Urban Freight Transport Systems Research Articles

The evolution of urban freight generation: a study of intra- and inter-city truck trips

The operations and spatial structure of logistics-related facilities has evolved with the growth of the global production network and the advancement of information and communication technology over the past several decades. Such logistics evolutions are thought to have occurred in tandem with changes in urban freight transportation systems. We estimate models for freight trip generation using the data from 2003 and 2013 in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area. The results suggest that the relationship between employment size and freight trip generation weakened during the study period and that the scale of freight generation and the generation of intercity freight trips became less connected.

Towards More Sustainable Cities: Tools and Policies for Urban Goods Movements

Although urban freight transportation is crucial to address societal demands, it also has a major negative impact on the environment, the economy, and society. Then, the growing interest in promoting more sustainable and liveable cities is pushing to point out more in depth the role of urban goods movements within the planning process, as well as city administrators to implement new sustainable city logistics actions/policies/measures. Therefore, after a brief overview, the study presents more advanced techniques (models and methodologies) to help in the assessment of planning scenario. This paper concentrates on the importance of urban freight transport and logistics. Then, technical and logistics actions are outlined, and future last‐mile delivery challenges are discussed. The main objective is to support urban planners, on a strategic and tactical scale, in obtaining an overview of urban freight transport systems that point out the challenges for implementing sustainable city logistics scenarios. It is also of interest to technicians because they can identify the most suitable methodologies, as well as the features that they need for selecting and assessing ex ante the effects of city logistics measures. This work is useful for researchers in various sectors because it allows them to formalise and then to solve the problems for simulating the complex system of urban goods movements where there are different actors with own interests that are conflicting.

The scope for more sustainable urban freight transport through shared resources, An exploratory study

Urban freight transport is vital for cities, yet it presents challenges like air quality, noise, safety, and visual impacts. Public and private entities aim to enhance citizen well-being and economic viability, necessitating a sustainable urban freight transport system. This study explores opportunities and barriers to resource sharing in urban freight through an exploratory investigation. The research included a literature review on sustainable shared freight resources. McKinsey reports were also reviewed for a balanced perspective. Furthermore, five semi-structured interviews were conducted to deepen insights. The results highlight seven distinct shared resources, both tangible and intangible.

Research of the potential opportunities of crowdshipping: The case study of Ukraine and the Czech Republic

Urbanization and the growth of e-commerce are the main factors behind the growth of last-mile delivery volumes. Crowdshipping using the public transport system is one of the relatively new scenarios for the organization of such delivery. This solution has good potential to meet consumer demands for fast delivery while simultaneously minimizing the negative externalities of urban freight transportation, which is the basis of the sustainability of the urban freight transport system. An important condition for understanding the development of crowdshipping using the public transport system and the formation of certain practical recommendations for the effective functioning of such delivery is the study of the opinion of potential users and crowdshippers. Analysis of available literary sources allows us to assert that the potential of crowdshipping delivery depends on specific urban planning conditions and characteristics of the population. Studying the opinions of respondents from Ukraine and the Czech Republic will allow us to gain new knowledge about the attitude of residents of cities that differ in size and characteristics of the public transport system to the possibilities of crowdshipping.

Structure and dynamics of urban freight truck movements: A complex network theory perspective

Knowledge of the core structure and inherent dynamics of urban freight transport systems is important for the development of policies, aimed at improving the livability and sustainability of cities. The past decade has witnessed a great deal of efforts into analyzing the geographic structure of urban freight transport systems. However, in-depth studies on the system core structure and underlying dynamics are still absent. This study contributes to the field by analyzing large scale freight truck trip data from Chinese cities, using complex network analysis. We empirically reconstruct and characterize the urban freight truck mobility networks and reveal the underlying spatial interaction patterns. We develop a spatial network growth model which explains how hub-and-spoke core structure of urban freight transport systems are formed. The developed model captures the essential interaction dynamics of freight locations, and explains the effects of spatial distance, economic size and business pattern replication. Inspired by the model, we provide policy implications for land-use planning, transportation planning and sustainable urban development.

Modeling the Urban Freight-Transportation System Using the System Dynamics Approach

The dynamic and complex interactions between the urban freight-transportation system and population, economy, traffic flow, fuel consumption, and environmental pollution, make policymaking in this system one of the fundamental challenges of urban management. In this regard, a systemic approach in urban freight-transportation system modelling should be considered to solve the problems of the system. One of the main problems of this system is the mismatch between the freight-transportation capacity and the total freight-transportation demand. Considering the lack of sufficient studies in the field of macro and quantitative modeling of this system, the main goal of this article is to model the urban freight-transportation system in order to identify the factors affecting the urban freight-transportation demand and capacity. The main focus of the research is to develop quantitative scenarios which balance the freight-transportation capacity and freight-transportation demand. The urban freight-transportation system is modelled by the System Dynamics (SD) approach and their basic behaviors; as well as this the results of some policy-making scenarios are simulated. The model is validated by the real data of Shiraz. Five quantitative scenarios are designed with two approaches of managing the freight-transportation demand and freight-transportation-capacity sectors. The scenarios are based on four control variables, including the distribution coefficient, trip numbers, vehicle capacity, and vehicle numbers. The simulation results show that the total gap between freight-transportation capacity and freight-transportation demand will decrease by optimizing each of the control variables. However, the combined scenario is the most applicable policy in order to maintain the balance between freight-transportation capacity and demand. Generally, the proposed model can be used to design different quantitative scenarios in order to optimize the freight-transportation system’s performance. This study can also help policymakers to manage the urban freight-transportation system more efficiently.

Modeling freight truck-related traffic crash hazards with uncertainties: A framework of interpretable Bayesian neural network with stochastic variational inference

Due to the increasing demand for goods movement, externalities from freight mobility have attracted much concern among local citizens and policymakers. Freight truck-related crash is one of these externalities and impacts urban freight transportation most drastically. Previous studies have mainly focused on correlation analyses of influencing factors based on crash density/count data, but have paid little attention to the inherent uncertainties of freight truck-related crashes (FTCs) from a spatial perspective. While establishing an interpretable analysis model for freight truck-related accidents that considers uncertainties is of great significance for promoting the robust development of urban freight transportation systems. Hence, this study proposes the concept of FTC hazard (FTCH), and employs the Bayesian neural network (BNN) model based on stochastic variational inference to model uncertainty. Considering the difficulty in interpreting deep learning-based models, this study introduces the local interpretable modelagnostic explanation (LIME) model into the analysis framework to explain the results of the neural network model. This study then verifies the feasibility of the proposed analysis framework using data from California from 2011 to 2020. Results show that FTCHs can be effectively modeled by predicting confidence intervals for effects of built environment factors, in particular demographics, land use, and road network structure. Results based on LIME values indicate the spatial heterogeneity in influence mechanisms on FTCHs between areas within the metropolitan regions and alongside the freeways. These findings may help transport planners and logistic managers develop more effective measures to avoid potential negative effects brought by FTCHs in local communities.

Modular vehicle routing for combined passenger and freight transport

The continuous increase in urban deliveries and the ongoing urbanization of large cities require the development of efficient and sustainable transportation solutions. This study investigates the impact of modular vehicle concepts and the consolidation of different demand types in the route planning on the efficiency of the urban freight and passenger transportation system. Modularity is achieved by connecting multiple vehicles together to form a platoon. The consolidation of different demand types is realized by simultaneously consider passenger and freight demand in the optimization algorithm. The considered vehicles are specific for each demand type by can be connected freely, hence it is possible to transport different demand types in the same platoon. The cost terms in the problem formulation are comprised of travel time costs, travel distance costs, fleet size costs, and cost considering unserved requests. The modular vehicle operations are modeled in a novel pickup and delivery problem which is solved using CPLEX and Adaptive Large Neighborhood Search. In an extensive scenario study and case study in Stockholm, the potentials of the new modular vehicle type are explored for different spatial and temporal demand distributions. A parameter study on vehicle capacity, vehicle range and cost saving assumptions is performed to study their influence on the efficiency. The experiments carried out indicate a general cost savings of 48% due to modularity and an additional 9% due to consolidation. The reduction mainly stems from reduced operating costs and reduced trip duration, while the same number of requests can be served in all cases. Empty vehicle kilometers are reduced by more than 60% by consolidation and modularity. The proposed model and optimization framework can be used by companies and policy makers to identify required fleet sizes, optimal vehicle routes and cost savings.

Application of the Experimental Method in the Assessment of the Electromobility Paradigm for Courier Shipments in an Urban Agglomeration

The main idea of this article is to identify the benefits of the full vehicle substitution process for a fully sustainable Urban Freight Transport (UFT) in economic, social, and environmental terms, based on the application of the experimental method. The scientific assumption was made that Electric Delivery Vehicles (EFV) can be complementary in the first stage, and only in the next stage, substitutable to the traditional diesel-powered fleet servicing transport (courier) tasks within the delivery limits in the Szczecin Agglomeration. To assess the level of substitutability, observational instruments were used, while ensuring an active modification of the studied phenomenon (introduction to the operation of selected routes of electric vehicles). The focus was on three key elements, the environment, rules, and regularities. The article presents the architecture of such experiments regarding 22 selected routes, which allowed for the calculation of selected performance indicators for ex-ante evaluation in planning delivery scenarios. The results were verified using a simulation-based approach in the Szczecin Metropolitan Area. As a result, it made it possible to find answers to the research questions posed, in particular: is it possible to fully replace combustion-engine vans with electric ones, and what integrated benefits can be identified, and their systematics has been illustrated in the proposed proprietary model “Electromobility Octagon Profit”. Future research could extend the theoretical knowledge by further exploring the development processes for the use of electric vehicles in the urban freight transport system and by adding insights from other contexts, stakeholders, and theoretical areas.

Decarbonisation of Urban Freight Transport Systems through Alternative Fuels

Alternative fuels are a highly important resource for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants. This study includes a critical review that examines the currently available alternative fuel options including potential future developments to predict the most likely and effective options for decarbonising urban freight systems. Specifically, the introduction of this study (section 1) explains the importance of decarbonising road freight and reducing our dependence on non-renewable oil-based fuels. Section 2 involves a general review of different alternative fuel options. The production processes of different alternative fuel types are covered, as well as general information including greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and how the fuels are used. Section 3 covers the specific benefits and challenges associated with each alternative fuel type, how they can be of use to urban freight transport systems and the potential issues that could arise when using them. Section 4 summarizes the key information about each alternative fuel type and uses it to make predictions for the possibility of future implementation in the short term, medium term, and long term.

Urban freight characteristics and externalities – A comparative study of Gothenburg (Sweden) and Delhi (India)

Background: The urban freight transportation (UFT) system is an essential facilitator for the smooth functioning of city logistics. It also contributes significantly to transportation-related issues, such as vehicular congestion, pollution, accidents, infrastructure damage and other related problems.Objectives: This study aimed to understand and compare the urban freight traffic characteristics and their impact in two cities: Gothenburg, Sweden and Delhi, India, having high socio-economic differences. The findings of this study will be helpful for practitioners and policymakers in the development and successful implementation of UFT management policies.Method: Using the cordon count (traffic data), retailers’ interviews (receivers’ data) and freight vehicle drivers’ interviews, UFT characteristics such as sector-specific contribution, trip characteristics, vehicular characteristics and negative impacts in terms of external cost to society are evaluated. This study also discusses the prediction of attracted trips in the study zone using freight trip attraction (models.Results: About 75% of the trips in Gothenburg and 92% of the trips in Delhi are made by light commercial and other small-sized vehicles. Gothenburg has formally organised sectors involved in freight vehicle movement; however, Delhi has informally organised sectors.Conclusion: The results revealed substantial differences in characteristics of freight trip operations in both the cities, compared with few similarities. Measures taken considering the specific local attributes of freight traffic and stakeholders’ requirement may lead to a sustainable transportation system in cities.

Evaluation of Urban Mobility Problems and Freight Solutions from Residents’ Perspectives: A Comparison of Belo Horizonte (Brazil) and Szczecin (Poland)

An efficient urban freight transport (UFT) system is crucial for sustainable city development. However, implementing city logistics measures still seems challenging for municipalities and decision-makers. Moreover, city authorities’ decisions depend on politics and social issues, and the city residents’ opinions seem to be very important in this context. Therefore, the primary objective of this paper was to assess the perception of urban mobility problems and freight solutions from the perspective of city users, considering the point of view of Brazilian and Polish city dwellers. The work was based on a survey realised in Belo Horizonte (Brazil) and Szczecin (Poland). The analysis identified the similarities and differences between the perceptions of different resident groups in both cities. The practical advantage of this research is the establishment of a set of recommendations for city decision-makers in the context of residents’ perceptions and their expectations regarding the implementation of urban freight measures.

ПАРАДИГМА ЕФЕКТИВНОГО УПРАВЛІННЯ МІСЬКИМИ ТРАНСПОРТНО-ЛОГІСТИЧНИМИ СИСТЕМАМИ

The article is devoted to the problems of effective management of urban transport and logistics systems. The aim of the article is to highlight the paradigm of effective management of urban transport and logistics systems. To achieve this goal, the following tasks were solved: to form the structure of the concept of transport and logistics system; to find out the essence of the city transport and logistics system; to systematize the risks that affect the efficiency of urban transport and logistics systems, and to explore the concept of managing these risks; provide modeling as a useful tool for designing and evaluating urban transport and logistics systems. The set goal has been achieved, and the tasks to achieve it have been completed. The goals of activities that can be achieved with the use of the city transport and logistics system were identified, in the context of which the factors influencing the city transport and logistics system are listed: mobility; environmental friendliness; viability; stability. The links between human security and the city's transport and logistics system have been identified. It was found that ICT and ITS allow to develop efficient and environmentally friendly urban delivery systems. An example of this is probabilistic or dynamic vehicle routing and scheduling with ITS-based time windows. The need for modeling for the public and private sectors is proved. It is shown that in the public sector, the risks associated with natural and man-made hazards in urban freight transport systems directly affect the public well-being and health of the population in emergencies. It has been proven that the public sector is interested in finding a reduction in damage to urban logistics facilities and rapid recovery from natural disasters in terms of delivery of goods needed to maintain a high quality of life in urban areas. The need to include uncertainty in the urban logistics model is described to ensure their good performance in the future. Various methods have been shown to account for uncertainties in supply chain modeling, such as scenario and contingency planning, decision trees, and stochastic programming. Simulation has been shown to be a useful tool for the design and evaluation of urban freight and logistics systems. It has been confirmed that urban transport systems need to be more resilient to limit the effects of natural disasters.

Study on the Impact of Urban Consolidation Center (UCC) Usage in Yogyakarta City's Main Grocery Retailers in Terms of Transportation Cost

Abstract. The increase in urbanization has led to a rise in of the number of vehicles in the city and the frequency of goods delivery in urban environments. The concepts of city logistics have been developed and implemented to cope with those problems in the urban freight transport system. One cooperative freight transport scheme is the urban consolidation scheme. Urban consolidation centers (UCC) have been used by some cities over the last two decades to minimize unnecessary vehicle movement, congestion, and pollution. For a company that sells fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), business prospects in supermarkets or groceries are currently still quite promising. Yogyakarta City ranks as the 6th most populous city in Indonesia, making it one of the largest cities in the country. Since there are many citizens and students from other towns across Indonesia, many modern retail businesses operate in Yogyakarta. If each of these businesses distribute their goods from their distribution centers (DCs) to their respective retailers, the number of freight transports will be substantial, and the congestion level will increase. This study examines the benefit of a collaboration strategy in which the top four retailers in Yogyakarta use a UCC. The advantage is expressed in total transportation cost. We developed three different scenarios that will be compared. In this research, the gravity location model is used to determine the location of the UCC, and the demand allocation model is used to determine the optimum of demand allocation from the UCC. This study reveals that using a collaborative strategy using a UCC can decrease the total transportation cost of the retailers. Keywords: City logistics, urban consolidation center, location problem, gravity location model, demand allocation model

ASSESSING THE IMPACTS OF CITY SPRAWL ON URBAN FREIGHT TRANSPORT IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Introduction: In the 21st century, cities in developing countries have witnessed faster growth as compared with cities in developed countries. Countries like India, China and Brazil have one of the most densely populated cities in the world. The transport infrastructure in these cities struggles to deal with the increasing population and geographic sprawl. Though some efforts are made to improve the transportation systems in these cities, urban freight transport is largely overlooked as the focus remains on passenger transport. Methods: This study aims to assess the impacts of the city’s geographic sprawl on urban freight transport using the example of the textile industry in Surat, India. The sprawl of the city and its textile industry is measured based on historical maps, Google imagery, and establishment surveys. Changes in urban freight trip lengths are determined using the data of a commercial vehicle drivers’ survey. Results: In the last two decades, the city expanded geographically by almost three times. The relocation of textile manufacturing units led to a 40% increase in trip lengths and additional 56 tons of carbon dioxide generation per year. Due to the city sprawl, the overall efficiency of the urban freight transport system reduced. There is a need for a holistic planning approach towards urban freight movement and related urban infrastructure for sustainable freight flows. This can serve as a policy framework to decide on the location of a logistics hub or as guidelines to allocate manufacturing enterprises in the proximity of the urban area, thus enabling sustainable development of the city.

Using the Delphi Method to Evaluate the Appropriateness of Urban Freight Transport Solutions

Before implementing an Urban Freight Transport (UFT) solution, certainty is required about the effectiveness of the considered alternatives. Selecting an effective solution necessitates the engagement of all stakeholders involved in the management of the UFT system. The aim of the study is the formulation of a common assessment platform for facilitating the selection of the most appropriate UFT solution, taking into account the solutions’ effectiveness and the stakeholder perceptions and consensus. Solution maturity, social acceptance, and user uptake, which are considered as the main drivers of stakeholders’ engagement, are evaluated based on a real time Delphi survey, in parallel with solutions’ sustainability dimensions (economy and energy, environment, society, transport, and mobility). The Delphi method emerges as a suitable tool in this direction as stakeholders’ subjective judgments, and not analytical techniques, are required. The platform is demonstrated through the assessment of ten UFT solutions by 184 stakeholders (public authorities, supply chain operators, and other interested groups) who reside in cities across the world. The results of the demonstration showed that Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) for freight monitoring and electric vehicles are the highest rated solutions, while drone deliveries are the lowest, reaching respectively the highest and lowest consensus levels.

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.

Using system dynamics to analyze the development of urban freight transportation system based on rail transit: A case study of Beijing

Integrating logistics activities into urban passenger rail transit network (URFT) is regarded as an effective approach to promote urban sustainability and reduce the negative externalities of road-based transportation. This study applied a system dynamics method to simulate URFT system development by focusing on internal operations and external impacts. The characteristics of four major stakeholders (i.e., the government, URFT operator, market, and road freight sector) as well as a series of variables affecting system operations, such as metrics of social and environmental externalities, pricing, investment, and subsidies, were incorporated into two submodels. A case study of Beijing, China was provided to demonstrate the historical validity and rationality of simulation results from 2007 to 2035. Three decision variables (i.e., investment policy, network scale and market competitiveness) were combined into eight distinct scenarios to examine the external benefits, pricing strategies, capital funding structure and business volume of URFT. The findings show that URFT schemes with higher funding and capacity lead to greater reductions in the losses of traffic congestion, air pollution, and accidents. Furthermore, both government support in the early stage and regulation mechanisms among price, supply–demand level, and investment play significant roles in improving the system performance.

Measuring environmental performance of urban freight transport systems: A case study

Environmental sustainability is a requirement for modern urban freight transport systems. On a global scale, most resources are currently consumed in cities, contributing to the economic importance of urban freight transport as well as its poor environmental performance. However, there is a lack of knowledge about how to correctly quantify the environmental efficiency of urban freight systems. In this context, this paper proposes a new methodology for evaluating the environmental performance of urban freight transport systems by applying the Overall Greenness Performance (OGP) tool. OGP is a lean-based hierarchy of metrics that uses the value-added concept to relate a company’s productivity with its environmental performance. The proposed methodology uses a mixed-integer linear programming model to assess the environmental impact of the activities and/or requirements in an urban freight transportation system. This paper examines how company context, the supply chain and value stream activity types, namely value adding, necessary but non-value adding and non-value adding, affect a system’s performance, operational costs and environmental impact. Real data from the city of Bogotá, Colombia, were used to validate this approach. A sensitivity analysis was performed with different companies, demands and costs in order to evaluate the trade-offs between economic performance and environmental impact.

A study framework for assessing the performance of the urban freight transport based on PLS approach

The urban freight transport (UFT) is an important component of the urban logistics. It represents a driving force for the economic dynamics and attractiveness of a city. It can be treated as all movements of goods necessary for the economic activities, the institutions and the residents of urban life. Through, it faces with problems relating to the congestion, unsafety, atmospheric and noise pollution that constrain its performance and hinder its development. This performance is a complex subject on which a great deal of research has emerged in the last decade. Accordingly, this paper aims to develop a model for assessing the performance of the UFT. The objective is to identify the determinants of the performance of the urban freight transport and measure the impact of each factor. Therefore the first part of this article concerns the elaboration of the model and the formulation of the hypotheses. First, an overview of the factors that could influence the performance of the UFT was identified based on a literature review. The result of this step allowed to model, by mobilizing the GRAI grid (Graph of results and interrelated activities), the UFT system in order to release the decisional links between these factors. Then, the grid will be decomposed into hypotheses explaining the relations between the factors and the performance of the UFT. The formulation of each hypothesis will be based on all the theoretical works that have treated it. The second part includes the empirical study to test the model using the partial least squares (PLS) analysis. Therefore, we conducted a survey among managers and users of the UFT in the city of Fez. A hypothetico-deductive approach has been used with a sequential methodological complementarity between qualitative analysis for exploratory purposes and the support of quantitative analysis for confirmation. The results of the test, confirm a significant influence of the identified factors on the UFT performance. The practical scope of this paper is to provide a decision-making framework for urban management department explaining the impact of these factors on the UFT performance.