Location factors for logistics facilities: Location choice modeling considering activity categories

Abstract

While many past studies analyze the changes in the spatial distribution of logistics facilities and provide insights on the factors that drive the migration of logistics facilities, only a few studies analyze the factors of location choice at the individual facility level. Furthermore, the differences among various facility types, with respect to the key locational characteristics that attract logistics facility developments, are still not clear. This research attempts to fill the research gap by analyzing the location choices for logistics facility development. Using the data from the Paris Region, we characterize the locations and activities of logistics facilities and estimate a logistics facility location choice model for each activity category. The analysis reveals the key locational characteristics that influence logistics facility locations, such as zoning regulations, wholesale job accessibility, population density, and the accessibility to autoroute (controlled-access highway), as well as the heterogeneity in the effects of these characteristics by activity category. Zoning and traditional clusters play a significant role for the locations of newly developed logistics facilities, which underlines the importance of public policies for logistics land use in the Paris region. The effect of the accessibility to population is identified for the group of facilities which serve for retail shops and end-consumers only under the assumption that alternative locations are limited to specialized economic activity/logistics zones, indicating that population accessibility is a secondary factor to the designation as the specialized zone. Zoning changes to/from economic activity/logistics zones may cause significant impacts on the spatial distribution of logistics facilities, and thus, the distribution of goods vehicle traffic flow.