A Newcastle tech company has won a grant of almost £500,000 for a project that aims to cut congestion in big cities.
Grid Smarter Cities has won the contract with Innovate 海角视频 to create a new platform to manage the movement and deliveries being carried out by construction vehicles in Croydon area of London.
It is hoped that Grid Smarter Cities’ new platform will ease congestion in the busy urban areas. The company, which is based at Newcastle Helix, has partnered with Croydon Council and EB Charging Ltd on the project, which has been part funded by Innovate 海角视频.
The new platform will be built using Grid’s existing software product, called Kerb, which eases congestion by allowing drivers to book time slots to park on kerb space in towns and cities.
Grid Smarter Cities has previously received funding from Innovate 海角视频 to allow it to build its Kerb prototype and trial it across 2018 and 2019.
Earlier this year the firm won a contract to trial the Kerb technology in Dublin.
Neil Herron, CEO and founder of Grid Smarter Cities, said: “The Kerb FTC Project represents a great opportunity to showcase how practical innovation can deliver real impacts and we are excited to be working with the Croydon Council who are a trailblazing local authority intent on leading the way.
“Improving air quality is a key issue for society to address, and we are intent on being able to deliver technology that offers simple, easy to adopt process improvements to assist in construction freight logistics and the wider transport sectors.”
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Grid Smarter Cities’ solutions are becoming more popular as local councils attempt to lower the amount of pollution being created in their towns.
The new deal will see the three organisations develop and pilot the alpha version of the product by March 2020.
Coun Stuart King, cabinet lead for environment and transport at Croydon Council, said: “This is an innovative project that will help us to monitor, manage and regulate HGV journeys across Croydon. This will help us try and make sure deliveries arrive not only in a timely manner but even more importantly that the journeys are as safe and green as possible.”
Karla Jakeman, innovation lead for connected transport and communications at Innovate 海角视频, added: “This project is a great example of how an SME can work with local authorities to solve real life issues around freight.
“This can provide a blueprint which can transferred to other local authorities around the 海角视频. The potential spin-offs from this project due its boarder thinking are particularly exciting.”