by Walther Ploos van Amstel
Municipal co-distribution of goods in Sweden has evolved from an isolated innovation developed in 1999 to an approach implemented in 39 municipalities by 2016, through which the business model has been refined with digital tools, first through e- commerce and then route optimization.
Construction works have environmental, safety and congestion impacts on the road network. It will also have impacts on the surrounding community. The impacts can vary depending on the size, timescale and location of the development and, for larger developments that may take many years to construct, the construction phase can have a greater impact than the …
Logistics are vital to ensuring that a city is both dynamic and pleasant to live. Organizing city logistics operations more efficiently and more sustainably can significantly reduce the negative aspects of vibrant cities, such as pollution and noise.
The impact of urban mobility, and urban freight transport in particular, on the liveability of an urban area is elevated. Growing urban road congestion in most European cities, to which urban freight transport is an active contributor, vehicle emissions and road safety are big challenges for society.
The further development of local policies to stimulate more CO2-productivity in city logistics and a shift to zero-emission city logistics is inevitable: growing political and societal pressure demands it. This push can already be recognized in the existing variety of local regulations, customized to different local circumstances in different cities or parts of cities.
Regulatory policies aim at reducing the negative effects of urban freight transportation, especially those related to traffic, emissions and noise. Nonetheless, stakeholders in city logistics often have divergent objectives, which lead to difficulties upon defining the best possible choices regarding regulation. A new paper on HoReCa deliveries in Paris by MINES ParisTech presents a multi-agent …
Across Europe there are examples of existing tram networks being used to attract businesses to use the network for urban freight transport. Could this extension help make a success of trams in other cities in the years ahead? The Guardian reports about a number of European initiatives in Dresden (D) and Saint-Étienne (F). These cities using …
Passenger car occupancy has been falling for years. Partly empty vehicles on our road networks decrease passenger transport sustainability but also contain an opportunity for freight transport. Within crowd logistics, delivery operations are carried out by using passengers’ excess capacity on journeys that are already taking place, resulting in economic, social and environmental benefits.
The field of city logistics can be characterised by its many local demonstrations and trials, that are quite often not lasting longer than the trial period. The number of demonstrations that continued and were implemented in daily practice is limited. Freight partnerships proved to be a good first step to engage stakeholders.
The issue of urban freight transport in city strategic planning is discussed in a new research paper by Maja Kiba-Janiak from Wroclaw University of Economics. There are two main purposes of this paper: a theoretical one and empirical one.