You may be seeing fewer delivery trucks in downtown Montreal in the future.
The city will be testing out a delivery system involving electric cargo bikes.
The idea is to have trucks drop off deliveries at a central location downtown where electric cargo bikes can take over.
"It's on Îlot Voyageur, so the old Gare Centrale of Montreal," said Robert Beaudry, in charge of econonic development for the city's executive committee, referring to the long-abandoned bus station near Berri-UQAM metro.
"(The trucks) already come in Montreal but the problem is the last mile, when they stop on the street to deliver," said Beaudry.
"The delivery (trucks) of all types make (traffic) congestion, make noise, and different kind of problems like carbon gas emissions."
The drop-off depot will also involve a mobility hub featuring car sharing vehicles, Bixis and possibly shared electric scooters.
Beaudry said they'll be announcing their delivery partners next month when the pilot project begins. Local bike delivery company LVM will take part in the initiative.
"For the moment it's packages but soon it could be food and other things," said Beaudry.
Beaudry said they'll be collecting data on the busiest sectors of town so they can tweak the project and possibly expand it to other parts of the city using small electric vehicles as well.