Hubl Raises £1M to Design Low-Emission Urban Delivery Networks

Hubl, a UK urban logistics company, has raised £1 million from Carbon13, Caygan Capital, Green Angel Syndicate, and Impact on Urban Health to develop its low-emission urban delivery network solutions. The company works on the network design, operations modelling, and technology infrastructure needed to help cities, logistics operators, and retailers transition their urban delivery operations away from diesel vans and towards lower-emission alternatives including electric cargo bikes, electric vans, and micro-logistics hub models.

Urban last-mile delivery is responsible for a disproportionate share of city-centre air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, and is increasingly subject to regulatory pressure from clean air zone restrictions, emissions-based delivery surcharges, and outright bans on diesel vehicles in sensitive urban areas. At the same time, the volume of urban deliveries has grown substantially with the expansion of e-commerce, creating a structural tension between increasing delivery demand and decreasing tolerance for the emissions associated with conventional delivery vans.

The shift to low-emission urban delivery is not simply a matter of swapping diesel vans for electric ones. Electric cargo bikes and smaller electric vehicles have different range, payload, and route characteristics than diesel vans, requiring delivery networks to be redesigned around these constraints. Micro-consolidation hubs — small local facilities where parcels are transferred from trucks to cargo bikes for the final portion of the delivery — can dramatically reduce the number of van journeys in city centres, but require careful placement to make the economics work. Route planning for mixed fleets of different vehicle types requires more sophisticated optimisation than conventional delivery routing. Hubl works on these network design and operational challenges, applying modelling and systems analysis to help clients design delivery operations that are both low-emission and economically viable.

Carbon13, the sustainability venture builder, and Green Angel Syndicate, which focuses on environmental impact investments, are natural backers for a company tackling urban emissions. Impact on Urban Health provides an additional lens on the health benefits of reduced urban air pollution. The funding will be used to develop the company's network design capabilities, build client relationships with logistics operators and municipalities, and demonstrate the feasibility and economics of its low-emission delivery models.

Sources

• Hubl — company website