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The different stakeholders involved in urban freight transport, their behaviours, and interactions are attracting the attention of researchers and practitioners in logistics and freight transport, pushed by the need to develop methods and models for assessing ex ante actions/measures to improve the logistics process performance. Besides, the large amounts of data currently available open up new opportunities, as well as the possibility of using them to review past operations and provide suggestions and guidelines for future decision-making. In this context, to improve city sustainability and liveability, the cooperation and coordination among transport and logistics operators have been some of the measures for optimizing freight operations, with a subsequent reduction in vehicles and traffic impacts. Therefore, opportunities arise to point out the stakeholders’ decentralised collaboration and the dynamic information driving urban logistics operations. In this context, this paper presents a microsimulation model framework to support the operational decision-making of an urban supply chain that makes the most of such cooperation and coordination and appropriately responds to the dynamic changes of demand and supply. The model was first tested using data collected in the urban area of Medellin, Colombia and we obtained satisfactory results that show the benefits of implementing such modelling framework to support decision making policies.

The research in this thesis focused on organisations that can contribute to increased sustainability development in urban freight transport activities. In this study, these organisations were identified, studied, grouped together and labelled as influencing organisations. Four types of influencing organisations in urban freight transport were identified: Business Improvement Districts (BIDs), facility management companies, property owners and public procurement organisations. The results indicated that influencing organisations use a variety of measures and engage in a wide range of urban freight transport initiatives. The way that they engage depends on the types of organisations involved and the relationships the influencers had with said organisations. The findings suggest that influencing organisations have certain characteristics, including: i) the ability to unite other actors, notably goods receivers (such as shops, offices, hotels, restaurants), ii) high motivation to engage in urban freight transport-related questions and sustainability, iii) possessing effective tools to promote sustainable measures, such as the capability to orchestrate and consolidate physical flows, leverage based on contractual relationships, administrative power, outreach power and serving as a common voice for establishments. This places them in a strong position to support the upscaling of sustainable urban freight transport initiatives and broaden the level of implementation. This study paid attention to actors beyond those that are directly associated with urban freight supply chains (carriers, shippers, goods receivers and regulators) to increase the understanding of the role of these organisations in promoting sustainability improvements in urban freight transport activities. The in-depth analysis of the activities carried out by influencing organisations shows why it is important to include them within the scope of urban freight measures and policies: i) they help to overcome the inertia inhibiting the implementation of sustainable urban freight transport initiatives, and ii) they have a connection to many goods receivers as well as the leverage to influence and possibly unite them. Moreover, influencers often have available resources to invest in new infrastructural solutions or processes and the motivation and incentives to carry out these initiatives, thus allowing this engagement to be beneficial both for them and the sustainable development of cities. The results of this thesis provide insights for policymakers about forming policies and regulations to stimulate the engagement of influencers in urban freight transport. This research illustrates to the influencing organisations themselves that they can play a valuable role in the future trajectory of urban freight transport development, as well as examples of ways to change urban freight transport to be more sustainable.

Electrification is a potential solution for transport decarbonization and already widely available for individual and public transport. However, the availability of electrified commercial vehicles like waste collection vehicles is still limited, despite their significant contribution to urban emissions. Moreover, there is a lack of clarity whether electric waste collection vehicles can persist in real world conditions and which system design is required. Therefore, we introduce a multi-agent-based simulation methodology to investigate the technical feasibility and evaluate environmental and economic sustainability of an electrified urban waste collection. We present a synthetic model for waste collection demand on a per-link basis, using open available data. The tour planning is solved by an open-source algorithm as a capacitated vehicle routing problem (CVRP). This generates plausible tours which handle the demand. The generated tours are simulated with an open-source transport simulation (MATSim) for both the diesel and the electric waste collection vehicles. To compare the life cycle costs, we analyze the data using total cost of ownership (TCO). Environmental impacts are evaluated based on a Well-to-Wheel approach. We present a comparison of the two propulsion types for the exemplary use case of Berlin. And we are able to generate a suitable planning to handle Berlin’s waste collection demand using battery electric vehicles only. The TCO calculation reveals that the electrification raises the total operator cost by 16–30%, depending on the scenario and the battery size with conservative assumptions. Furthermore, the greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) can be reduced by 60–99%, depending on the carbon footprint of electric power generation.

The advent of new technologies in last mile deliveries is about to cause a disruption in the traditional business model applied in urban cargo transportation. Along these lines, transport operators try to obtain economic returns, not only by optimizing traditional strategies, but also by seeking to establish strategies based on the bottom-line of sustainability. This paper aims to identify studies that proposes alternative vehicles that could be used in the last mile of urban freight transport to reduce the energy efficiency while improve its efficiency. To state the literature gap, we conduct a systematic literature review on energy efficiency in urban freight transportation, converting the last mile deliveries into a sustainable operation. Results indicate a trend towards the implementation of smaller and lighter vehicles for last mile deliveries in urban areas: 95% of studies suggest, among other alternatives, the use of bicycles and tricycles; while 53% of articles support the use of light commercial vehicles. Another trend observed in this type of distribution, indicated in 77.3% of the studies, is the shift from conventional fuels (fossil fuels) to alternative sources of energy (electricity)., O advento de novas tecnologias nas entregas de última milha está prestes a causar uma ruptura no modelo tradicional de negócios do transporte urbano de carga. Busca-se obter retornos econômicos, não somente por via da otimização de operações tradicionais, mas também com base no tripé da sustentabilidade. Este trabalho tem como objetivo identificar, por meio de uma revisão bibliográfica sistemática, as alternativas propostas pela literatura no âmbito do veículo de carga como meio para melhorar a eficiência energética, transformando a operação de entregas em uma alternativa sustentável. Os resultados indicam uma tendência para a implementação de veículos menores e mais leves para entregas de última milha em áreas urbanas: 95% dos estudos sugerem, entre alternativas, o uso de bicicletas/triciclos e comerciais leves. Outra tendência observada nesse tipo de distribuição, indicada em 77,3% dos estudos, é a mudança de combustíveis convencionais (combustíveis fósseis) para fontes alternativas de energia (eletricidade).

A mathematical model is developed to calculate the costs of alternative distribution set-ups for last mile transportation in a supply chain with small and fragmented volumes. The model is based on input from logistics cost models for urban areas combined with cost variables related to logistics processes, receiver attributes and local city characteristics. The cost variables for each aspect (logistics, receiver, city) influence the cost-effectiveness and applicability of an alternative distribution set-up. The model is applied on the delivery of fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) towards small independent retailers in a megacity. The current supply of these stores is characterized by high costs, inefficiency and unsustainability. Four different set-ups are modelled. The model shows the effects of different city and store request parameters. When drop sizes are low and distances are short, direct shipments with smaller vehicles outperform the current direct set-up. When drop sizes are low and distances are long, collaborating in an urban consolidation centre (UCC) shows a saving. The model can be further validated with data from other cities and other distribution set-ups.

Cities’ sustainability strategies seem to aim at the reduction of the negative impacts of urban freight transport. In the past decades, many public and private initiatives have struggled to gain broad stakeholder support and thus remain viable. Researchers and practitioners have only recently recognised stakeholder acceptance of urban freight solutions as a challenge. A first step in achieving convergence is to understand stakeholder needs, preferences and viewpoints. This paper proposes and applies an approach to identify the main stakeholder perspectives in the domain of urban freight transport. We use Q-methodology, which originates from social sciences and psychology, to record subjective positions and identify the dominant ones. We explain the approach, operationalise the method for the domain of urban freight transport and apply it to stakeholder groups in the Netherlands. We find four dominant perspectives, reflecting how stakeholders normally take positions in the urban freight dialogue. Important findings concern disparities between industry associations and some of their membership, divergent views about the expected role of public administration, and the observation that the behaviour of shippers and Logistics Service Providers (LSP) appears to be inconsistent with their beliefs. All these factors together can act as a barrier to the implementation of urban freight consolidation concepts. The Q-methodology is valuable for eliciting perspectives in urban freight and is a promising tool to facilitate stakeholder dialogue and, eventually, convergence. First Published Online:4 Sept 2018

The transition from diesel-driven urban freight transport towards more electric urban freight transport turns out to be challenging in practice. A major concern for transport operators is how to find a reliable charging strategy for a larger electric vehicle fleet that provides flexibility based on different daily mission profiles within that fleet, while also minimizing costs. This contribution assesses the trade-off between a large battery pack and opportunity charging with regard to costs and operational constraints. Based on a case study with 39 electric freight vehicles that have been used by a parcel delivery company and a courier company in daily operations for over a year, various scenarios have been analyzed by means of a TCO analysis. Although a large battery allows for more flexibility in planning, opportunity charging can provide a feasible alternative, especially in the case of varying mission profiles. Additional personnel costs during opportunity charging can be avoided as much as possible by a well-integrated charging strategy, which can be realized by a reservation system that minimizes the risk of occupied charging stations and a dense network of charging stations.

Urban freight transport (UFT) is fundamental to the liveability of our cities, but it also contributes to the unsustainability of the same cities. Local authorities are primarily responsible for governing urban areas and implement different measures to regulate UFT. Measures often fail as they do not reach their intended goal and sometimes even produce adverse effects. One of the primary causes is that prior to implementation, the different stakeholders affecting and being affected by the UFT are not sufficiently involved. In this study, the multi-actor multi-criteria analysis (MAMCA) is applied ex-ante to evaluate to what extent different measures contribute to the objectives of different stakeholders. A municipality in Belgium, experiencing a lot of traffic, is used as a case study. Regulating UFT is in this case further complicated due to multi-level governance with different jurisdictions over infrastructure. To our knowledge, there are no similar UFT studies in a multi-level governance context. Results show that all proposed measures are an improvement for all stakeholders compared to the current situation. Future implementation of measures in this context is discussed.

Although urban freight transport (UFT) is vital for importing and exporting necessary goods and waste, a number of negative sustainability impacts characterise the process. The relatively recent attention for UFT spurred the emergence of a variety of policy measures. Nevertheless, local authorities experience difficulties in choosing a successful solution. Generally lacking are short and long-term assessments, a multi-stakeholder approach and a solid contextual understanding based on data. In order to tackle these pressing causes for policy failure, we developed a policy assessment framework. The framework includes four methodologies that are relevant for UFT policy assessment and introduces 45 indicators for the collection of UFT data that enable monitoring and benchmarking and provide input for the assessment methodologies. The paper covers the policy assessment framework and a case study application on the Belgian city of Mechelen. As the city struggles with selecting an appropriate and broadly supported policy measure to increase UFT sustainability, a multi-actor multi-criteria analysis (MAMCA) is applied. The results show that conflicting interests greatly impede policy measure selection, making further adaptations to the city's proposals necessary. The policy assessment framework represents a well-reasoned and solid process for UFT policy-making that is supported by the stakeholders involved.

Several indicators have been established to monitor and evaluate the sustainability of cities. Logistics and related transportation activities are underrepresented in these established frameworks despite the substantial negative impact of urban freight transport (UFT) on the environment, society and economy. The result is the lack of an understanding of freight flows’ impact on the liveability of cities. This paper fills this gap by introducing a comprehensive set of freight transport related indicators with an operational target in policy support and urban planning. It provides a discussion of its hierarchical design and 45 indicators. Using this indicator set, local authorities can assess and enhance UFT sustainability.

Megacities in emerging markets are a relatively new phenomenon. The size of these cities combined with the high growth rates provides substantial sustainability challenges. Urban freight transport (UFT) contributes to these challenges. Despite its relatively low share as part of total traffic, the negative impact of UFT is disproportionate. Improving the sustainability in this context is inevitable in the light of further prospected urbanization. To study this topic, a theoretical framework is developed which is subsequently applied on literature. This allows characterizing the UFT system in a city. Such a framework is currently lacking. The framework is developed around the components of a UFT system (demand, supply and context) and the factors influencing these components. Factors include the different supply chains (demand), vehicles used (supply) and traffic measures (context). It is applied to analyze the UFT system in megacities in emerging markets. Results show that demand in different supply chains is fragmented as well as the transport. Uncontrolled sprawl and the existence of an informal economy further contribute to the complexity to regulate UFT. Based hereupon, we discuss efforts to move to more sustainable UFT in this context.

As a result of growing international trade, port-related emission is a spreading issue for urban areas located near ports, especially, hub port cities where population density is concentrated. The awareness of rapidly increasing drayage trucks moving cargo between the port and its hinterland has motivated the necessity of a detailed look at negative environmental impacts of these truck fleets on the achievement of sustainability goals. This study analyzes emission inventory from trucking activities around the Port of Incheon (POI), especially focusing on major air pollutants, and suggests ideas to support establishing new policies in port area. Data on the number of truck, the year of production, the type of fuel, etc. during 2018 were collected from Incheon Port Security and Korea Transport Safety Authority. A bottom-up methodology is applied based on guideline from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). As results, the major role of drayage truck fleets to local air pollution was highlighted with the high contribution of CO and NOx emissions. Hence, this study suggested the establishment of Emission Control Area (ECA) and Affected Zone on the landside as well as implementing Integrated Information System and Truck Appointment System to reduce congestion at gate, limit the number of emissions and minimize negative impacts to local community.

The collection and delivery points (CDP) are an alternative to home deliveries and an important opportunity to reduce failed deliveries within urban areas. In this study, we propose to analyze the accessibility from CDPs located in commercial establishments (drugstores, gas stations, post offices, supermarkets, and malls) considered most attractive by e-consumers to receive this delivery solution. The methodological approach uses spatial analysis to identify the coverage area of the CDPs considering socioeconomic data and e-consumer preferences. Also, spatial tools to analyze the accessibility of CDPs were used, considering the transport infrastructure, the population location, and job opportunities location through different transport modes. The results indicated differences in levels of accessibility between the CDPs, highlighting the important associations among economic activities, land use patterns, and transport to plan for sustainable cities. The use of cluster analysis methods as a methodological approach is one contribution and can be replicated to support decision-making in other cities. Resumo O pick-up point (PP) é uma alternativa às entregas em casa e uma importante oportunidade para reduzir as entregas fracassadas dentro das áreas urbanas. Neste estudo, propomos analisar a acessibilidade dos PPs localizados em estabelecimentos comerciais (farmácias, postos de gasolina, correios, supermercados e shopping centers) considerados mais atraentes pelos e-consumidores para receber essa solução de entrega. A abordagem metodológica utiliza a análise espacial para identificar a área de cobertura dos PPs considerando dados socioeconômicos e preferências do consumidor eletrônico. Ainda assim, usamos ferramentas espaciais para analisar a acessibilidade dos PPs considerando a infraestrutura de transporte, a localização da população e a localização das oportunidades de trabalho através de diferentes modos de transporte. Os resultados indicam diferenças nos níveis de acessibilidade entre os PPs, destacando as importantes associações entre atividades econômicas, padrões de uso da terra e transporte no planejamento de cidades sustentáveis. O uso de métodos de análise de cluster como abordagem metodológica é uma contribuição e pode ser replicado para apoiar a tomada de decisões em outras cidades.

För att skapa levande stadskärnor där människor trivs och vill vistas, behöver godstransporter förse stadskärnornas verksamheter med varor. Dessa urbana godstransporter leder dock till ett flertal negativa effekter för både lönsamheten, människan och planeten. Syftet med denna fallstudie är följaktligen att bidra till skapandet av en mer hållbar citylogistik, där flödet av godstransporter in till, inom samt ut ur Skövdes stadskärna förbättras utifrån både ett intressent- och hållbarhetsperspektiv. Studien undersöker dessutom vilka problem och utmaningar som finns, samt vilka intressekonflikter som kan uppstå vid skapandet av en hållbar citylogistik. I den teoretiska referensramen presenteras innebörden av en hållbar citylogistik samt vilka intressenter och aktörer som är involverade i skapandet av en hållbar citylogistik. De urbana godstransporternas negativa effekter på stadsmiljön redovisas sedan ur ett socialt, ekonomiskt och miljömässigt perspektiv, vilket ligger till grund för de teoretiska förbättringsförslagen. Förbättringsförslagen utgår från att de bör gynna så många intressenter som möjligt för att ses som trovärdiga, samt leda till ett förbättrat flöde av godstransporter in till, inom samt ut ur Skövdes stadskärna. För att studera problematiken i Skövdes stadskärna utifrån olika intressenters perspektiv består den empiriska datainsamlingen av en kombinerad metodansats. Denna datainsamling innehåller således en direkt observation och insamling av kvantitativa data över hur godstransporter rör sig i Skövdes stadskärna, ett flertal intervjuer med både distributörer och godsmottagare, samt en genomförd enkätstudie riktad mot centrumbesökare i Skövdes stadskärna. Varje intressentgrupp har även fått möjligheten att rangordna de urbana godstransporternas negativa effekter utifrån vad de ansåg var mer respektive mindre viktigt vid skapandet av en hållbar citylogistik i Skövde för att bidra till en hållbar stadskärna. Rapportens analys baseras på framtagna förbättringsförslag samt intressentgruppernas syn på en hållbar citylogistik. Detta för att komma fram till hur flödet av godstransporter i Skövdes stadskärna kan förbättras ur ett hållbarhetsperspektiv för att gynna flera olika intressenter. Resultatet innehåller således fyra rekommenderade förbättringsförslag som anses vara rimliga att implementera i Skövdes stadskärna inom en uppskattad tidshorisont. In order to create an attractive urban centre where people thrive, freight transport needs to provide the urban centre businesses with deliveries. However, these urban freight transports have several negative effects on profitability, people and the planet. The aim of this case study is therefore to create a more sustainable city logistics, where the flow of freight transports into, within and out of Skövde's urban centre will be improved from both a stakeholder and sustainability perspective. The study also considers the existing problems and challenges, and what conflicts of interest can arise, in the creation of a sustainable city logistics. The theoretical framework presents the content of a sustainable city logistics and which stakeholders and actors are involved in the creation of a sustainable city logistics. Later the negative impacts of urban freight transport are described from a social, economic and environmental perspective, which forms the basis for the theoretical improvement proposals. The proposals for improvement should benefit as many stakeholders as possible in order to be credible, and improve the flow of freight transport into, within and out of Skövde's urban centre. In order to study the problems in Skövde's urban centre from the perspective of different stakeholders, the empirical data collection consists of a combined research methodology. The data collection contains a direct observation and quantitative data considering the movement of freight transport in Skövde's urban centre. Furthermore, the study contains surveys and interviews with distributors and receivers in Skövde's urban centre. Each stakeholder has also been given the opportunity to rank which negative impacts of urban freight transport they considered to be more or less important in the creation of a sustainable city logistics in Skövde. The analysis is based on both proposals for improvement and the stakeholders' perspective on sustainable city logistics to find out how the flow of freight transport in Skövde's urban centre can be improved from a sustainability perspective in order to benefit several stakeholders. The result contains four recommended improvement proposals that are considered reasonable to implement in Skövde's urban centre within an estimated time horizon.

Many cities of different size and in different areas of the world have successfully tested the introduction of off-hour deliveries (OHD) on a voluntary basis, reporting positive effects, both on freight distribution efficiency and sustainability. However, those initiatives have not been implemented so far at a large scale. This paper investigates OHD potential in Rome, focusing on one of the most important barriers to its adoption, i.e. stakeholder acceptability. The study investigates stakeholders' preferences for different OHD configurations using both a qualitative approach, based on in-depth interviews, and a quantitative analysis, based on an interactive multi-actor multi-criteria analysis. Results show that stakeholders prefer a solution where OHD are jointly implemented together with one or more urban consolidation centres. This preliminary analysis paves the way for further technical/economic evaluations needed for OHD implementation in Rome. Stakeholders’ involvement is of outmost importance to understand their heterogeneous preferences and increase their awareness of urban freight transport problems, with the overall aim to foster behaviour change.

Despite its negative impacts, freight transportation is a primary component of all supply chains. Decision makers have considered diverse strategies, such as Horizontal Collaboration (HC) and the usage of alternative types of vehicles, to reduce overall cost and the related environmental and social impacts. This paper assesses the implementation of an electric fleet of vehicles in urban goods distribution under HC strategy between carriers. A biased randomisation based algorithm is used to solve the problem with a multi-objective function to explore the relationships between both delivery and environmental costs. Real data from the city of Bogota, Colombia are used to validate this approach. Experiments with different costs and demands projections are performed to analyse short- and medium-term impacts related to the usage of electric vehicles in collaborative networks. Results show that the optimal selection of vehicle types depends considerably on the time horizon evaluation and demand variation. This work has been partially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (TRA2013-48180-C3-P and TRA2015-71883-REDT) and the Ibero-American Program for Science and Technology for Development (CYTED2014-515RT0489). Likewise, we want to acknowledge the support received by the Special Patrimonial Fund from Universidad de La Sabana (Colombia) and the doctoral grant from the UOC-Open University of Catalonia (Spain).

This paper provides a review of models and decision support systems for urban freight transport (UFT). The originality of this study is that the analysis framework has been developed to outline the progress on UFT specifically related to the sustainability issue. Accordingly, contributions regarding UFT and addressing at least one factor of sustainability have been analysed by cross-referencing categories of models with impacts on sustainability. Results from this work are supposed to help enhance research concerning operations research (OR) for sustainable UFT by pointing out gaps that need to be closed and opportunities for future research. There is also an attempt to understand what is stopping researchers from including selected sustainability factors in the optimisation models. This paper also finally proposes some developments, not only in the OR field, that are preparatory for elaborating new models or improving the existing ones.

Today’s consumer has high expectations concerning retailers’ delivery services. Meanwhile, the impact of urban freight transport on cities intensifies. Crowd logistics is presented as an interesting innovation that responds to both developments. However, both practice and research contradict this claim. Our research aims to investigate which types of crowd logistics activities currently exist and which types are supported by the stakeholders involved. Therefore, we systematically review existing literature and execute a multi-actor multi-criteria analysis. Our findings indicate that stakeholders’ perceptions diverge significantly, which should be taken into account by both practitioners and policy-makers.

The European Commission has recently developed a growing awareness with respect to the challenges urban freight transport (UFT) poses to cities and, consequently, has started defining specific policies and promoting dedicated tools to address them. Transport is a shared responsibility between the European Union and the Member States, where the subsidiarity principle applies. Accordingly, the former provides European local authorities with support in different areas, including research and innovation funding. This paper aims to assess the linkage and consistency between European policy priorities for UFT and the corresponding calls of the Horizon 2020 (H2020) Research Programme, created to foster research and innovation. The paper identifies and extrapolates in a comparable format ten UFT priority solutions and estimates their degree of correspondence with the H2020 Work Programmes using the amount of research funds allocated to each of them as a proxy. Findings show that, generally, the European Commission addresses UFT through a systematic and coherent approach. Moreover, all the identified solutions are covered by at least one H2020 call, although the extent of the coverage is heterogeneous. Four of the UFT solutions present an overall consistency when it comes to comparing the extent of the scope of the solution and the number of policy documents addressing it, on the one hand, and the number of calls considering it and the budget (potentially) available, on the other.

Urban Freight Transport (UFT) entails significant advantages for the economic growth of cities, but can also hamper population quality of life, obstructing vehicles and people movements while exacerbating environmental problems. Many initiatives have been engaged by many city administrators in order to efficiently manage UFT, evaluating different policies at a global scale. From the perspective of operators, most works analyze a limited set of policies or only focus on the benefits of companies. In this work, a decisionmaking process is used to evaluate a large set of UFT policies, through different attributes representing the advantages and limitations of each policy over promoter companies and the society. To do so, an ex-ante procedure in five steps is proposed to classify the policies: (1) attributes definition, (2) attributes weighting, (3) policy-attribute assessment, (4) policy ranking, and (5) feasibility threshold satisfaction. The whole process is supported on consultations to 26 experts regarding shop supply and restocking activities within complex urban environments. Results show a classification of the analyzed policies, according to their suitability for implementation ; which could be extended (directly or with small adjustments) to other contexts, given the flexibility of the decision-making procedure developed.

This article compares the characteristics of urban freight transport in Rome, Barcelona, and Santander and the logistics measures being implemented in the three cities. The analysis is based on three similar surveys carried out in recent years involving interviews with retailers and transport operators. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the similarities and differences in terms of spatial patterns, current regulations, socioeconomic characteristics, commercial structures, freight demand characteristics, and current distribution patterns followed by different transport and logistics operators. The study shows that there are some different patterns of urban distribution that need to be taken into account when implementing city logistics measures in order to meet desired sustainability goals.

Purpose 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 (CL), delivery operations are carried out by using passengers’ excess capacity on journeys that are already taking place, resulting in economic, social and environmental benefits. Existing CL initiatives show, however, that there are important differences between concepts in terms of sustainability. The research aims to develop a suitable and comprehensive definition for CL and identify which factors determine the sustainability potential of CL. Methods We systematically analysed a set of 42 papers and interviewed 11 logistics practitioners in order to capture the state of practice. Results Following the literature and interviews, we firstly define CL as ‘an information connectivity enabled marketplace concept that matches supply and demand for logistics services with an undefined and external crowd that has free capacity with regards to time and/or space, participates on a voluntary basis and is compensated accordingly’. Secondly, we identify a set of 18 characteristics that can describe the variety of CL concepts. Thirdly, we indicate whether the identified characteristics affect the economy, society and/or environment. The research shows that all characteristics influence economic sustainability while 11 characteristics also affect social and/or environmental sustainability. Conclusions Our research helps local policy-makers to adapt laws and regulations to the sharing economy developments and provides insight for businesses which CL concept fits their company’s corporate social responsibility strategy.

This paper presents concepts of city logistics for sustainable and liveable cities. City logistics can contribute to create more efficient and environmentally friendly urban freight transport systems. The application of innovative technologies of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) and ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems), the change in mind-sets of logistics managers, and public-private partnerships can promote city logistics policy measures. The procedure of urban freight transport management is described, which is an adaptive management system that uses the PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, and Act) cycle. Joint delivery systems with urban consolidation centres are also highlighted in particular focusing on the benefits and problems, the success factors, the role of municipalities and the transferability to other areas.

The growing necessity to improve city sustainability and liveability has pushed local administrators to look also at medium/long-term city logistics measures, such as land-use governance policies. In order to assess long-term scenarios, it is necessary to have models and methods able to take into account the effects on shopping mobility and goods restocking, generated by these classes of measures (e.g. relocation of shopping zones). Besides, we have to consider that modifications of shopping attitudes, deriving from changes of demographic and socio-economic characteristics of end consumers, can impact on purchasing behaviour and hence on restocking mobility. This paper discusses a number of issues related to the simulation of medium/long-term scenarios and presents a system of models that consider shopping mobility and restocking jointly. The presented shopping demand models, in combination with urban restocking models, are implemented within a simulation support system named City Logistics Analysis and S...

This paper discusses the developments of city logistics in the CIVITAS initiative. CIVITAS is a large European Commission co-funded program to support sustainable urban mobility. Urban freight logistics is one of eight CIVITAS clusters by which cities aim to improve sustainability in their cities. During the last decade the CIVITAS initiative resulted in 53 innovative urban freight logistics measures that have been implemented and evaluated in European cities. This contribution presents the different measures and their outcomes. The overall conclusion is that partnerships between urban freight logistics stakeholders are essential in making the measure a success.

City logistics is a field that attracts increasing attention of professionals and scientific community and international organizations. Research on problems of urban areas' logistics gives different results and practical solutions. City logistics flows are characterized by partiality, spatial dispersion of generators, diversity in terms of the logistics chains structure, frequency of a large number of smaller shipments, dynamism, stochasticity etc. Problems and the complexity of logistics in urban areas as well as significant decline in the quality of life in modern cities have caused the development of initiatives and concepts of city logistics which should allow the sustainable development of urban areas. The first part of this paper presents the problems of city logistics and impact of logistics activities on urban areas in terms of economic, environmental and social sustainability. The second part presents city logistics initiatives that involve the change of urban area context, in order to improve its sustainability.

City is the place of the largest concentration of economic and social activities, and the delivery of goods is a prerequisite for the maintenance of urban life and business activities for achieving wealth and development of the city. Logistics systems and processes that enable the realization of commodity flows support employment and generate income, but may also have negative impacts on all essential functions of the city. Therefore, logistics plays an important role in the competitiveness of urban areas and should be an integral part of the city's economy. From the perspective of sustainable development, i.e. social, environmental and economic efficiency, logistics processes primarily urban freight transport, are far from optimal. The growth of road freight transport and traffic congestion, air pollution and other negative impacts on the environment, inefficient use of land and the rising costs of delivery of goods affect the definition and exploration of different initiatives of city logistics. This paper describes the initiatives that do not require large infrastructure investments and do not change the existing urban context, but can improve its sustainability.

Although the store shopping remains the predominant way to buy, internet is modifying the end consumer's behaviour. In fact, the advance of information and communication technologies have pushed more and more people to choose to shop on-line. This can have significant impacts on freight traffic in urban areas because purchases have to be delivered to customers (e.g. at homes) through delivery tours that cannot always be optimised. Besides, additional costs for repeated deliveries can occur. The paper begins focusing on demographic and socio-economic factors that mainly influence end-consumer purchase production and subsequent trips. Then, a new system of models for simulating shopping choices, including e-shopping, is presented. The models were obtained by using surveys carried out in Rome where about 800 households were interviewed. The system of models were used to assess the effects on shopping and goods delivering under future demographic and socio-economic changes in an urban area. The results indicate these effects can be significant and specific solutions have to be pointed out for improving city sustainability.