Abstract
Urban freight transport is a challenge for Brazilian cities due to the lack of adequate planning for freight flow movement. Public managers also show negligence and a lack of awareness when dealing with urban logistics. Decision-support data on urban freight transport are still scarce, despite being of fundamental value to economic development. With this in mind, this paper presents problems and solutions regarding urban freight transport in Brazilian cities. Data were obtained through a survey conducted in nine cities and analysed by means of descriptive statistics and the successive intervals method. Additionally, a cluster analysis was performed to identify patterns regarding the typical characteristics of each city in order to compare and generalise the perception of retailers regarding problems and solutions at the national level. The results indicate divergent opinions among retailers from different cities, even from cities with similar socioeconomic profiles and urban dynamics. The municipalities which demonstrated the most similarities were (i) Betim and Niteroi, in the Southeast of Brazil; (ii) Palmas and Quixada, in the North and Northeast, respectively; and (iii) Palmas and Caruaru, also in the North and Northeast. The results reinforce the importance of studying the local context and involving stakeholders in the process of planning urban logistics solutions.
Highlights
54% of the world’s population live in urban areas and 60% of the population are expected to become urban by 2030 [1]
We present an overview of urban freight transport in Brazilian cities, classifying the relevance of different problems and solutions using the method of successive intervals
Of note is the use of vans, which is generally associated with restrictions on larger freight vehicles in downtown areas or better accessibility in narrow streets
Summary
54% of the world’s population live in urban areas and 60% of the population are expected to become urban by 2030 [1]. In Brazil, 85% of the population live in urban areas, and it is expected that this will rise to 91.1% by 2030 [1,2] This growth in the urban population has resulted in a significant increase in freight transport demand levels in order to meet the population’s needs [3]. Due to inadequate (or non-existent) urban and transport planning, combined with a lack of attention given to urban freight transport, Brazilian cities experience problems of urban freight mobility. Those issues are even more relevant for logistics operators and retailers located in regions of higher demand [6]. The scarcity of urban and transportation planning has negative impacts on access to goods in urban areas, and on the citizens’ quality of life
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