Cities regulate urban freight as if every street and every delivery were the same. New research from the University of Seville, published in the European Transport Research Review (Muñuzuri et al., 2026), shows why that approach fails — and what micro-regulation could look like instead.
The researchers studied 104 delivery operations across 22 streets in Seville, combining direct observation with interviews of drivers and receivers. They distinguished three street types: multi-lane thoroughfares (type 1), two-lane local arteries (type 2), and single-lane streets typical of historical centers (type 3). Eight supply chains were covered, from home deliveries and pharmacies to drinks, fresh food, and furniture.
The parking patterns differ dramatically by street type. On single-lane streets, half of all deliveries use loading zones, and almost nobody double-parks — blocking the street entirely is a last resort. On two-lane streets, the picture reverses: three out of four deliveries happen outside designated areas, with double parking as the preferred option because oncoming traffic can easily pass. On wider streets, higher traffic volumes, enforcement, and the risk of sanctions push drivers back toward loading zones.
The most striking finding concerns delivery duration, not vehicle type or delivery agent. Only 15% of deliveries under five minutes use a loading zone; for deliveries over twenty minutes, that figure jumps to 82%. Couriers making quick drops simply want to stop as close to the door as possible. A loading zone 100 meters away is useless to them. Slow, heavy deliveries need a safe, legal place to work.
This leads to a sharp policy conclusion: adding more loading zones is not a universal fix. They are essential on narrow streets, where they eliminate double parking entirely, but on two-lane streets they barely change behavior. The authors instead propose differentiated regulation: tolerate brief street-blocking on quiet single-lane streets for very short deliveries; allow longer double-parking windows on low-traffic two-lane streets; and combine loading zone provision with strict anti-double-parking enforcement only on busy arteries.
Equally interesting is the proposal to differentiate loading zone durations, borrowing from warehouse management logic: short-rotation zones (5–10 minutes) for parcels, pharmacies, and tobacco, and longer-duration zones (20–30 minutes) for drinks, supermarkets, and furniture. Dynamic, camera-based management could take this further, reducing the need for enforcement altogether.
The broader lesson for cities is familiar but worth repeating: freight policy built on generic, area-wide rules ignores the underlying logistics processes. Regulated hours often don’t match business schedules. Seville’s load zones close at 11:00, right when delivery activity peaks. Effective curbside policy starts with understanding who delivers what, where, how long it takes, and what the street itself allows. Regulate the process, not just the vehicle.