisation of a city's assets such as the kerbspace and road network. Efficiencies for fleet operators from being able to book guaranteed delivery slots and reserve holding areas means savings in fuel, time and thereforein emissions benefitting the environment both generally and locally. Reduced miles driven means fewer accidents. Building visibility of construction freight vehicle movements into planning consent enables this anonymised data to be fed into real-time traffic management systems and historic data can be used in future modelling including how and where Clean Air Zones could be implemented. From an operator's perspective the granularity of data movements will enable a better understanding of whether EV HGVs could be considered as a cheaper operational option as well as enabling operational efficiencies from insightful interventions In London 35% of daytime HGV traffic in London is generated by the construction industry, equating to 520,000 miles per day. The annual value of construction in London is £31bn and the volume of construction freight is only set to grow further. This work generates a significant amount of road freight movement, which in turn increases congestion, emissions and road risk. The cost of construction road freight for the whole of London is £780m. Grid Smarter Cities intends to build a Freight Traffic Control Platform for construction freight to enable: - guaranteed landing slots for deliveries at or adjacent to construction sites - guaranteed holding areas at defined time / distance from site to prevent vehicle circling - visibility of all vehicle movements in real-time to ensure adherence to prescribed routes - improved delivery management for site operators - improved routing and scheduling for delivery fleets - EV HGV viability - commercialisation of the kerbspace through booking fees. - modular approach to enable scaling."

"Disabled people experience barriers to air travel including poor information on accessibility and services, having to book assistance 48 hours in advance, gaps in assistance services and help connecting with onward journeys by plane, train, coach or taxi. 1 in 5 report difficulties in accessing transportation ([ONS, 2011][0]) and make 62% of trips compared to those without ([NTS2015][1]). The [CAA2016/17][2] shows for the top 30 UK airports, the PSAN access and service 'very good' category numbers dropping from 10 to 6 and the poor' category rising from 1 to 4 whilst PSAN numbers are growing twice as fast as others with an 11% or 300,000 PSAN increase last year. There is increasing legislative pressure to improve accessibility and enable spontaneous air travel ([DfT2017][3]). Using Heathrow Airport, Terminal 3, passenger journeys, this Feasibility Study looks at the potential, strengths and weakness of a developing integrated mobile phone app that can: * Let PSANs specify their needs prior to travel * Exchange real-time messages with airport service providers * Alert staff to when and where a PSAN arrives on site; * Pin-point the location of the passenger in the airport to staff * Enable independent passenger wayfinding around the airport before boarding or connecting with onward journey. * Access contextually relevant information such as location data * Enable service providers to integrate the information into their resource planning and management to enable efficient and pro-active support service delivery App user-testing by passengers and service providers will look at the user- journey from transport mode arrival point (e.g. Heathrow Express), through terminal (landside and airside) to the point of departure at the gate (flight transfers and inbound journeys are also covered). This will identify technical and passenger service improvements for final app build along with opportunities and threats to its exploitation and success. Improve service consistency and quality for PSANs (whether mobility/dexterity impairments, sensory impairments (vision or hearing), or aspects of neurodiversity including (but not limited to) dyslexia, dyspraxia, diverse approaches to learning, autism and mental health. For PSAN, such a product will increase traveller confidence in, flexibility and overall experience of travel through airports giving help throughout the journey, with just some elements of the journey) or only if requested. Also; greater efficiency and service flexibility to a fast growing passenger base, better matching individuals' needs with services provided by airport management and contractors such as airlines, security and retailers. [0]: https://www.ons.gov.uk/census/2011census [1]: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/551437/national-travel-survey-2015.pdf [2]: http://publicapps.caa.co.uk/docs/33/CAP1577_Airport_Accessibility_Report_FINAL.pdf [3]: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/638404/accessibility-action-plan-consultation.pdf"

SkipTrac is an intelligent 'end to end' waste management solution allowing local authorities to manage skip permits processing as an 'opt-in' cloud platform, efficiently integrating into an on-street enforcement regime via parking Civil Enforcement Officers (CEO). This shared service creates back-office efficiency savings for councils and skip operators alike, using one portal to manage, book and process the releant permits. SkipTrac will allow a more effective manage- ment of the highway and effective removal of illegally or incorrectly placed or non-permitted skips from the highway which create safety issues for other road users and environmental issues from the activities of illegal operators. The SkipTrac booking platform also allows the creation of variable tariffs ensuring maximum value is recovered from the kerbspace eg in high use traffic / loading / delivery areas and creates an improved revenue stream from a dynamic and flexible pricing structure and integrated, real-time enforcement provision. The integration of skip RFID tags and use of telematics by approved skip operators will ensure full visibility and transparency of waste movements across a city from kerbside to landfill, ensuring that the correct landfill tax rates are applied and guarding against fly-tipping by unscrupulous operators.

KERB Virtual Parking System (VPS) – Is a Real Time Dynamic, Intelligent Kerbside Management Solution for Cities: The solution addresses the First of a Kind Challenge with an innovative, patent protected, ready for market solution with global potential that can deliver, rapidly, at least cost and effort •additional capacity •adaptability • resilience •integration of / into other technologies. Grid Smarter Cities Limited (Grid) has developed a novel web-based scalable application which allows commercial vehicle operators to opt to pay and park/load unload on previously unavailable kerb space in high density, urban traffic areas. Operators will use the application to reserve a defined location on restricted kerbspace during an available time slot for a fixed fee. This pre-booked space becomes a ‘Virtual Loading Bay’ (VLB) or Virtual Parking Bay (VPB) allowing drivers to load and unload in close proximity to their delivery point without causing congestion and without the risk of receiving a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) and saving time and fuel. Local Authorities (LAs) will determine the fee and the locations to be exempted. This can be time and vehicle specific to give preference to certain vehicles (e.g. zero / low carbon vehicles) and to ‘nudge’ behaviour into off-peak times.Using Kerb VPS helps councils to address air quality issues in general and also in specific areas by managing kerbspace at a micro level and behavioural change through incentivisation and intelligent kerbside management managing traffic flows. Kerb VPS contributes to macro reductions when applied across the borough area by reducing congestion and driver stress on roads. Kerb VPS will reduce the cost associated with administering PCNs creating cost certainties (for fleet operators and councils alike) as well as well as efficiency savings from optimised deliveries.Other benefits include: •efficient planning multiple drop-offs,reducing CO2 emissions. •Encourages take-up of electric vehicles (EVs) by the delivery industry, by providing bookable EV bays incentivised by 'at location' rapid chargers. •Utilises kerb space on routes that traditionally prohibit loading and unloading – allowing deliveries at previously difficult to reach locations.•Saves money by reducing the time and mileage spent searching for available kerb space. •Reducing PM, NO and CO2 emissions in keeping with “Corporate Social Responsibility”and international air quality standards. •Sending ‘real time’ updates to Civil Enforcement Officers (CEOs) reducing the issuing of PCNs. There is overwhelming support for such a solution with significant environmental (included in Air Quality Action Plans provided by DEFRA and London Councils) and economic benefits for commercial vehicle operators and LAs in the adoption of the solution in comparison with the existing regime of PCNs for illegal parking which is currently ‘stick with no carrot.’ It also provides a positive user-led revenue stream for the city, and helps freight and logistics operators avoid PCNs by offering them bookable spaces, where they need to deliver at times that least impact on the road network creating efficiency savings for all parties and a national booking portal for operators and councils. The solution is replicable and repeatable for London boroughs and provincial cities who will be able to opt-in with as many or as few VPBs / VLBs as they wish. Additionally the platform can be used for other vehicle types as well as freight vehicles such as EV's (including taxis), coaches, vehicles for disabled drivers and skips.

DASH (Delivery As a Service for Highstreets) combines multiple technology & transport partners to create a collaborative, emissions-reducing delivery proposition involving crowd-sourced deliveries & revitalisation of inner-city high-streets via an ‘easy-entry’ B2B & B2C mobile software platform. This enables: (a) utilisation of low occupancy local authority car parks as delivery hubs (X–Doc) for courier operators, with adjacent Electric Vehicle rapid charging infrastructure, (b) operators to reduce inner city courier fleets & replace with multiple crowd-sourced onward delivery options, (c) customers to have variable delivery options (B2B & B2C), (d) a scalable business opportunity for electric cargo bicycles, (e) option for taxi drivers to multi-purpose vehicles, (f) a platform for local independent high-street traders to offer goods for delivery, click & collect & drop-off points, (g) integrated pricing, payment, routing, scheduling & customer parcel tracking options. DASH is an interoperable, scalable platform technology that can be expanded to target multiple freight operators & retailers to maximise socio-economic & environmental impact.