Freight Hub Research Articles

Spatial Analysis of Middle-Mile Transport for Advanced Air Mobility: A Case Study of Rural North Dakota

Integrating advanced air mobility (AAM) into the logistics of high-value electronic commodities can enhance efficiency and promote sustainability. The objective of this study is to optimize the logistics network for high-value electronics by integrating AAM solutions, specifically using heavy-lift cargo drones for middle-mile transport and using the mostly rural and small urban U.S. state of North Dakota as a case study. The analysis utilized geographic information system (GIS) and spatial optimization models to strategically assign underutilized airports as multimodal freight hubs to facilitate the shift from long-haul trucks to middle-mile air transport. Key findings demonstrate that electronics, because of their high value-to-weight ratio, are ideally suited for air transport. Comparative analysis shows that transport by drones can reduce the average cost per ton by up to 60% compared to traditional trucking. Optimization results indicate that a small number of strategically placed logistical hubs can reduce average travel distances by more than 13% for last-mile deliveries. Cost analyses demonstrate the viability of drones for middle-mile transport, especially on lower-volume rural routes, highlighting their efficiency and flexibility. The study emphasizes the importance of utilizing existing infrastructure to optimize the logistics network. By replacing truck traffic with drones, AAM can mitigate road congestion, reduce emissions, and extend infrastructure lifespan. These insights have critical implications for supply chain managers, shippers, urban planners, and policymakers, providing a decision support system and a roadmap for integrating AAM into logistics strategies.

Footprints of goods movements: Spatial heterogeneity of heavy-duty truck activities and its influencing factors in the urban context

Heavy-duty trucks have caused growing concern due to their negative environmental externalities. Existing studies have not adequately examined the heterogeneity in the spatial distribution of heavy-duty truck activities and identified major influencing factors behind the patterns, thus making effective traffic management difficult. This study extracts heavy-duty truck activities information from long-term trajectory data, and clarifies the mechanism in which heavy-duty truck activities are subject to various industrial, transportation, and land use factors by developing global and local regression models. The results of the Global Ordinary Least Squares and Multiscale Geographically Weighted Regression models indicate that heavy-duty truck activities are driven not only by the location of industrial and freight hubs, but also by the availability of truck service infrastructure such as road networks and parking spaces. Moreover, the way these factors impact on heavy-duty truck activities differ across places. Local authorities therefore should evaluate the dynamic relationship between land use development and heavy-duty truck activities and mitigate the negative impacts of such activities on urban life. Locally tailored traffic management policies on heavy-duty truck will be helpful.

An adaptive consensus model in large-scale group decision making with noncooperative and compromising behaviors

In recent years, different feedback mechanisms have been reported in many consensus models to improve decision levels. However, the improvement of decision level often leads to the reduction of decision efficiency, which has been rarely considered in existing consensus models. This paper proposes an adaptive consensus model consisting of automatic strategy and interactive strategy, which are implemented in different consensus stages to balance decision efficiency and decision level. In addition, the behavior diversity of decision makers (DMs) is often unavoidable, such as noncooperative behavior, which brings greater complexity to the consensus reaching. Meanwhile, cooperative behavior is usually accompanied by compromise behavior. Considering that the compromise behavior of DMs will change subgroup structure, dynamic cluster analysis is performed in the consensus reaching process. On the premise of dynamic clustering, the traditional weight penalty mechanism will fail to manage the noncooperative behaviors of subgroups. To this end, this paper proposes a new penalty mechanism. The proposed adaptive consensus model is applied to the selection of cities for establishing the freight hub. Finally, some numerical simulations and comparative analyses are presented to verify the effectiveness of the proposed model.

Air quality, health and equity implications of electrifying heavy-duty vehicles

Heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs) disproportionately contribute to the creation of air pollutants and emission of greenhouse gases—with marginalized populations unequally burdened by the impacts of each. Shifting to non-emitting technologies, such as electric HDVs (eHDVs), is underway; however, the associated air quality and health implications have not been resolved at equity-relevant scales. Here we use a neighbourhood-scale (~1 km) air quality model to evaluate air pollution, public health and equity implications of a 30% transition of predominantly diesel HDVs to eHDVs over the region surrounding North America’s largest freight hub, Chicago, IL. We find decreases in nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations but ozone (O3) increases, particularly in urban settings. Over our simulation domain NO2 and PM2.5 reductions translate to ~590 (95% confidence interval (CI) 150–900) and ~70 (95% CI 20–110) avoided premature deaths per year, respectively, while O3 increases add ~50 (95% CI 30–110) deaths per year. The largest pollutant and health benefits simulated are within communities with higher proportions of Black and Hispanic/Latino residents, highlighting the potential for eHDVs to reduce disproportionate and unjust air pollution and associated air-pollution attributable health burdens within historically marginalized populations.

A stochastic facility location model for intermodal freight hubs

A stochastic facility location model for intermodal freight hubs

Due Diligence of Transport Infrastructure Operators Sustainability: A Circular Economy Driven Approach

Renewable energy usage, waste, and water management are all issues that airports must address in order to be able to adapt to changing situations and address environmental sustainability principles. This paper deals with an analysis of the development principle of airport renewable green facilities and activities by reviewing the areas that impact the sustainable transition of international mobility and freight hubs, such as airports. By a systemic review, the special focus is on airport landside business, in which comprehensive landside facilities data gathering framework, defining the context and key trends in landside development framework in European airports, serving popular tourist destinations in Mediterranean region. The analysis is based on the breakdown of the airports' key environmental aspects related to renewable green facilities and provides key message to planners and decision makers about the development of renewable green activities in airports located in popular tourist destinations as enabler for shifting them into greener infrastructure. Conventional wisdom is to provide a clear, coherent and well support view for the linkage of airports' sustainable transition with the development of renewable green facilities and activities in their landside area, providing a great picture for planners and decision makers in terms of managing airports serving tourist destinations.

Modeling the Impacts of Off-Peak Delivery in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area

Off-peak-hour delivery (OPHD) has the potential to reduce congestion in busy urban areas and at the same time improve the efficiency of logistics providers, shippers, and receivers. There has been growing interest in OPHD in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA), an important freight hub in Canada. The Government of Ontario is considering permanently relaxing noise by-laws to promote OPHD throughout the province. The purpose of this study is to provide quantitative assessments of the impacts of region-wide adoption of OPHD for the GTHA. A recently developed commercial vehicle (CV) model for the GTHA is presented in the paper. Various OPHD scenarios have been tested with the CV model. The impacts of induced passenger demand have also been demonstrated. Modeling outcomes indicate that OPHD could result in 5,530 vehicle-hours saved in a day after induced demand is accounted for. Light truck carriers would benefit the most by shifting to off-peak hours and prioritizing Toronto and Peel Region customers would yield the highest travel time savings during the off-peak hours.

Risk Assessment for the Establishment of Vespa mandarinia (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) in the Pacific Northwest, United States.

The recent introduction of the Asian giant hornet, Vespa mandarinia Smith, in the United States in late 2019 has raised concerns about its establishment in the Pacific Northwest and its potential deleterious effects on honey bees, Apis spp., and their pollination services in the region. Therefore, we conducted a risk assessment of the establishment of V. mandarinia in Washington, Oregon, Montana, and Idaho on a county-by-county basis. Our highly conservative tier-1 qualitative and semiquantitative risk assessment relied on the biological requirements and ecological relationships of V. mandarinia in the environments of the Pacific Northwest. Our risk characterization was based on climate and habitat suitability estimates for V. mandarinia queens to overwinter and colonize nests, density and distribution of apiaries, and locations of major human-mediated introduction pathways that may increase establishment of the hornet in the counties. Our results suggest that 32 counties in the region could be at low risk, 120 at medium risk, and 23 at high risk of establishment. Many of the western counties in the region were estimated to be at the highest risk of establishment mainly because of their suitable climate for queens to overwinter, dense forest biomass for nest colonization, and proximity to major port and freight hubs in the region. By design, our tier-1 risk assessment most likely overestimates the risk of establishment, but considering its negative effects, these counties should be prioritized in ongoing monitoring and eradication efforts of V. mandarinia.

Short-term prediction of outbound truck traffic from the exchange of information in logistics hubs: A case study for the port of Rotterdam

Short-term traffic prediction is an important component of traffic management systems. Around logistics hubs such as seaports, truck flows can have a major impact on the surrounding motorways. Hence, their prediction is important to help manage traffic operations. However, The link between short-term dynamics of logistics activities and the generation of truck traffic has not yet been properly explored. This paper aims to develop a model that predicts short-term changes in truck volumes, generated from major container terminals in maritime ports. We develop, test, and demonstrate the model for the port of Rotterdam. Our input data are derived from exchanges of operational logistics messages between terminal operators, carriers and shippers, via the local Port Community System. We propose a feed-forward neural network to predict the next one hour of outbound truck traffic. To extract hidden features from the input data and select a model with appropriate features, we employ an evolutionary algorithm in accordance with the neural network model. Our model predicts outbound truck volumes with high accuracy. We formulate 2 scenarios to evaluate the forecasting abilities of the model. The model predicts lag and non-proportional responses of truck flows to changes in container turnover at terminals. The findings are relevant for traffic management agencies to help improve the efficiency and reliability of transport networks, in particular around major freight hubs.

Analysis on Operation Management of Logistics Park in China

Since the State Council issued the “Plan for the Adjustment and Revitalization of the Logistics Industry” in 2009, the logistics industry, as the basic and strategic industry in the development of the national economy, has played an increasingly important role in promoting industrial transformation and upgrading and promoting economic development. In order to promote the development of logistics industry, a large number of logistics parks have been built all over the country under the guidance of policies and the promotion of the market. However, after the construction of these logistics parks has been put into operation, There are a series of problems in its development and profit. This paper analyzes the present situation and profit of logistics park in China, and briefly analyzes the main business characteristics of freight hub, production service, port service, trade service and comprehensive service. On this basis, the main problems existing in the existing profit model of logistics park in China are summarized.

Dry ports and related environmental benefits: a case study in Italy

The maritime containerised transport continues to grow; thus, an efficient seaport inland access becomes crucial for the performance of the entire intermodal transport chain. Dry ports are inland intermodal terminals directly connected to seaports via rail, which operate as trans-shipment hubs and provide services, such as: storage, consolidation, depot and custom clearance. In addition to offering benefits in terms of operational costs and efficiency, dry port concept implementation can produce positive effects also under an environmental point of view, promoting the modal shift from road to rail.This paper presents a simulation-based method to estimate the environmental benefits, in terms of emissions reduction, of a dry port implementation. This method is organized into three parts: (i) traffic demand analysis, (ii) traffic supply model, (iii) assignment and emission model. The methodology is applied to a real-world case study in Northern Italy, where the current scenario is compared to a future scenario in which a new railway connection is established between a seaport (Port of Venice) and an existing intermodal freight hub (Interporto of Padua). According to our findings, in the future scenario emissions of the main pollutants are reduced by 17%. In terms of CO2 this corresponds to about 8000 tons per year.

Implementing a quattromodal freight hub: an approach for the city of Vienna

PurposeIn terms of freight transportation it is essential to pick the most convenient mode(s) of transport (MOT). To get a more flexible system, one can assume that the number of transport options at each hub should be maximized. Therefore, it is investigated how a new hub concept comprising four MOT, a so-called “quattromodal freight hub”, can be implemented in the existing transport system from a traffic planning, technological and organizational point of view.MethodsThe research incorporates screening existing literature and best practices, conducting stakeholder interviews as well as performing site visits at the best practice areas Hamburg (Germany) and Constanta (Romania). Furthermore, the implementation perspective for a quattromodal freight hub in the city of Vienna (Austria) is examined.ResultsThe research revealed the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the concept from a theoretical and practical perspective. Four options to create a quattromodal freight hub in the city of Vienna could be identified taking the effects on the overall transport system capacity, arising costs and the legal framework into account.ConclusionsCost and efficiency related decision criteria are decisive for the implementation of a quattromodal freight hub. An implementation in the city of Vienna is attractive in terms of prestige and unique selling proposition for the region but at the same time requires further research in terms of legal aspects and impacts on the region.

Logistics sprawl in monocentric and polycentric metropolitan areas: the cases of Paris, France, and the Randstad, the Netherlands

The phenomenon of urban sprawl has been studied extensively. Most research so far has focused on residential settlements. A growing number of studies have addressed industrial deconcentration. Our focus in this paper is on logistics sprawl, i.e. the growth and suburban relocation of warehousing activities. Specifically, we investigate the difference in logistics sprawl between monocentric and polycentric systems of cities. The literature suggests that logistics activities, like residential settlements, will gradually move to suburbs as land prices increase in central areas. As research for logistics has mostly focused on monocentric systems, the question is whether this also applies to polycentric systems. We compare two cases, the Paris region in France, representative of a monocentric development, and the Dutch Randstad area as a polycentric case. We use regional statistics on warehouse settlements in both regions for a descriptive analysis of changes since the mid 2000s to derive metrics for concentration. The cases show different patterns of change in concentration. In contrast to Paris, logistics activities within the Randstad have intensified in dense areas. We explore the reasons that may explain this difference and conclude that urban structure, spatial planning policies and the freight hub quality of a region are factors of influence.

Study on The Optimization of Collection and Distribution System of Freight Hub Ports: Illustrated by The Case of Shanghai International Shipping Center, China

Abstract The development of world-class international shipping centers has proved that there isn’t a specific pattern for the development of the freight collection and distribution system. Measures should be taken to give a full play to integrated advantages by generally considering the layout of the collection and distribution system of the port and in the rear. This article, following closely the multi-center tendency of the hub port and the integrated development of regional ports in the improvement of the essential functions of international shipping, presents an initial idea on the construction of the optimization model for the collection and distribution system in which regional ports both cooperate and compete with each other. Establishing a model combining transportation mode selection and route selection would eventually realize the network flow distribution and derive the results for hub port selection made by the hinterland, i.e. the port-hinterland collection and distribution volume and the throughput of the port. Specification and verification of the generalized cost function plays a pivotal role in the improvement of the model. In accordance with the layout of ports for Shanghai international shipping center and based on the optimization model for the freight collection and distribution system of ports with minimized generalized cost, a series of generalized cost functions for road sections of various transportation forms including highway, waterway and railway as well as for transfer hubs were established, and major parameters were defined. The software STAN for freight analysis was used to accomplish the network equilibrium assignment for overall system and data concerning the annual throughput and distribution of major hub ports were thus obtained. The output and data analysis show that Shanghai international shipping center is gradually developing into a multi-center overseas transportation hub, that the overall service capacities for major hub ports have been enhanced and that though the proportion of waterway freight transportation is on the rise, the highway freight collection and distribution system still needs to expand the scope of the transportation organization.

A Study on the Location of the Hub Distribution Center in the Europe with Air Freight Transportation Effects -Focused on Korea-EU FTA-

전 세계적으로 자유무역협정(FTA)이 활발히 체결되고 있다. FTA는 무역창출 및 무역전환효과가 발생되어 물류수요가 창출되 거나 기존에 수행해오던 물류체계에 대한 변화를 초래할 수 있어, 물류 서비스를 제공하는 3자 물류업체들은 이러한 변화에 대응하기 위해 물류센터를 포함한 수배송 서비스 전반에 걸친 물류 네트워크 체계의 재조정이 필요하다. 그러나 항공물류의 경우 공항과 항공 운송사를 중심으로 움직이는 물류 특성으로 인해 3자 물류업체는 자사의 특성에 맞는 물류센터 입지를 선정하는데 많은 어려움이 있어, 2011년 7월 한국-EU FTA가 발효되었음에도 불구하고 EU 내에 우리나라 물류 경쟁력 제고를 위한 항공화물 허브물류센터 입지에 관한 연구는 거의 이루어지지 않았다. 이에 본 연구에서는 우선 한국-EU FTA에 따른 항공화물 물동량 변화를 점검한다. 그리고 허브 네트워크는 규모의 경제효과가있다는 전제 하에 Hub-and-Spoke 체계를 한국과 EU 국가들 사이에서 발생한 실 항공화물 데이터를 근거로 항공기의 연간 총 연료소모량과 수송비를 추정해 보았다. 이러한 추정치를 이용해 최적 허브물류센터의 입지를 연구해 Hub-and-Spoke 방식이 Point-to-Point 방식과 비교했을 때 우수한 이점을 갖는지도 분석해 보았다.Free Trade Agreement(FTA) has been actively engaged in global. FTA has a trade creation and diversion effects. These effects create the logistics demand. Therefore, it is possible to bring about some changes in the distribution system and logistics service providers should respond to these changes. It means logistics service providers are required readjustment of their distribution network for a shipping services, including logistics(distribution) centers. However, air freight logistics has some characteristics that logistics service providers should move with the airport location and the air transport company in order to provide their service. Therefore, logistics service providers have some difficulty in selecting distribution centers which are suitable for their logistics characteristics. Even though Korea-EU FTA took effect in July 2011, there was no study about air freight hub location. Therefore, this study looks into the change situation of the air freight volume associated with the Korea-EU FTA. And, with the premise that the Hub-and-Spoke network has the effect of the economy of scale, it tries to estimate the total annual fuel consumption of aircraft and transportation costs in order to solve where is the optimal hub location in EU on the basis of the real-air freight data that occurred between Korean and EU.

Discovering time-dependent shortest path on traffic graph for drivers towards green driving

Green transportation technologies that reduce fuel consumption, idling, and vehicle miles traveled while reducing acute congestion could play a significant role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, particularly in major cities, around ports and freight hubs, and on major roads and corridors. The key to support green transportation is to discover real-time shortest path for drivers. A time-dependent traffic graph, generated from history traffic data can be used to predict the traveling time and to find the shortest path for drivers dynamically. There are two different types of queries on shortest paths: Query_FiST for starting at a fixed time and reaching the destination as early as possible and Query_BeST for choosing the best starting time to avoid the rush hours. Taking advantage of traffic graph’s characteristics of sparsity and hierarchy, we propose two algorithms: Heap-based Bellman–Ford algorithm for Query_FiST and Extended Bellman–Ford algorithm for Query_BeST respectively. We prove the correctness of the algorithms and discuss their time complexity. A series of experiments are implemented on an open data set of real traffic collected from taxis and the results show that our algorithms outperform all existing algorithms practically.

Concept of Quattro Modal Freight Hubs

Currently, the linkage of the four transportation modes, namely, road, rail, water and air on a quattro-modal freight hub is a low-priority issue with many uncertainties. The Austrian research project “Q4” focuses on this knowledge gap and on both potentials and limits of quattro-modal freight hubs. Therefore, the results of the Austrian research project outline in an exemplary manner the implementation opportunities for a quattro-modal freight hub within the central region of Linz-Wels-Steyr and the metropolitan region of Vienna.

Model of multimodal transport node functioning

To increase the efficiency of transport nodes functioning taking into account the logistics management principles it is necessary to optimize the structure and capacity of transport nodes' production resources, and to develop such a method for calculating of joint schedules for vehicles and freight hubs of the transport node, which takes into account stochastic nature of the parameters of material and informational flows. For solving the problems of optimal management of transport nodes functioning processes it is proposed to use the specific efficiency indicator, which is determined as a ratio of total costs of clients servicing in transport node to the costs of production resources used while servicing. According to the used approach for formalization of the transport node internal processes, development of the simulation model was implemented on the base of object-oriented programming principles. TransportNode.dll class library has been used as basic tool for simulations. The model implemented on the base of the library allows to take into account stochastic nature of demand and probabilistic nature of technological processes in transport nodes. Some results of numeric simulations for the loading area “Amur-Gavan” of Dnipropetrovsk River Port have been described in the paper.

Development Around Freight Rail Corridors: Noise Assessment and Mitigation

As residential encroachment increases along freight rail corridors or near freight hubs, poor acoustic design of residential developments can lead to increased complaints and community resistance to projects aimed at expanding the freight network and delivering economic growth. Developers and consent authorities, including local councils, must follow planning controls to address noise impact in the assessment and design of sensitive development near rail corridors, The Department of Planning and Environment published the Development Near Rail Corridors and Busy Roads—Interim Guideline (2008) to provide guidance to those assessing noise and designing sensitive developments (such as residences) to avoid and mitigate noise impacts. Extensive noise monitoring recently conducted has provided data to improve the quality of assessments and design for areas near curved or steep gradient track and near freight rail hubs. This paper references a comprehensive noise data set as an evidence base to provide guidance on the identification of affectation zones around freight rail corridors and freight rail hubs where risk of land use conflict is high. The paper also presents three case studies giving examples of how residential developments can be designed to address noise from freight operations.

Achieving transport modal split targets at intermodal freight hubs using a model predictive approach

The increase of international freight commerce is creating pressure on the existing transport network. Cooperation between the different transport parties (e.g., terminal managers, forwarders and transport providers) is required to increase the network throughput using the same infrastructure. The intermodal hubs are locations where cargo is stored and can switch transport modality while approaching the final destination. Decisions regarding cargo assignment are based on cargo properties. Cargo properties can be fixed (e.g., destination, volume, weight) or time varying (remaining time until due time or goods expiration date). The intermodal hub manager, with access to certain cargo information, can promote cooperation with and among different transport providers that pick up and deliver cargo at the hub. In this paper, cargo evolution at intermodal hubs is modeled based on a mass balance, taking into account hub cargo inflows and outflows, plus an update of the remaining time until cargo due time. Using this model, written in a state-space representation, we propose a model predictive approach to address the Modal Split Aware – Cargo Assignment Problem (MSA–CAP). The MSA–CAP concerns the cargo assignment to the available transport capacity such that the final destination can be reached on time while taking into consideration the transport modality used. The model predictive approach can anticipate cargo peaks at the hub and assigns cargo in advance, following a push of cargo towards the final destination approach. Through the addition of a modal split constraint it is possible to guide the daily cargo assignment to achieve a transport modal split target over a defined period of time. Numerical experiments illustrate the validity of these statements.