Paris, France: French supermarket Franprix, part of the Casino group, will later this year use river transport to deliver daily, food to 80 stores in the centre of Paris.
The development is believed to be an industry first. Containers will be transported by truck from a warehouse in the suburbs of Paris to the inland port of Bonneuil-sur-Marne the transfer to a barge for the 20km journey along the Marne and Seine rivers to the centre of Paris avoiding chronic road traffic congestion.
Currently, services carrying food products by river to Paris have had to terminate at ports in the suburbs due to the lack of a city centre river terminal capable of handling containers.
The Franprix service uses a quay in Paris’ 7th arrondissement. The service is scheduled for launch in September and in the start-up phase will transport 28 containers of 450 pallets daily rising to 48 containers. Norbert Dentressangle handles deliveries to Franprix stores.
“Each container transported by river represents 10,000 fewer truck kilometres annually,” the retailer said. The stores served by the barge shuttle will display the logo “Supplied by the Seine,” the retailer said.
French supermarket chain, Monoprix, began supplyingm in 2007, its Paris city centre outlets by a Fret SNCF-operated 20-wagon shuttle, running every working day on the D Line of SNCF’s Paris suburban network.
