Freight Transport In Urban Areas Research Articles

THE ADVANCED METHOD OF SYSTEMATIC BIBLIOMETRIC REVIEW OF THE DIGITALIZATION OF URBAN TRUCK TRANSPORTATION FOR THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF TRANSPORT

Digitization of urban freight transport is becoming increasingly important with the development of information technology and the gig economy. This paper conducts a bibliometric analysis to explore research hotspots and future trends in the digital transformation of urban freight transportation. Using Scopus and the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection as data sources, the analysis highlights the countries with the most published articles and identifies important knowledge bases for digital transformation, such as «digital twin», «physical Internet», «hyperconnected», «logistics», «ALICE» and «Zero Emissions Initiatives». The analysis included examining the number of published articles by year and the distribution of these articles by country. A comparative analysis of keywords used in different studies was also conducted. As a result of the keyword analysis, the main areas of research in the field of digital transformation of urban freight transportation were identified, such as digital double freight transportation, physical Internet, ALICE, Zero-emission and research on the goals of urban logistics. A comparative analysis of the links between the literature showed an increase in the ranking of studies on the impact of digital transformation on freight transport in an urban environment using a connected approach. This approach is relevant in the context of digitalization of urban freight transportation and deserves further scientific attention. In addition, they will provide directions for further research and development of digital solutions in urban logistics systems, which will contribute to increasing the efficiency and sustainability of freight transportation in urban areas. The obtained results of the study can be useful for scientists, industrial partners and government bodies, as they will contribute to the understanding of the current state of digital transformation in urban freight transport. In addition, they will provide directions for further research and development of digital solutions in urban logistics systems, which will contribute to increasing the efficiency and sustainability of freight transportation in urban areas. Keywords: digital twin, hyperconnected logistics, physical internet, ALICE, Zero Emission initiatives.

Freight Distribution in Small Islands: Integration between Naval Services and Parcel Lockers

Freight transportation in urban areas represents an essential activity from the standpoint of economic development; in recent years, the spread of e-commerce (also accelerated by COVID-19) has contributed to increasing the demand for freight distribution over short distances. In most cities, the approaches and measures are often based on new technologies. Nevertheless, today there are contexts wherein delivery operations represent critical tasks to be solved. Furthermore, low accessibility areas, such as small islands, present further problems due to their exclusive dependence on maritime links (and often low-reliability services). This paper tackles this topic, formulating and solving a distribution problem by linking shipping services with last-mile distribution operated by means of an automatic delivery service (parcel lockers). A test application is proposed by considering the small island of Lipari in the archipelago of the Aeolian islands (Sicily, Southern Italy). The results show that such a type of service could reduce the user’s waiting time when compared to traditional home deliveries.

GPS data as a basis for mapping freight vehicle activities in urban areas – A case study for seven Norwegian cities

PurposeThe current paper addresses how GPS data from freight vehicles can give detailed information on freight activities in urban areas, with examples of delivery/pickup activities in seven Norwegian cities. Such information is key when planning for freight activities in urban areas– e.g. when dimensioning the capacity of loading/unloading zones. Design/methodology/approachFor 2019, a dataset of 79 million GPS positions was retrieved from 1200 freight vehicles. We present a method to convert GPS data into information on freight vehicle movements, including an approach to separate delivery/pickup activities from other stop activities in urban areas. FindingsThe study shows that detailed information on delivery/pickup activities in urban areas may be obtained from GPS data. We find that dwell time averages differ between outer and inner-city areas and vehicle types in Norway. Practical implicationsToday, most studies of this type are based on data from voluntarily participating firms, resulting in sample biases. However, as almost all new heavy goods vehicles include a possibility of GPS tracking, there is a vast future potential of such data, and this study illustrates how such data can provide transport authorities/planners with information at a more detailed level than traffic counts and at a lower cost than traditional observation studies. Original/valueSeveral studies have addressed the issue of converting GPS data to trip information and identification of stop activities. However, we find less work on how such data may provide new insights into freight vehicle movements and activities in urban areas, and, in turn, how it may contribute to improved policy making towards the goal of greener and more efficient freight transport in urban areas.

An effective and robust genetic algorithm for urban freight transport scheduling using passenger rail network

This paper considers freight transport in urban areas using passenger rail networks as an eco-friendly alternative to current predominantly fossil-fueled trucks. It addresses one of the essential problems, called freight rail transport scheduling problem (FRTSP), where the objective is to minimize the total waiting time of the parcels at their departure stations which is equivalent to minimizing the space occupancy at the stations and maximizing the turnover of the freight transport. In this paper, we focus on designing an effective and robust method to solve the FRTSP. For this purpose, a genetic algorithm is proposed whose performances, as it is widely known, highly depend on the length of chromosomes and control parameters. In this genetic algorithm, the length of chromosomes is reduced owing to a mathematical formulation with fewer integer decision variables representing a parcel-to-train assignment. We prove that as long as a parcel-to-train assignment is known, it takes a polynomial time to check whether this assignment can lead to a feasible solution and, if yes, solve the remaining problem by transforming it into computing the longest distances in a digraph. This result makes it possible to only consider parcel-to-train assignment variables in chromosomes, while efficiently determining the values of the other variables in fitness evaluation. In order to achieve robustness regarding all instances, the control parameters of the genetic algorithm are set with Taguchi method. Computational results show that the method developed in this way is very effective. For small-size instances, it yields optimal solutions within considerably shorter computation times than a commonplace optimization solver does. For large-size instances, it outperforms such a solver, not only providing much higher-quality solutions but also consuming much shorter computation times. This method thus meets very well operational requirements where high-quality solutions are expected while computation time is very limited.

Drivers for and barriers to electric freight vehicle adoption in Stockholm

Freight transport in urban areas needs to become more sustainable. There is much potential to reduce emissions by transitioning to electric freight vehicles (EFVs). The context of this study is Sweden, a country with ambitious goals for transitioning to fossil-free road transport that incentivizes the adoption of EFVs through regulations, subsidies and environmental zones. However, it seems that few companies are adopting EFVs. This paper aims to explore why that is by investigating drivers for and barriers to the adoption of EFVs. An embedded case study of five firms in Stockholm that are exploring the possibilities of using EFVs is conducted. The findings reveal a number of drivers and barriers, which are then categorized as internal, external or governmental. The results show uncertainties at the micro, meso and macro levels. Uncertainties relate to political and legal uncertainties, technological and infrastructure-related uncertainties, customer expectations and willingness to pay, and operational uncertainties.

Liveability and freight transport in urban areas: the example of the Calabria Region for City Logistics

The freight transport in urban areas is a central theme in the studies of the last 20 years due to the increase of expenditure that influences the freight demand and the number of vehicles for their distribution. Notwithstanding its negative impact on city sustainability and liveability is usually overlooked by policy-makers.The Calabria Region has created a virtuous way for the freight distribution in urban areas, as part of the Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) by means of the dedicated measure 2.5 City Logistics. This measure indicates how to make freight distribution more efficient by specific interventions. The aim is to increase liveability and to obtain convergence of different interests of the actors involved, as citizens, public sector, retailers, and couriers, oriented to UN and EU targets and according to the RTP.This paper presents the experience of the Calabria Region related to City Logistics, as a prototypal process from planning, to programming and executing. This process includes a technical-administrative path developed with specific training activities involving all stakeholders realizing an integrated approach between different administrations with different roles in urban logistics projects. The process aims to create special urban areas where freight vehicles traffic is controlled through regulatory, management and infrastructural interventions, as time windows, upgrading fleets with environmentally vehicles, ICT/ITS, Urban Distribution Centers, Nearby Delivery Areas. The traffic control and management support the measures for COVID 19 emergency to ensure social distancing.

Freight on urban public transportation: A systematic literature review

Public transportation offers a promising opportunity for freight transportation in urban areas. Through the sharing of infrastructure, vehicles, or even space inside wagons, synergies can be realized which can lead to a more efficient and environmentally-friendly transportation of goods in cities. This paper conducts a comprehensive investigation of the state-of-the-art of freight on public transportation by means of a systematic literature review. We start by giving an overview of the various ways in which freight on public transportation can be realized. Then we analyze the identified references, classified into qualitative and quantitative approaches, regarding methodology, mode of transportation, shared aspects, underlying network, and utilized data. We find that freight on urban public transportation is a highly dynamic and diverse research field. Finally, we describe opportunities and barriers for freight on public transportation and identify the main fields for future research, among others the further inclusion of external costs and the more frequent application of stochastic and real-time data.

City Logistics as an Imperative Smart City Mechanism: Scrutiny of Clustered EU27 Capitals

In large urban agglomerations, various logistical problems arise due to high population density and deficient transport infrastructure. City logistics involves the efficient distribution of freight transport in urban areas and approaches to mitigate environmental impacts and traffic congestion. This paper aims to use a two-step cluster analytic approach to segmentation of EU27 capital cities based on their city logistics performance. To obtain primary outcomes, the log-likelihood measure in SPSS Statistics was used. The results can be used to identify the development and implementation of logistics measures in capitals across the EU. In addition to clustering, the statistical analysis evaluates the position of investigated cities concerning traffic congestions, and from an environmental point of view, the carbon dioxide produced from transport. The scrutiny delivers practical outlooks on how clustering can be undertaken and proves how the clusters can be used to plan city logistics and supply chain management. Finally, the paper deals with smart city indices from the perspective of sustainable mobility and examines its correlation with city logistics.

An Application of an Urban Freight Transportation System for Reduced Environmental Emissions

Today, there is a great need for greener urban freight transportations due to their ever-increasing environmental impact. The planet’s climate has been significantly affected as the temperature is constantly rising and extreme weather events are occurring more and more often. Aiming to reduce the environmental impact of freight transportation in urban areas, an advanced vehicle routing and scheduling system for improving urban freight transportations, has been developed. This paper presents the functionality of the advanced system, while also analyzing its subsystems and demonstrating its use in a case study. The system is provided as an integrated cloud-based software to support the needs of logistics companies, in order to efficiently schedule their deliveries and perform the routing of their vehicles. The utilized multi-objective algorithm produces solutions that minimize either the distribution cost or the environmental emissions or a combination of these parameters. An application of the system is performed for validation purposes, concerning the comparison of the system’s results with corresponding real-life data provided by a medium-sized logistics company. The results of the testing reveal its significant contribution to the reduction of the environmental impact of the company’s distribution services.

Lorry Park Selection Criteria and Drivers’ Preferences: A Study from the UK

Increasing urbanization and economic activities has intensified the need for logistical processes in cities. This leads to higher levels of urban freight transport, which is associated with negative social and environmental impacts. Advances in urban logistics can help to alleviate these problems; the recent literature suggests that the creation of appropriate lorry park facilities can represent one of the possible solutions to the social and environmental issues connected to freight transport in urban areas. However, in order to be effective, such facilities need to be properly designed; studies which identify critical success factors for lorry park operations are currently lacking. As such, the purpose of this research is to identify the main criteria which lorry drivers consider when selecting a lorry park facility. In order to achieve these aims, a questionnaire survey was designed; responses from 99 lorry drivers operating in the United Kingdom were collected. Through descriptive statistics, followed by the usage of a conjoint analysis, the main results show that attributes related to food, price, and security are the most important to lorry drivers and are likely to determine the success of such initiatives. These results can provide information to policy and decision-makers related to the design of lorry park facilities in order to achieve the desired results in urban areas.

Collaborative urban transportation: Recent advances in theory and practice

Increasing urbanization has turned transporting freight from, to, and within urban areas into a major challenge. Freight transportation represents a lifeline for urban retail and industry, but causes significant negative impacts on the quality of living in urban areas in terms of congestion, emissions and space consumption. City logistics initiatives have long suggested the need for collaborative and environmentally friendly urban transportation that could alleviate the negative impacts of urban transportation, but these face organizational and technological challenges of collaboration. Given technological advancements and innovative business models, concepts of collaborative urban transportation could contribute to a future paradigm of more sustainable and customer-friendly urban transportation.In this work, we collect and discuss contributions to collaborative freight transportation in urban areas with focus on recent publications (i.e. those published over the past ten years). We particularly analyze vertical and horizontal approaches of collaboration from an operations research perspective and point out strategic, tactical, and operational planning problems and solution approaches. To highlight research gaps and future research opportunities, we present innovative examples of collaborative urban transportation and analyze factors of failure and success. Collecting recent advances in theory and practice of collaborative urban transportation allows us to distill alternative visions of future collaborative freight transportation in urban areas.

Multi-Criteria Analysis of Electric Vans for City Logistics

Atmospheric emissions of anthropogenic origin are one of the most important problems in cities. A particularly discrete ecological footprint in urban environment is made by urban freight transport. This problem has become the key challenge for all stakeholder groups involved in freight transport in urban areas. Over the recent years, there has been a growing interest in using alternative fuel vehicles in urban logistics, including those equipped with electric drive systems. This paper presents a multi-criteria analysis (MCA) of selected electric vehicles (EVs) in the context of their application for the purposes of deliveries in cities. In methodological terms, we present a unique MCA-based approach for evaluation of Electric Freight Vehicles (EFVs). A successful attempt is made to build a multistep MCA procedure based on two carefully selected MCDA methods (PROMETHEE II and fuzzy TOPSIS) to handle both certain and uncertain data sets in a single decision process. In practical terms, we successfully demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed approach by creating a set of decision maker’s preference models (based on certain and uncertain data) of carefully selected EFVs and provide sensitivity and robustness analyses of the obtained solutions.

Electric vehicle deployment in urban areas

The transportation sector accounts for approximately one-fifth of global primary energy use and one quarter of all energy related carbon dioxide emissions, with nearly half of those emissions originating from passenger vehicles. In order to reduce significantly the use of fossil fuels in urban mobility, whilst improving air quality and increasing the accessibility and attractiveness of urban areas, it is necessary to increase the use of non-conventionally fuelled vehicles for passenger and freight transport in urban areas. The introduction of electric vehicles (EVs) is a promising option, so as to achieve decarbonisation objectives, energy security, improved urban air quality and to increase energy efficiency. However, there are a number of challenges for the large-scale deployment of EV both on global and European level. These, in particular, are the high cost of the battery, lack of a standardised recharging infrastructure, relatively low range of battery electric vehicles or lack of interesting value proposition for consumers. A few studies have attempted to calculate the costs and benefits of EVs, but none consider the cost and benefits of EVs at a level of detail comparable to what has been performed for other vehicle technologies. This study constructs the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of EVs, based on real data from the auto-industry, in order to assess the costs and benefits as well as the potentiality of electro-mobility deployment in urban areas.

AN EXPERIMENTAL CUSTOMER SATISFACTION INDEX TO EVALUATE THE PERFORMANCE OF CITY LOGISTICS SERVICES

Freight transport in urban areas entails benefits (i.e. free access to goods when needed), but also negative externalities (environmental, social and transportation impacts). In response to these problems, the concept of city logistics emerged, for the purpose of planning, organizing, coordinating and controlling physical and information flows in order to find a compromise between efficient freight distribution in urban areas and protection of the environment. A typical city logistics initiative is the Urban Freight Consolidation Centre (UFCC), the benefits of which are significant. Its financial issues though represent a huge problem for public administrations. However, a large customer network, comprising retailers participating in the initiative, could make the UFCC a self-financing scheme. The key to expanding the scheme is closely linked with marketing campaigns and customer care. Therefore, customer care analysis represents an important tool in developing UFCC schemes. In this paper, a new Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) is proposed for evaluating UFCC service quality. The new index, named CSImod, is a modified version of the traditional CSI, but places greater emphasis on customer dissatisfaction, so as to analyse the most critical areas of the service with a view to improving them. The index has been tested using experimental data collected within the CIVITAS RENAISSANCE Project, in which the Bristol and Bath Freight Consolidation Centre (BBFCC) scheme was evaluated. The evaluation was done from a user perspective, i.e. the participating retailers. The CSImod places more importance on the most dissatisfied customers making it possible to understand why they are dissatisfied and with what. Thus, it is possible to intervene with the aim of improving those areas of the service that are perceived as the worst. In spite of the high level of satisfaction with the overall service provided by the BBFCC, thanks to the CSImod the analysis pointed out that some retailers are dissatisfied with the delivery time arrangements and also with deliveries that were getting wet, issues about which the BBFCC manager was totally unaware. The CSImod could be used by UFCC operators to extend the network of the retailers involved and could therefore provide an implicit solution for making the scheme self-financing.

Freight Transport with Vans: Developments and Measures

Road freight transport in urban areas is growing regarding number of trips and mileage. Main reasons are the decreasing consignment sizes and increasing frequencies of delivery transports which are caused by individualisation of demand (incl. e-Commerce, home delivery) and the reduction of storage in central urban areas. These developments have a negative impact on the environment, quality of life and traffic safety. Only limited research has been carried out on freight transport by light freight vehicles below a maximum weight of 3.5 t. The research project which has been carried out in the framework of a Swiss national research programme on freight transport aimed to investigate the role of the van in logistics and freight transport against the backdrop of developments and influencing factors, to identify key issues, to deduce need for action, to propose strategic thrust and measures as well as to judge them in terms of impact and acceptance.

Analysis of Szczecin Waterways in Terms of their Use to Handle Freight Transport in Urban Areas

This article presents the potential of the port of Szczecin in terms of the possible use of inland waterways to handle and transport goods within the city of Szczecin. It proposes a new form of transport organization based on the original concept of the use of interim container terminals, arranged in a number of key points in the city with an adequate structure of the quays. The term interim container terminals is understood as undeveloped or developed paved yards at the quays with access to road and/or rail transport. These terminals would be supported by mobile equipment such as reachstacker vehicles or fixed cargo handling equipment. The use of this type of solution would enable the reduction or even complete elimination of freight transport handled by large-volume road transport.

Personalization of Itineraries search using Ontology and Rules to Avoid Congestion in Urban Areas

There is a relatively small amount of research covering urban freight movements. Most research dealing with the subject of urban mobility focuses on passenger vehicles, not commercial vehicles hauling freight. However, in many ways, urban freight transport contributes to congestion, air pollution, noise, accident and more fuel consumption which raises logistic costs, and hence the price of products. The main focus of this paper is to propose a new solution for congestion in order to improve the distribution process of goods in urban areas and optimize transportation cost, time of delivery, fuel consumption, and environmental impact, while guaranteeing the safety of goods and passengers. A novel technique for personalization in itinerary search based on city logistics ontology and rules is proposed to overcome this problem. The integration of personalization plays a key role in capturing or inferring the needs of each stakeholder (user), and then satisfying these needs in a given context. The proposed approach is implemented to an itinerary search problem for freight transportation in urban areas to demonstrate its ability in facilitating intelligent decision support by retrieving the best itinerary that satisfies the most users' preferences (stakeholders).

Freight Transport Demand Models for Applications in Urban Areas

Nowadays vehicles committed to the distribution of goods in urban areas are a significant load on transport infrastructure in terms of congestion, accidents, noise and air pollution. We can no longer think about intervening through the construction of infrastructure: sooner or later the new infrastructure will be congested, and externalities will increase with traffic growth. It should, however, point to a careful examination of the structural factors of mobility, ie the understanding and reading of demand, rather than focusing exclusively on the offer. Analysis of mobility demand, and therefore trends and characteristics of the entities that actually move and produce mobility, is essential to deal with the best management of a transport system and, at the same time, of a territory. The paper provides a review of freight transport demand models for applications in urban areas. A methodology for evaluating freight transport in medium-sized cities is proposed in order to enable the determination of the quantity of goods handled, distinguished by type, and the number of vehicles used for this purpose. In this paper the focus is on the fruit and vegetable sector and a survey method for an urban area of medium size is illustrated. The data collected made it possible to calibrate models to estimate the demand for freight transport in urban areas.

The Distance Between Real Time Data and Decision Making in Urban Road Freight Transportation Systems; The Example of the City of Thessaloniki

Abstract Road freight transport in urban areas (city logistics) is under study worldwide, especially during the last years, mainly due to its negative impacts to the environment and to the efficient operation of the road network. The modern approach to deal with this rising issue includes the deployment of strategies and measures that take into consideration the conditions prevailing in each study area. In order the decision makers to adopt the proper measures and define the strategy, it is vital for them to have full knowledge of the way an Urban Road Freight Transportation (URFT) system is organized and functions in the field. For this to happen, the decision makers must have under their disposal reliable real time data. After all URFT systems evolve through time and space and it is s crucial that the necessary data not only will be collected correctly but also they will be accessible anytime and anywhere. In this paper a new approach is proposed in order to achieve real time monitoring for URFT systems in order to provide the decision makers with all the necessary data for the case of Greece.

Challenges in urban freight transport planning – a review in the Baltic Sea Region

Freight transport in urban areas is still not well understood and there is no methodology aimed at the analysis and planning of such areas. To achieve urban sustainability, new models for the management of urban freight movements are needed, in which local authorities play a pro-active role. The aim of this paper is to contribute to lay the groundwork for designing strategies to overcome the challenges involved in sustainable urban freight transport. This paper is based on a multiple-case study analysing the current state of urban freight transport and current planning practices in cities around the Baltic Sea. While the cities differ in size, economy, and political and cultural frameworks, the transport sector plays a strong role in all cities. In-depth freight interviews with public and private stakeholders were conducted and complemented with several holistic interview sessions and document analysis. Potentials and shortcomings in urban freight transport planning are presented and the results show that freight transport is increasingly important for regional competitiveness while freight traffic is a growing threat for urban sustainability. In turn, the urban context is a barrier for efficient freight operations. However, both local authorities and transport operators neglect the problems that arise from freight in urban areas. An overall awareness is needed to understand that a deeper integration of freight transport and urban sustainability strategies can be beneficial for both the efficiency of freight transport networks and for local sustainability. City authorities need more logistics competence to facilitate the required integration between private and public actors.