November 17, 2020 — The Urban Freight Lab (UFL) at the University of Washington announces the selection of four semi-finalists for our fourth annual Tech Day pitch competition, focused on Last Mile-Delivery in the New Normal.
This year’s semi-finalists are:
- Tortoise: a 100% electric remote-controlled sidewalk delivery cart for grocery, parcel, and retail delivery and uses modular containers and bluetooth locks
- Zown: an intelligence platform for food delivery drivers using data from residents via a simple intuitive interface
- OnRout: a real-time bidding platform for carriers, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, lowering costs for all parties, and reducing vehicle miles traveled
- Arrived: a software that provides carriers with destination intelligence
The four semi-finalists now advance to pitch their solutions to UFL members (retailers, shippers, carriers, industry real estate, etc.), UFL researchers, local Departments of Transportation, and a panel of judges at the Tech Day event on November 19.
“We received many interesting applications from firms around the world this year working in various areas of technology around the last-mile of delivery, ranging from electric/autonomous delivery, curbside management for food/goods pick-up/drop-off, lockers and modern mailbox systems, and goods consolidation,” said Andisheh Ranjbari, research scientist and UFL manager. “We are looking forward to learning more about their solutions in this space.”
At the conclusion of the Tech Day event, a winner will be selected by a panel of judges (representing retail, goods movement, land use, curb management industry, and the public sector) based on technical feasibility, business application, and market potential of the solution, as well as quality of presentation.
Read more:
- Tech Day 2019: Transforming the Final 50 Feet of Delivery
- Tech Day 2018: Technological Disruption and Innovation in Last-Mile Delivery
- Tech Day 2017: Innovative Freight Technologies
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- Current research
- Our members
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About the Urban Freight Lab (UFL): An innovative public-private partnership housed at the Supply Chain Transportation & Logistics Center at the University of Washington, the Urban Freight Lab is a structured workgroup that brings together private industry with City transportation officials to design and test solutions around urban freight management. Since launching in December 2016, the UFL has completed an innovative suite of research projects on the Final 50 Feet of delivery, providing foundational data and proven strategies to help cities reduce truck dwell times in load/unload spaces, and failed first delivery attempts by carriers, which lowers congestion, emissions, and costs.