Goods In Urban Areas Research Articles

50th Anniversary Invited Article—City Logistics: Challenges and Opportunities

Today, around 54% of the world’s population lives in urban areas. By 2050, this share is expected to go up significantly. As a result, city logistics, which focuses on the efficient and effective transportation of goods in urban areas while taking into account the negative effects on congestion, safety, and environment, is critical to ensuring continued quality of life in cities. We review and discuss a variety of current and anticipated challenges and opportunities of city logistics. We hope this helps shaping an appropriate research agenda and stimulates more researchers to enter this exciting field.

Analysis of the Christmas Period Impact on the Freight Transport Demand in Szczecin

The main problem arising in the process of management of the transport and distribution of goods in urban areas is the lack of data regarding deliveries, in particular with regard to the structure of demand as well as the classification of vehicles, their routes, changes in demand for transport, etc. The aim of the research presented in the paper is to fill this gap in Szczecin (Poland). The studies are part of research carried out under the project GRASS (GReen And Sustainable freight transport Systems in cities). The paper introduces the results of second stage analysis of the goods distribution within the city centre of Szczecin, covering a significant number of companies, retail and service entities, entities of the HoReCa sector, schools, universities, and public administration. The studies presented in this paper of the survey results illustrate the impact of Christmas period on the increasing demand for delivery in Szczecin example. Moreover, the survey was conducted in the shopping centres located in the designated area of the city. This enabled to determine the seasonal increase in demand for freight deliveries.

E-bikes and E-scooters for Smart Logistics: Environmental and Economic Sustainability in Pro-E-bike Italian Pilots

The paper presents the final results of the Italian pilots of Pro-E-Bike, a project funded under the Intelligent Energy Europe programme, started on April 2013 and ending on March 2016 (www.pro-e-bike.org). The project promotes clean and energy efficient vehicles, analyses the performance of electric bicycles and electric scooters for the delivering of goods in urban areas and tests the use of these vehicles in seven European countries with thirty-nine companies, both freight transport operators, companies that deliver their own products and services providers, in order to demonstrate that light electric vehicles can replace traditional combustion engine ones contributing on mitigating logistic impacts in urban areas. Pilots enabled the demonstration of measurable effects in terms of reduction of CO2 emissions and energy savings in urban transport: related data about environmental and social effects resulted by the introduction of e-bikes and e-scooters are shown, with a particular focus on the economic sustainability of these replacements.

Analysis of Freight Transport Demand at Szczecin and Oslo Area

The main problem arising in the process of management of the transport and distribution of goods in urban areas is the lack of data regarding deliveries, in particular with regard to the structure of demand as well as the classification of vehicles, their routes, changes in demand for transport, etc. The paper introduces the results of analysis of the goods distribution within the city centre of Szczecin and Oslo, covering a significant number of companies, retail and service entities, entities of the HoReCa sector, schools, universities, and public administration. The studies are part of research carried out under the project GRASS (GReen And Sustainable freight transport Systems in cities). The studies presented in this paper were carried out in two stages. The first stage of work included carrying out initial research allowing for an assessment of the current status in the analysed areas of Szczecin and Oslo. In the second stage of the survey results were updated with data on the increase in demand for delivery in the Christmas period. Moreover, the survey was conducted in the shopping centres located in the designated area of the city. This enabled to determine the seasonal increase in demand for freight deliveries.

Analysis of the Functioning of Urban Deliveries in the City Centre and its Environmental Impact Based on Szczecin Example

The main problem arising in the process of analysing the functioning of the transport and distribution of goods in urban areas is the lack of data on their implementation, in particular with regard to the classification of vehicles, their routes, changes in demand for transport, etc. The paper introduces the methodology and results of analysis of the goods distribution within the city centre of Szczecin in the area covering the significant number of companies, retail and service entities, entities of the HoReCa sector, schools, universities, and public administration. Major objective of the study was to analyse the influence of deliveries on city environment. It should be emphasized that due to the polycentric structure of Szczecin it was difficult to identify its city centre. This example could be good reference for the analysis realized in other cities, especially taking to the account their similarity to Szczecin.

New City Logistics Paradigm: From the “Last Mile” to the “Last 50 Miles” Sustainable Distribution

The distribution of goods in urban areas, together with private traffic flows, are among the main sources of energy consumption, air pollution and noise. As a consequence, in the 2000s, several EU cities started to implement logistical solutions for the sustainable city. In this context, this study addresses the implementation of a new eco-logistic system, which serves multiple adjacent cities by using electric vehicles to deliver goods of any type within their urban areas. This paper describes the results of a project developed in the province of Vicenza (northern Italy) and covering the main cities (Bassano del Grappa, Thiene, Schio and Valdagno) in the foothills (the so-called Pedemontana Veneta zone). The eco-logistic system aims to cover the last 50 miles of distribution (typical area of an Italian province) with a centralised platform that performs green deliveries with electric vehicles from/to the downtown areas. A preliminary and extensive “on field” analysis by means of door-to-door questionnaires was conducted to identify the performance required by the eco-logistic system. Therefore, the design of such a distribution system is performed to assess and define the conditions that make this solution profitable from both the economic and the environmental perspective.

A Macro and Micro-Level Evaluation of Stakeholders’ Collaboration for Sustainable City Logistics Operations

City logistics involves movement of city goods in urban areas respecting the municipal and administrative guidelines. The key goals of city logistics planning are maximizing vehicle movement and utilization, while minimising vehicle emissions and traffic congestion. Collaboration is vital to managing city logistics operations efficiently. Collaboration can take place in the form of goods consolidation, sharing of resources, information sharing, and so on. Two categories of models are proposed to evaluate these collaboration strategies. At the macro level, we present the collaboration matrix model; and at the micro level, we present the operational level model. The macro-level model focuses on the strategic decision making process necessary for stakeholders’ collaboration given the socio-cultural characteristics, economic, and environmental constraint factors, while the micro-level model applies the collaboration decision-making criteria derived from the macro-level analytic result to improve the activities of the city logistics operators. Results of the computational testing of our methodology on vehicle selection, goods to vehicle assignment, goods distribution and environmental impact assessment are discussed, showing that the collaboration strategies of stakeholders, if optimized, can improve city logistics operations. The proposed work is novel and has strong practical applicability for logistics planners and decision makers in planning right collaboration strategies for sustainable city logistics operations.

The Role of Seaports as Logistics Centers in the Modelling of the Sustainable System for Distribution of Goods in Urban Areas

This publication presents subject matter connected with the role of seaports as integrated logistics centers in the development of sustainable distribution of goods in urban areas.Seaports as integrated logistics centers and multifunctional socio-economic spaces are the key components of the European and global transport system. They carry out the functions and services necessary for the efficiency of supply chains, and their final elements include the distribution of goods from the places of production to places of consumption. Seaports cover the transport, logistic, distribution and spatial functions, which influence city development, while logistics centers cover the distribution function.The development of seaports is a result of their multifunctionality and multimodality focused on the widening of the range of services, which allows them to meet different demands of the environment. Thus, seaports and logistics centers have become elements of urban transport systems included in the EU policy of sustainable development of transport. Particularly important here is the latest implementation of the objectives of the EU White Paper on the development of resource-efficient and low-carbon transport in ecological urban transport.The publication presents existing solutions and possible directions concerning the activity of seaports as logistics centers in the area of urban logistics.

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.

Assessment of the use value of public spaces in urban areas

The construction of hedonimetric curves is proposed as an approach to assess public or semi-public goods in urban areas. These resources are not considered in the appraisal theory based on “Serpieri paradigm” and addressed to value private properties. Using a plurality of hedonic prices it is possible to attribute a use value to piazza Mercato in Naples derived from its attractiveness. The value judgment employs a monetary component and other components generally expressed in non-monetary units. The first one is taken from prices and characteristics of habitations around this historical space solving linear multiple regression models. The other ones depend on environmental, social and economic qualities of its surrounding area in rela- tion to the city and to the port.

Data collection strategies for benchmarking urban goods movement across Canada

<p>Despite increasing recognition of the importance of goods movement in urban areas, and a growing number of related data collection efforts, Canada's systems for moving goods in urban areas are still poorly understood. The purpose of this study is to identify and evaluate options for a benchmarking system for urban goods movement.</p><p>This paper characterizes the dimensions of goods movement that occur in urban areas, identifies performance indicators that reflect policy goals and objectives, summarizes the data requirements of state of practice urban goods movement modeling approaches, and assesses available data collection methods in Canada. The paper then outlines five alternative frameworks, each of which identifies a suite of data collection methods that, in combination, has potential to fulfill data needs for measuring performance indicators and supporting modeling for predicting those indicators. The paper concludes that a national shipper-based survey and periodic purchase of vehicle tracking data from 3rd party providers provides, on balance, a preferable combination of complementary strengths for nation-wide performance benchmarking of urban goods movement.</p>

What should be the balance between free markets and a not so ‘Invisible Hand’ in urban freight regulation and land use: Dutch and Australian experiences

The delivery of goods in urban areas is the responsibility of private companies who order, and others who deliver the goods in the interest of the consumer. Traditionally, local governments are responsible for providing space and the right infrastructure. They are also responsible for minimizing the social costs that go with the use of this infrastructure.City Logistics, defined as “the process for totally optimizing the logistics and transport activities by private companies in urban areas while considering the traffic environment, the traffic congestion and energy consumption within the framework of a market economy”, focuses on the mutual responsibility of the public sector and private sector. How this mutual responsibility between the public sector and the private sector works cannot be subscribed beforehand. In the literature there are many different examples of government intervention in the area of urban delivery, from a strong directive approach, to leaving it all up to the free market. This paper discusses the power, reasoning and approaches to interventions in the urban freight network from the perspective of two countries, the Netherlands and Australia.

Assessing model for adoption of new logistical services: An application for small orders of goods distribution in Brazil

The distribution of goods in urban areas is characterized by a concentration of residences and commercial activities. However, the impacts of distribution reduce the welfare and related attractiveness of urban areas. To face such as impacts, the development of the concept of city logistics may produce a reduction of diseconomies in the urban context, in order to provide an efficient good distribution system. Thus, this work aims to present a methodology to evaluate the viability of implementing intelligent delivery points in Brazil, analyzing the economic and ambient adhesion to the service and their impacts. For the development of this methodology two theories have been applied: the diffusion of the innovation and system dynamics, which were validated throughout an application for the Metropolitan Region of Florianopolis (Santa Catarina State). The results suggest that the adoption of the service, as well as the use of alternatives logistics may be well applied into the concept of city logistics.

Delivering Goods in Urban Areas: How to Deal with Urban Policy Restrictions and the Environment

Time-access regulations and vehicle restrictions are increasingly used, especially in western Europe, to improve social sustainability in urban areas. These regulations considerably affect the distribution process of retail chain organizations as well as the environmental burden. This paper studies the impact of governmental time windows, vehicle restrictions, and different retailers' logistical concepts on the financial and environmental performance of retailers. We use a case study with two cases that differ in their drop sizes as input for an experiment. The retailers provided all organizational, flow, and cost data of the distribution process between their distribution centers and their stores. We use these data to calculate the impacts of different scenarios on the retailers' financial and environmental performances based on a fractional factorial design in which urban policies and the retailers' logistical concepts are varied, using vehicle routing software. We test the propositions with a third case. We show that the cost impact of time windows is the largest for retailers who combine many deliveries in one vehicle round-trip. The cost increase due to vehicle restrictions is the largest for retailers whose round-trip lengths are restricted by vehicle capacity. Vehicle restrictions and time windows together do not increase a retailer's cost more than individually. Variations in delivery volume and store dispersion hardly influence the impact of urban policy and the retailer's logistical concept decisions.

Low noise truck study for distribution in urban areas

Today, vehicle noise is identified in opinion pools as one of the main annoyance source in urban areas. To face this issue, truck manufacturers are today developing low noise vehicles in order to allow their customer to deliver goods in urban areas during night. An acoustic research program has been launched by Volvo 3P (Volvo Trucks, Renault Trucks and Mack Trucks): the LUT project as Low Noise Urban Truck. The partners of the project are Michelin, the Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Lyon (INSA) - a French university - and Marmonier - a noise shield manufacturer. This project has been founded by ADEME The target in terms of noise reduction is ambitious because the low noise truck will emit an acoustic power four times lower than today's vehicles in specific rolling conditions! Methods and tools have been developed to analyze the vehicle noise sources in urban conditions and define acoustic solutions to reduce the main vehicle noise sources.

An Investigation on the Effectiveness of Joint Receiver–Carrier Policies to Increase Truck Traffic in the Off-peak Hours

This paper analyzes the effectiveness of comprehensive policies—aimed at fostering a switch of truck traffic from the peak to the off-peak hours—targeting receivers and carriers of goods in urban areas. This paper is also based on the fundamental premise that truck traffic in congested urban areas could move to the off-peak hours, if and only if, the receivers of the cargoes are willing to accept off-peak deliveries. The paper provides a conceptual description, based on game theory, of the fundamental interactions between receivers and carriers and discusses empirical data that confirms the basic findings from the game theoretical analyses. The policy analyses are based on stated preference data that was analyzed using discrete choice models. The data considers different policy scenarios targeting both receivers and carriers. The receiver centered policies considered include tax deductions and shipping cost discounts to companies willing to accept off-peak deliveries; while the carrier centered policies include: a request from receivers to do off-peak deliveries; a request from receivers to do off-peak deliveries combined with toll savings for trucks traveling during the off-peak hours; and a request from receivers to do off-peak deliveries combined with financial rewards for trucks traveling during the off-peak hours. This is the first paper in a series providing insight into possible public policies aimed at encouraging receivers to accept off-peak deliveries. This paper focuses on providing the overall description of the research process, and on describing the results corresponding to receiver centered scenarios that encourage off-peak deliveries. In addition to analyzing the overall effectiveness of comprehensive receiver-carrier policies, the paper discusses the special cases of large traffic generators and neighborhoods with high truck traffic as potential targets of specific off-peak delivery initiatives.

Underground Freight Transport in The Netherlands in the Next Century

Underground freight transport is investigated in the Netherlands as a systems innovation for freight transport. The objective is to achieve a sustainable and efficient transport system for the next century. Two types of underground freight transport are under investigation.First is an expansion of the traditional pipeline transport for gases and liquids, with more substances and new organisational concepts: common carrier and multi‐core. Pilot‐projects have started: a multi‐core pipeline project in the Rijnmond and feasibility studies to the extension of the ethylene‐ and propylene‐pipeline systems.Second are underground logistic systems (ULSs) for industrial goods and goods in urban areas (pallets and rolling stock). A ULS is planned between the flower auction in Aalsmeer, Schiphol airport, and a rail terminal for high‐speed trains. In 1999 the investment decision has to be taken. In Utrecht, Leiden, Arnhem/Nijmegen, Zuid‐limburg and Tilburg feasibility studies are in operation.At the end of the year a decision must be made on whether underground freight transport will become a new transport modality with general application in the Netherlands and perhaps beyond.

Discussion of “ Issues and Problems of Moving Goods in Urban Areas ”

Discussion of “ <i>Issues and Problems of Moving Goods in Urban Areas</i> ”

Closure to “ Issues and Problems of Moving Goods in Urban Areas ”

Closure to “ <i>Issues and Problems of Moving Goods in Urban Areas</i> ”