Hilversum wants to be able to limit the number of flash delivery companies in the municipality and is therefore working on introducing a permit system. At the neighbors in Gooise Meren they are not quite there yet, but they are thinking aloud there to follow the Hilversum example.
Since this year, the new delivery phenomenon has also landed in Hilversum and Gooise Meren. Delivery services often operate from retail premises. That’s their distribution warehouse, called dark stores. Once the customer has ordered the groceries, they should be delivered in no time. This is often done by deliverers with large backpacks on an electric bicycle.
Flink, Getir and Gorillas started in 2022 in the media city, although the latter company announced last week that it was already stopping. Gorillas reports that it is not profitable in Hilversum, among others. Flink has a dark store in Gooise Meren.
The three remaining dark stores in the two Gooi municipalities contrast sharply with the number in Amsterdam, for example. In March, the Municipal Executive of Hilversum announced that the capital already has more than 30 dark stores.
heavy medium
Because at the beginning of this year things were not going so fast with speed cameras in the media city, the college did not want to resort to ‘heavy means’ to prepare a new zoning plan. That is apparently different now.
Inquiries with both municipalities show that Hilversum is now busy setting up a permit system behind the scenes. A preparatory decision already applies here (a statement from the municipal council that a zoning plan for a certain area is being prepared) to monitor the establishment of new speed camera delivery companies.
Send to
As soon as the decision has been made, new companies need a permit to be able to establish themselves in Hilversum for the fast delivery of the groceries. In this way, the municipality can manage the number of services within the municipal boundaries, the location of the services and the spatial impact of the location.
They are not quite there yet in Gooise Meren, but at the town hall in Bussum they are seriously thinking about doing the same and adjusting the policy. The municipality informs NH Nieuws that it is making an inventory of whether it wants to actively manage the location of these companies and at which locations flash delivery could be possible. The old building of the Baltus hardware store on the corner of Sint Vitusstraat and Nieuwstraat is now the only dark store.
Preventing nuisance is an aspect that both municipalities say they will keep a close eye on. From the Hilversum town hall, a number of complaints were reported, especially at the start of Flink. Most were about noise pollution. In the evenings, local residents were bothered by delivery guys who were waiting outside the distribution warehouse. In addition, the parked bicycles on the sidewalk were another source of annoyance.
According to the municipality, the company has taken measures after the municipality had contacted about the complaints. There have been no complaints since then, according to the municipality of Hilversum.
Traffic unsafe
In Gooise Meren, most complaints are about the road use of the deliverers. They would not always adhere to the traffic rules and create unsafe traffic situations, something about which no complaints have been made to the municipality in Hilversum.
Furthermore, Gooise Meren reports nothing about nuisance around the dark store in Bussum. That is remarkable. At the end of May, D66 Gooise Meren asked written questions, which are still unanswered, in which the party clearly states that it has received signals from residents who complain about deliverymen hanging around.
Changing behavior
The need to adjust the policy, such as with the regulation of speed cameras, is increasingly an issue in municipal land. It has to do with changing consumer behavior. This goes further than just online shopping, but also occurs in mobility, among other things. Think of the emergence of Uber in the taxi industry and the increase in electric shared scooters. Bed and breakfasts (B&B) have taken off in the hotel industry, which has forced municipalities such as Amsterdam such as the Wiedweerga to change the rules. In Hilversum, in addition to new rules for speed camera deliverers, they are also working at the town hall on new policy for companies that want to park their e-scooters in the media city.