Paris (France): transport on the River Seine to avoid tens of thousands trucks every month

Since September 2012, the food products destined for Franprix stores located in the heart of Paris have been distributed via the Seine. The goods are first transported in containers between the port of Bonneuil-sur-Marne and the port of Bourdonnais in the centre of Paris, before being delivered by truck on the last leg of their itinerary to the retail stores, all of which are located within a radius of 4 km. Since 2015, a second warehouse located at Bonneuil has been used, allowing an increase to 42 containers transported by the River Seine per day and to 300 stores being supplied. Goods are unloaded every morning at the Bourdonnais quay at the foot of the Eiffel Tower and delivered directly by small gas-powered trucks to the Franprix stores in the Paris region. In the long term, the objective is to transport 48 containers per day, equivalent to a savings of 450,000 km/year and a 37% reduction in CO² emissions. This initiative also enables the development of quays within urban areas and will make port activities more acceptable to the Parisian population. After ten years, the company estimates they avoided using 36,000 trucks for transportation and saved 250 tonnes of CO2 annually.