Mixed applied survey methodology for planning/enforcement of urban logistics delivery bays– An application to the Moroccan context

Abstract

Roads and parking areas represent a place of conflict between freight vehicles and other urban activities, especially on mixed residential and commercial streets. This conflict results in traffic congestion, illegal parking, pollution and road safety problems. The challenge is to allocate public space between the right operating activities, parking activities, public transport and so on. To address that, urban logistics delivery bays, also known as loading/unloading (L/U) zones, have become a real solution to facilitate the delivery and pick-up operations of urban freight vehicles, ensure accessibility for delivery drivers, reduce congestion and improve road safety. Therefore, this paper reports on planning and enforcement of urban delivery bays needs. It is part of the urban freight transport (UFT) surveys. This involves consolidating with new contribution the development, implementation and statistical analysis of a survey in order to quantify the need of delivery areas. Compared to the existing literature, this paper presents a mixed applied methodology which is divided into two parts : “Exploratory survey” and “Establishment-vehicle observation” survey. These two surveys techniques were conducted to offer an overview of the freight vehicle delivery and pick-up frequency according to the daytime and weekdays and the operations related to the loading/unloading activities. This makes it possible to estimate the delivery bays requirement in the study area. The findings from a methodological and practical angle are illustrated through a real case study in a commercial street in Morocco. The findings suggest that 60% of deliveries are made between 8:00 A.M and 12 A.M, and the movements generated by each establishment are 257 movements. For this, the study zone requires the development of three loading/unloading (L/U) bays. The main contribution is to propose an approach that urban authorities can use to estimate urban delivery areas efficiently and thus allow simple replication of the proposed framework in other cities.