CIVITAS Thematic Leadership on Freight Logistics (CIVITAS SUCCESS and CIVITAS SMILE)
Freight logistics has an urban dimension. In view of stakeholders, any urban mobility policy must cover both passenger and freight transport. Distribution in urban areas requires efficient interfaces between long-haul transport and short distance distribution to the final destination. Smaller, efficient and clean vehicles could be used for local distribution. Negative impacts of long distance freight transport passing through urban areas should be reduced through planning and technical measures.(GREEN PAPER, “Towards a new culture for urban mobility”, Commission of the European Communities 25/09/2007)
Several definitions have been proposed to describe the extent of activities which can be qualified as part of Urban freight system. In “An overview of the European research and policy”, European commission proposes this definition “Urban freight transport and logistics operations are concerned with the activities of delivering and collecting goods in town and city centres. These activities are often referred to as ‘city logistics’ as they entail the processes of transportation, handling and storage of goods, the management of inventory, waste and returns as well as home delivery services.”Then it its larger meaning, transport of goods in cities refers of three types of movements:The flows relative to commercial and industrial establishments, or tertiary of private sector ;The moves done by the individuals for shopping,Other flows designed as supplementary flows generated by other activities such as transport of waste, the internal needs of public service, the relocations or shifting, home delivery, postal services and the hospitals. Please help us to share knowledge concerning urban freight transport in answering one of the following online-questionnaires in PDF:For cities without urban freight transport measures please proceed to questionnaire 1For cities with urban freight transport measures please proceed to questionnaire 2Please proceed to the dedicated CIVITAS webpage dealing with the CIVITAS Thematic Leadership to learn more about this Programme!
Author: Dominique BREUIL
