The impacts of logistics sprawl: How does the location of parcel transport terminals affect the energy efficiency of goods’ movements in Paris and what can we do about it?

Abstract

In this paper, we propose to identify the location of parcel transport terminals in the Paris region (the “Ile-de-France”), and discuss its impacts on Paris urban goods’ movements and their carbon footprint.We present the gradual relocation of parcel transport's terminals from the urban cores in the 1970s to the outer suburban today. We evaluate whether this movement of “logistics sprawl” (the historical trend towards spatial deconcentration of logistics terminals in metropolitan areas) has an environmental and CO2 impact on the Paris region. Representations of these gradual relocations are shown on maps using MapInfo and a centrographic analysis was conducted to evaluate an average of the deconcentration of terminal locations over the period 1974-2008. A centrographic analysis is a spatial analysis of geographic data using central tendency indicators. We, then, analyze the increased mileage resulting from these more distant terminals and we translate it into net added CO2 emissions. The main results of our research are that a net addition of 15,000 tonnes per year of CO2 emissions resulted from the change in location patterns of parcel and express transport terminals since the 1970s.In this paper, we discuss the methodology chosen to evaluate freight transport's CO2 impacts in Paris. The net CO2 impacts of teminals’ relocation is also compared to the savings of CO2 emissions resulting from the city logistics’ experimental schemes that have received much attention in the last few years in Paris.The last part of our paper explores potential strategies for preventing further logistics sprawl in the coming years and mitigating the congestion and CO2 impacts of logistics in urban areas.