Location of Freight Consolidation Centres Serving the City and Its Surroundings

Abstract

This paper investigates small road haulier's spatial location and road network accessibility in relation to proposed freight consolidation centres (FCCs). For many decades, the overall load factor in freight vehicles has decreased; smaller volumes of goods have been transported over longer distances. To counteract this, a well-planned localisation of FCCs has been suggested as a measure to improve transport efficiency. Based on 3,024 road hauliers, road haulier associations, freight forwarders, and delivery firms/couriers located in the Western part of Sweden, the analysis show a high concentration of small road hauliers towards the largest city, its immediate surroundings, and towards existing facilities of large freight forwarders and road haulier associations. Furthermore, the accessibility analysis shows that a very large majority of the small road hauliers as well as large forwarders and haulier associations are reached within a short time distance from the proposed FCCs, indicating the potential to establish FCCs serving small road hauliers. While it is not possible to conclude that the ‘proposed’ FCCs are optimally located, the paper provides a basis to further investigate the most appropriate locations of FCCs serving the city and its surroundings, and whether and under what conditions FCC establishments are viable.