Urban Freight Logistics

Freight distribution is an increasingly important part of modern city-life.

In fact most of the goods consumed in our cities frequently originate from outside locations. In this way ‘urban’ goods transport is generally referred to the “last mile“ of the supply chain. Unfortunately trucks remain the dominant transport mode as they are perceived to be the most suitable to cover specific origins and destinations within the complex urban grid of streets. But they cause negative consequences in term of congestion and pollution, so a shift to different distribution strategies more suitable to an urban context is needed.

Within the paradigm of sustainable urban mobility, the logistic freight sector is to some extent in a paradoxical position. If, on one side, the increasing (negative) impacts that freight traffic has in our cities and, on the other side, the economic advantages (in terms of wealth and competitiveness) an urban area can benefit by an efficient freight delivery system are equally evident, planning and management aspects related to the logistics freight system are nowadays either neglected or treated occasionally or marginally.

CIVITAS WIKI and the CIVITAS Thematic Group on “Urban Freight Logistics” is drafting a Policy Note on this topic, in order to provide a support to decision/policy makers and urban mobility professionals.

A number of resources have been already made available on the Group webpage.

Scope of this collaborative interaction is to collect further resources, links to other projects, practical city experiences and obviously opinions and comments on the topic.

Join the Urban Freight Logistics Group and meet your peers @ http://www.civitas.eu/TG/urban-freight-logistics  to discuss on Urban Freight Logistics.

Access restriction and control

cities involved: Aalborg, Bath, Brescia, Brighton & Hove, Craiova, Gent, Zagreb

Results and success factors

Access restrictions need to be regulated in order to maximise their impact and enforced to ensure that freight operators and drivers modify their behaviour. Regulating freight access in restricted areas based on vehicle emission standards or weight can, in fact, encourage freight operators to reconfigure their fleets in order to optimise access and meet customer demands. Vehicles can be granted different access rights into a pedestrian zone, and permits can be issued based on determined usage categories. The actual and predicted impacts on transport were well documented, and it is evident that the restrictive measures reviewed contributed to localised reductions in traffic flow. Only three of the measures reported environmental impacts, with slight improvements in local air quality and CO2 reduction. Surveys of local businesses indicated that there was a slight jump in acceptance levels following changes to the traffic network. On the other hand, commercial operators in many cities complained that perceived negative impacts associated with the measures would reduce their overall effectiveness. Lack of acceptance and concern associated with vehicle access restrictions impacted the development of two schemes.

Some of the most common solutions in order to change the patterns of freight activity while reducing levels of through-traffic into city centres are:

• To alter the road network by reconfiguring streets and access;
• To create pedestrian zones;
• To block access permanently (if the access points are not shared by PT);
• To regulate a zone through the installation of bollards;
• To design delivery corridors or loading bays that could be placed at the rim of pedestrian zones and accessed through secondary streets with lower traffic loads;
• To introduce speed limits in order to calm traffic flow.

Drivers and barriers

Stakeholder involvement during the implementation phase was mentioned as the main barrier, leading us to conclude that a high instance of cited involvement barriers will often coincide with a relatively high score in terms of problem related barriers. As the implementation of measures involving access restrictions is funded on the basis of political decisions taken by the local administration, it is obvious that political support is absolutely necessary. Political context is the most frequently mentioned driver at the preparation stage, together with organisational aspects, e.g. frequent and well-organised meetings.

Up-scaling and transferability

Access restrictions of freight vehicles have no significant up-scaling potential, as restrictions are usually applied to entire LTZs. Any further future up-scaling might focus on extending the area of managed deliveries beyond city boundaries; this might also entail the promotion and image improvement of clean vehicles in urban freight fleets through more restrictive environmental regulations. With regard to transferability, political support is vital for the implementation of this type of measure. In addition, time window restrictions and zoning often play a role, as do access charges and vehicle standards.

Link to the specific CIVITAS Plus measures

Aalborg: Environmental zone

Bath: Demand Management for Goods Vehicles

Brescia: Access restrictions for freight vehicles

Brighton & Hove: Clear zone

Craiova: Access restriction policies

Gent: Institutional platform for city freight management

Zagreb: Freight delivery restrictions

Transport  has become one of the major issues affecting sustainability in European cities: more than 72% of Europe’s population lives in urban areas and urban road traffic is responsible for 40% of total CO2 emissions and 70% of other pollutants.

The CIVITAS Initiative (“City-Vitality-Sustainability”, or “Cleaner and Better Transport in Cities”) was launched in 2002 with the aim to support cities to introduce ambitious transport measures and policies towards sustainable urban mobility. The goal of CIVITAS is to achieve a significant shift in the modal split towards sustainable transport, an objective that might be reached through encouraging both innovative technology and policy-based strategies. What makes CIVITAS unique is its flexibility and its cooperative approach, which facilitates knowledge acquisition and transferability.

Recently released on civitas.eu, CIVITAS Interactive now represents a powerful tool for sharing CIVITAS experiences enhancing Thematic Cooperation between city professionals.

In the next-coming Interactions I would like to present some of the main findings of the evaluation process concerning Urban Freight Measures that have been implemented by the CIVITAS Plus cities. The main purpose of these activities is to identify key requirements and opportunities for further local exploitation and cross-site dissemination.

More than twenty measures have been introduced in CIVITAS Plus cities in order to improve sustainable freight delivery: they can be grouped under three main topics:

1. New distribution schemes
2. Access restrictions and control
3. Freight partnership schemes and driver support

In the following next three interactions (one per topic) I will report the following considerations:

1. The evaluation of results and success factors.
2. The identification of major drivers and barriers.
3. Potential for further up-scaling and transferability.

Stay tuned on CIVITAS Interactive, follow and read what are the results of measures implemented by cities in CIVITAS Plus Collaborative Projects.

Contribute and comment the outcomes, imagine if these measure were applied to your city.

By reading the ‘Policy Recommendations’ published by the  CIVITAS POINTER project you can learn more on how to implement these measures in  your city. (for more details have a look at the publication ‘Policy Recommendations’).