The logistification of service trips – implications for urban mobility

Abstract

Service trips are an often-overlooked portion of urban traffic in the academic literature, despite the fact that they can represent a noticeable share of commercial traffic. Service trips are called as such because their main purpose is to perform services. The movement of goods necessary to perform these services is a crucial part of carrying out these tasks. As a result, professionals use commercial vehicles to perform these services. This paper relies on a mix of quantitative and qualitative methodologies. In the first section, we propose a literature review on service trips and their description. In the second section, we describe the basic characteristics of service trips in the Paris Region and of the vehicles service providers rely on to conduct business, using a quantitative survey administered in 2021. In a third section, we investigate the process of “logistification” of service trips – the externalization of the freight transport portion of service trips to logistics providers, through qualitative interviews. In conclusion, we propose an overview of the implications that the evolution of service trips and the dynamics of logistification have for urban mobility and public policies.