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ABSTRACT: Delivering parcels to collection and delivery points (CDPs) is often seen as a better option compared with home delivery. However, if the demand is inhomogeneous, either the parcel locker utilization or the service level (i.e., the number of parcels that can be delivered) is low. Either situation would reduce the financial viability. This paper compares two options to increase the utilization, namely: (i) modular lockers (i.e., numbers of lockers adjusted periodically depending on demand) and (ii) combining parcel lockers with staffed CDPs. The latter has the advantage of a low investment cost of staffed CDPs and a low cost per parcel of parcel lockers. Secondly, the paper calculates the optimal number of lockers at a staffed CDP, assuming that all parcels are placed in the staffed CDP if the parcel locker is full. This method was applied to data collected by a parcel delivery company in London. The advantage of using real world data over one year is that it includes seasonal and daily changes in the parcel demand. The decision support method accounts for parcels not being picked up by customers on the delivery day, returned deliveries, and the net present value (NPV) of the investment. This paper shows that having enough lockers for 100% of all parcels compared with 80% doubles the number of required parcel lockers because of the inhomogeneity of the demand. In addition, combining fixed lockers with staffed CDPs offers greater financial benefits compared with modular lockers in this case study.

Freight curbside management has become a contentious issue as various stakeholders claim access to public urban space. Although prior research has offered solutions to mitigate freight-related conflicts in the use of space, a deeper understanding of the extent to which those interventions contribute to cities' sustainable development goals is needed. This paper presents the results of a meta -analysis that examines the effects of four freight curbside interventions: curbside space allocation for freight, data sharing, parking duration limits, and enforcement. The paper pinpoints benefits and drawbacks of those interventions on last-mile deliveries, the urban environment, and the use of public transport infrastructure. The findings suggest positive impacts and underscore the necessity of incorporating people-centred approaches in the design, implementation, and evaluation of policies concerning public space. Nevertheless, trade-offs when implementing those interventions have been identified. The paper concludes by outlining directions for future research and suggesting implications for urban freight policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intensification of e-commerce increases freight movements in urban areas, which negatively contributes to promoting sustainable cities. Conversely, the spare capacity of the public transport system could reduce the externalities of urban freight transport and then promote sustainable cities. This article identifies and evaluates key factors for developing integrated freight and public transport systems. Key factors were identified with a literature review and then classified into benefits and barriers related to the urban environment, and challenges and strengths related to the transport operation. Subsequently, these factors were evaluated by experts and classified by estimating a Luce model. The results indicate that benefits are related to the fight against climate change by optimising urban space and reducing the movements of freight vehicles. Barriers are associated with the lack of a collaborative culture and the need to change consumer behaviour, which helps to promote collaboration and reduce just-in-time demand. For the transport operation, the integration of people and freight systems can reduce operational costs, increase the efficiency of the transport system, and improve the accessibility for people and goods, while promoting economic development by decentralising economic activity. To achieve these benefits, the main challenges concern the logistic activity and the cooperation of stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the dynamic nature of Urban Freight Transport (UFT) processes, the involved transport and logistics operators face with internal and external issues that should tackle to improve last-mile levels of service and decrease total costs while performing delivery operations. Customers (i.e., freight receivers) perceive the level of service through the acceptance of their requests, while total operational costs are mainly determined by the total travel costs (i.e., distance and/or time) required to accomplish the customers' request. In addition, the vehicle-kilometres travelled are related to the externalities produced. Given that the actors involved in the process operate in a stochastic environment (with changes that can occur both in terms of demand – receivers' requests, and in supply – travel times), collaboration and coordination among the operators could play a key role in meeting the customers' requests as well as in reducing both internal and external delivery costs. Therefore, the paper proposes an UFT modelling framework that integrates collaboration and coordination processes among the different involved actors, and allows the benefits to be assessed. The model has a multi-agent architecture based on microsimulation. In particular, the multi-agent architecture allows us to point out the different actors' responses to various internal (e.g., delivery requests) and external (e.g., delivery times) changes occurring in the daily delivery operations. It consists of three layers. The first one simulates the interactions among actors operating collaboratively. The second layer microsimulates the collaborative processes of information management. Finally, a third layer integrates the two previous layers, facilitating a decision-making process in such a dynamic context. The whole modelling framework is tested in a real case study in which it is possible to validate pros and cons of working in a collaborative and coordinative environment. The results show significant benefits from actors/operators involved in the process and subsequently can address the policy/measure implementation towards a more sustainable and liveable city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Cities crave innovative logistics solutions dealing with the requirements of the ‘on demand economy’. The paper estimates the willingness to act as a crowdshipper (supply) and to buy a crowdshipping service (demand) to get goods delivered/picked-up in the last mile B2C e-commerce situation. Specifically, it innovates by considering an environmental-friendly crowdshipping based on the use of the mass transit network of the city where parcels customers/crowdshippers pick-up/drop-off goods in automated parcel lockers located either inside the transit stations or in the surroundings. This issue is very important since “standard” crowdshipping is usually not able to reduce congestion and polluting emissions due to the dedicated trips performed using private motorized vehicles. The paper rests on an extensive stated preference survey. The hypothetical scenarios used to acquire both demand (customers’) and supply (crowdshippers’) preferences make use of the most relevant attributes emerging from a preliminary investigation performed in the study context. The investigation is performed in the city of Rome and the metro is the transit system considered. The results are useful in understanding and quantifying the potential of this freight transport strategy for e-commerce in an urban context and in providing local policy makers with a good knowledge base for its future development.

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.

In order to select the optimal transportation route among alternative transportation routes more accurately and objectively, the choice of urban oversize cargo transportation routes was studied by taking the optimization weight–TOPSIS combination method for specific calculations. This model, based on an entropy weight method, cloud model, and TOPSIS method, combines the superiority of the cloud model for reflecting the randomness and discreteness of subjective evaluation with the advantages of the TOPSIS method in dealing with the problem of multi-objective programming. Through selecting and classifying several the main road influencing factors of urban oversize cargo transportation, based on the data of four urban roads, the entropy weight method is used to initially determine the weights of each influencing factor, the cloud model is used to optimize weights, the TOPSIS method is used to compare and evaluate the paths, and the optimal transportation route is selected on this basis. The results showed that the optimization weight–TOPSIS method is scientific and accurate for the multi-objective planning of oversize cargo transportation route selection, and solves the problem of the impact of subjective factors in existing methods and the difficulty of processing multiple influencing factors. The Pearson consistency test results show that the Pearson correlation coefficient between the proposed method and the actual oversize cargo transportation route selection is 0.995, which is higher than the calculation results without using the combination weight. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to develop a new method for freight movement in urban areas by combining a light rail transit system and a road transport system to distribute and deliver parcels. Utilisation of light rail transportation systems for parcel delivery can help reduce traffic congestion and air pollution in cities. This paper presents a location–allocation model to determine the optimum number and location of light rail stations suitable to establish rail distribution hubs, in a bid to minimise transportation costs. A case study is conducted to assess this approach in the city of Bangkok. The results show that the cost, time, and distance of transportation can be reduced by 10%, 16.67%, and 33.33%, respectively.

This paper presents the results of an environmental assessment of a Nickel-Manganese-Cobalt (NMC) Lithium-ion traction battery for Battery Electric Light-Duty Commercial Vehicles (BEV-LDCV) used for urban and regional freight haulage. A cradle-to-grave Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) of NMC111 is provided, operation and end-of-life stages are included, and insight is also given into a Life Cycle Assessment of different NMC chemistries. The environmental impacts of the manufacturing stages of the NMC111 battery are then compared with those of a Sodium-Nickel-Chloride (ZEBRA) battery. In the second part of the work, two electric-battery LDCVs (powered with NMC111 and ZEBRA batteries, respectively) and a diesel urban LDCV are analysed, considering a wide set of environmental impact categories. The results show that the NMC111 battery has the highest impacts from production in most of the impact categories. Active cathode material, Aluminium, Copper, and energy use for battery production are the main contributors to the environmental impact. However, when vehicle application is investigated, NMC111-BEV shows lower environmental impacts, in all the impact categories, than ZEBRA-BEV. This is mainly due to the greater efficiency of the NMC111 battery during vehicle operation. Finally, when comparing BEVs to a diesel LDCV, the electric powertrains show advantages over the diesel one as far as global warming, abiotic depletion potential-fossil fuels, photochemical oxidation, and ozone layer depletion are concerned. However, the diesel LDCV performs better in almost all the other investigated impact categories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lack of efficiency in the use of the on-street infrastructure dedicated to loading and unloading freight in the city, with their shortage and inefficient placement, generates congestion and delays during urban freight deliveries. An exploratory study is presented on the feasibility of incorporating technology into the management of dedicated loading/unloading areas for urban logistics in downtown Montevideo (Uruguay). After data of the neighborhood was collected, and the main stakeholder interest gathered, the paper analyzes a feasible technological solution to the problem, considering the restrictions posed by the stakeholders for sharing information. Due to the increasing influence of blockchain and its implementation for specific logistic problems, such as product traceability, the introduction of blockchain as part of the solution is considered and discussed in the system architecture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to develop a new method for freight movement in urban areas by combining a light rail transit system and a road transport system to distribute and deliver parcels. Utilisation of light rail transportation systems for parcel delivery can help reduce traffic congestion and air pollution in cities. This paper presents a location–allocation model to determine the optimum number and location of light rail stations suitable to establish rail distribution hubs, in a bid to minimise transportation costs. A case study is conducted to assess this approach in the city of Bangkok. The results show that the cost, time, and distance of transportation can be reduced by 10%, 16.67%, and 33.33%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An efficient urban freight transport (UFT) system is crucial for sustainable city development. However, implementing city logistics measures still seems challenging for municipalities and decision-makers. Moreover, city authorities’ decisions depend on politics and social issues, and the city residents’ opinions seem to be very important in this context. Therefore, the primary objective of this paper was to assess the perception of urban mobility problems and freight solutions from the perspective of city users, considering the point of view of Brazilian and Polish city dwellers. The work was based on a survey realised in Belo Horizonte (Brazil) and Szczecin (Poland). The analysis identified the similarities and differences between the perceptions of different resident groups in both cities. The practical advantage of this research is the establishment of a set of recommendations for city decision-makers in the context of residents’ perceptions and their expectations regarding the implementation of urban freight measures.

European cities are facing enormous challenges in accessibility and livability terms due to several European directives, which are compulsory in the mid/long term, traffic congestion levels are still increasing, and air pollution and noise disturbs citizens’ lives. This work presents the study carried out in a Mediterranean city to define an Environmental Zone with traffic restrictions for vehicles in the historical centre of the city of Cartagena (Spain) by exploring different urban logistics measures to tackle main problems caused by freight deliveries and pickups in the city centre. These solutions aimed to enhance the efficiency of vehicles, and to reduce both traffic congestion the environmental impacts caused by freight delivery in the city in order to improve urban sustainability.

The need for logistics has been one of the biggest issues to be resolved for all settlements in all eras of humanity. Infrastructure problems are likely to occur over time in cities that have grown more than expected. It is accepted all over the world today that the solution of the logistics problem in such settlements is to improve the infrastructure and balance the transportation demand between different modes of transportation and to establish special centers where integrated activities will be carried out. Choosing the location of these logistics centers by decision makers raises a "prioritized" cost problem. A subject became widespread in the last decade in Turkey has been selected. The current situation of the logistic villages has been evaluated and a construction ranking has been obtained. This study constituted a verification for the state-ordered construction sequence. It is believed that simple and understandable construction needs can guide decision makers in the logistics village study area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Commonly encountered in cold chain logistics, third-party distribution firms are required to deliver temperature-sensitive food products to various retailers with two kinds of time-window constraints: (1) the delivery service must begin within the time windows imposed by the retailers (called node time windows) and (2) each vehicle route is available only in a predefined time interval prescribed by the government (called arc time windows). We study the effects of the retailer time window type (i.e., density of the node time-window constraints) and other cost-related factors on a distribution firm's legitimacy choice (i.e., the firm chooses to either comply with or violate the governmental time-window policy), food quality, and pollutant emissions in the urban environment. We model the problem as an intractable vehicle routing problem with node and arc time windows and develop a genetic algorithm to tackle it. We conduct a case study to generate the managerial insights on dealing with time windows. We find that the governmental time windows will increase the distribution cost. The governmental time windows has a negative effect on pollutant emissions while showing a positive effect on food safety. Given governmental time windows, a higher demand for node time windows will result in more governmental time-window violations or lower vehicle load factor, which depends on the vehicle fixed cost, fuel price, and government penalty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates how supportive urban freight transport (UFT) policies work in conjunction with stakeholder collaboration to support public-led urban consolidation centre (UCC) developments. The methodology was a multiple case study approach, comparing cases in Sweden and Scotland, two countries that are more/less advanced in their approach to UFT policy. The key finding reveals that while UFT policies such as time window restrictions can support successful UCCs, they cannot be considered in isolation from the collaborative UFT policy setting established by the local authority. A successful development also requires a commitment to financially support the UCC over at least the medium term, allowing time for the system to mature and collaborative service offerings to be developed. The findings of this study can be used by local authorities to establish a supportive UFT policy setting, as well as specifically designing policy packages in conjunction with UCC business models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of electric vehicles (EVs) lies in the fact that they are seen as a key solution to the climate change problem. In the last decade, this topic has received significant interest from the scientific community, contributing to publications in different areas. However, the existing literature is fragmented, and efforts have not been made to categorize and analyze it from a freight logistics perspective. This work aims to fill this gap by presenting a systematic literature review (SLR) of the potential impacts of EVs on sustainable road-freight transport operations, including in urban areas. We reviewed 237 peer-reviewed articles for bibliometric and literature classification analysis, whereby 119 articles were subsequently studied for content analysis and research gaps related to sustainability approaches. The bibliometric analysis showed significant growth in the body of research in the past two years, reflected in the number of journal papers, authors, and references. In the literature and keywords analysis, we identified five main categories and research areas: economic and competitive aspects, city logistics, environmental sustainability, vehicle fleet operations, and infrastructure and technology. In addition, this paper revealed eight key research gaps for future research: multimodal integration, long-haul and heavy-duty truck approaches, emerging economies, business models, social factors, charging infrastructure inclusion, and fleet replacement policies. These findings can enlighten researchers and practitioners toward sustainable research and real-life applications of electromobility in freight logistics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to quantify the environmental and economic impacts of a low emission zone in the context of urban freight transport. The research's originality lies in its combination of behavioral data, urban freight transport and environmental models, and cost-benefit analysis methodologies. Through this methodological framework, we examine the costs and benefits of implementing a low emission zone using different scenarios with varying perimeters and environmental requirements in the urban area of Lyon. The findings of this study suggest that increasing the size of the perimeter is more economically and environmentally efficient than tightening the level of environmental standards. • We propose a three-step methodology for an ex-ante evaluation of the impacts of a LEZ. • The analysis couples environmental and economic impacts for urban freight. • We apply the methodology to the current LEZ in the City of Lyon. • Increase the LEZ size is more effective than tighten the environmental standards. • The benefit of air quality improvements is less than the fleet renewal cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crowdshipping implies involving nonprofessional operators in transporting goods. While its financial benefits are easy to grasp, its environmental implications much depend on the transportation mode used and whether trips are dedicated or non-dedicated. One way of greening crowdshipping services is to use public transportation (less polluting) as a mode of transportation and commuters as bringers (non-dedicated trips). This, in fact, allows minimizing both pollution and congestion at the same time. While conceptually interesting and theoretically self-evident this is practically difficult to implement and much under-studied. A literature review and in-depth interviews are the methods used in sequence to tackle the issue discussed above. The added value this paper produces is a confirmation of already existing research foci, an extension of the research agenda thanks to the investigation of adjacent research fields (passenger and freight urban integration), an enlargement of the critical factors thanks to the practical knowledge deriving form crowdshipping operators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inland navigation is hardly ever used to transport cargo in cities. In most urban areas, it is performed almost exclusively via road transport, with the virtual exclusion of rail and inland transport. Research and implementation projects in several European cities have shown that employing inland navigation is a viable alternative for road transport in urban areas. The research involved a case study of transporting the same number of 40-foot containers by inland waterway and road and then comparing the results in terms of transport time, transport costs, and carbon dioxide emissions between two metropolitan areas in Poland. The article shows that River Information Services (RIS) system can contribute to improving freight transport efficiency not only on longer routes, but also in urban and inter-urban conditions. The findings were that inland shipping is much cheaper and more environmentally friendly, but transport takes much longer and is not always possible due to insufficient waterway infrastructure. The paper can be used as a road map to proceed with new approach to planning urban and inter-urban logistics, with the use of inland navigation supported by the RIS system. The study delivers evidence that the main benefits of using RIS for urban logistics are: optimization of the cargo route, improved supervision and control of cargo transport, optimization of inter-branch transport, optimization of the use of fleet, more efficient use of technical infrastructure of waterways, combination of many recipients/senders into one transport, and reduction of administrative barriers.

Surges in e-commerce sales represent a huge challenge for urban freight transport. Parcel lockers constitute a valid solution for addressing the challenges home deliveries imply. In fact, eliminating courier–consumer contact (also relevant for health-related issues, as made evident by the COVID-19 pandemic) and delivering in fewer predefined places might help coping mechanisms for missed deliveries substantially. Furthermore, this option enables consolidated shipping and reduced delivery trip costs. This paper analyses and compares consumer preferences for alternative collection strategies. It investigates home delivery vs. parcel locker use and forecasts their future market shares. This is performed based on both customer socio-economic variables and the attributes characterising these alternative logistic fulfilment strategies. The case study considered tests upon a stated preference survey deployed in the city of Rome. The investigation specifically targeted young people (i.e., population under 30 years) since they represent early adopters. Discrete choice models allow both quantifying the monetary value of parcel lockers attributes (i.e., willingness to pay measures) and estimating the potential demand for this innovative delivery scheme. Results show that distance and accessibility are the main choice determinants. Furthermore, there is an overall high propensity to adopt parcel lockers. This research can support policymakers when implementing such solutions.

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.

Freight tram systems can potentially reduce commercial road vehicle use and, consequently, reduce congestion, accidents, air pollution, noise levels, and road maintenance costs. This paper explores the new application for the urban rail system as a sustainable solution for urban freight distribution. A significant problem in using rail for urban freight is determining the most efficient tram route, in terms of related costs and accessibility for the distribution centers and end-users. The study takes a systematic approach, based on identifying scenarios, existing tramlines, traveled distances, and time durations, and appraises the scheme through an energy consumption analysis to assess a hypothetical freight tram scheme. In a German case study in Berlin, a freight tram system delivered the goods of five delivery companies from their logistics hubs in the Pankow district to a micro depot instead of to the trucks. Three different path scenarios from logistics hubs to the micro depot were developed, to make comparisons based on energy consumption. Freight tram implementation in Berlin (compared to the current situation) resulted in a reduction of more than 7 tons of CO2 emissions per year, and 60 road-vehicle-kilometers per day, in exchange for 275 MJ of daily electric consumption.

Abstract 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.

Abstract Purpose This paper proposes an innovative approach to decision-making processes for urban freight planning that could easily be transferred across cities while capable of jointly taking into account: (1) all the conceivable and updated urban freight transport (UFT) measures that should apply to the specific city culture, structure and evolution, (2) all the relevant stakeholders and successfully involve them from the beginning, (3) behavioural, technical, operational, organisational and financial issues. Methods The methodology is organised and deployed in three phases, following three different approaches, i.e.: a “desk approach” for data acquisition and knowledge-based policy rankings; a “living lab approach” to foster stakeholders’ engagement in co-creating policies; a “modelling approach” to evaluate policies and find/define an optimised mix of shared applicable/effective policies. Results The three-phase methodology supports public authorities in: (a) increasing knowledge and understanding of the most innovative context-specific UFT policies; (b) integrating UFT policies in strategic urban planning via collaborative participation/governance processes; (c) developing an ex-ante behaviourally consistent, financially robust and technically compatible assessment of shared UFT policy mixes while providing appropriate instruments to facilitate policy adoption and deployment. Conclusions The proposed methodology contributes to the identification and development of effective UFT solutions. Bringing together knowledge acquisition, policy co-creation, behaviour change analysis within a single methodological approach, aimed at identifying an optimised policy package, is both new and needed.

This paper proposes a framework that supports the collection and classification of information about the features of a city relevant to Urban Freight Transport (UFT). The information is organized in a framework of 28 different layers that are then stored in a Geographic Information System (GIS) tool to enable efficient data retrieval and effective information graphical display. The resulting GIS tool thus represents a decision support system for UFT problems, providing decision makers and stakeholders with a wide range of easy to understand information aimed to support the identification and preliminary evaluation of UFT solutions. Moreover, by providing a standardized set of features and sources of information, the framework enables the comparison of different cities. To illustrate the benefits, prototypical real-scale tests based on the framework have been realized in two mid-sized European cities: Bergamo (North of Italy) and Luxembourg. For both cities, data were mainly collected from publicly available sources and organized according to the framework. The data and information collected have been used in collaboration with the stakeholders in order to identify the priorities of intervention and evaluate alternative UFT solutions. The real-scale applications confirmed the usability and effectiveness of the framework in engaging stakeholders and support the process of envisioning shared UFT solutions.

In order to select the optimal transportation route among alternative transportation routes more accurately and objectively, the choice of urban oversize cargo transportation routes was studied by taking the optimization weight–TOPSIS combination method for specific calculations. This model, based on an entropy weight method, cloud model, and TOPSIS method, combines the superiority of the cloud model for reflecting the randomness and discreteness of subjective evaluation with the advantages of the TOPSIS method in dealing with the problem of multi-objective programming. Through selecting and classifying several the main road influencing factors of urban oversize cargo transportation, based on the data of four urban roads, the entropy weight method is used to initially determine the weights of each influencing factor, the cloud model is used to optimize weights, the TOPSIS method is used to compare and evaluate the paths, and the optimal transportation route is selected on this basis. The results showed that the optimization weight–TOPSIS method is scientific and accurate for the multi-objective planning of oversize cargo transportation route selection, and solves the problem of the impact of subjective factors in existing methods and the difficulty of processing multiple influencing factors. The Pearson consistency test results show that the Pearson correlation coefficient between the proposed method and the actual oversize cargo transportation route selection is 0.995, which is higher than the calculation results without using the combination weight.

This paper proposes an optimization framework for urban transportation networks' (re-)design which explicitly takes into account the specific decision-making processes of ordinary users and logistic operators. Ordinary users are typically commuters whose travels consist of well-defined pairs of origin and destination points, while logistic operators make deliveries at multiple locations. Obviously, these two user classes have different objectives and scopes of action. These differences are seldom considered in traffic research since most models aggregate the flow demand in OD matrices and use assignment models to predict the response of all users as if the dynamics of their optimization processes were of the same nature. This work demonstrates that better results can be achieved if the particular features of each user class are included in the models. It potentially improves the estimation of the responses and allows managers to shape their control measures to address specific user needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most important problems in the cities is atmospheric emission of anthropogenic origin. This problem is the key challenge mostly for city municipalities but also for business stakeholders, which are involved in freight transport at urban areas. One of the most important and efficient solutions to reduce this negative impact is implementation of electric vehicles. In recent years many activities and developments in this area have been done. This paper is focused on utilization of multi-criteria analysis for electric vehicles selection in the context of their usability for deliveries realization in cities. Moreover, it also presents general issues regarding the use of alternative fuels in motor vehicles, with emphasis on electric vehicles. It discusses the extent to which electric vehicles are used. It describes the key parameters for determining the usability of electric vehicles in urban deliveries. Based on the formulated assumptions, a multi-criteria model is proposed to enable selecting, out of the defined vehicles catalogue, solutions that are optimal in terms of potential effectiveness. The general aim of the paper is to support the logistics companies' decision makers in the improvement of the freight vehicles fleets, taking into account the sustainable city logistics expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 Bogotá, 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Individual freight transport policies have been investigated in the literature extensively in the last 10–15 years, yet there has surprisingly been very little attention to the process of selecting urban freight transport (UFT) policy measures. This study focuses on UFT policy choice by local authorities, investigating how policy context, resource availability and the need for legitimacy influence how local authorities seek and select UFT specific policies. The methodology is a cross-case analysis of eleven cities across three countries (Sweden, England and Scotland), based on interview and documentary data. Findings reveal that all cities have the same high-level goals, such as reducing emissions and congestion, supporting the economy and improving quality of life. However, in most cases these rather general goals are not broken down into clear objectives with targets that can be measured. Therefore, selected UFT policy measures are chosen from a pool of common measures (primarily access restrictions such as time windows and weight restrictions), but without monitored targets that determine whether or not they are achieving objectives. This does not necessarily mean that the measures chosen are inappropriate, but that there is a lack of a strategic approach to setting and reviewing measures according to achieving specific policy goals. This is primarily a result of a lack of resources and dedicated UFT personnel, as well as challenges related to public acceptability of restrictive policies. Highlights • All cities have the same high-level goals, such as reducing emissions and congestion. • Goals are not broken down into clear objectives with targets that can be measured. • UFT measures chosen from a pool of commonly accepted measures. • Main challenges were a lack of dedicated UFT personnel and public acceptability. • Need for increased learning from and collaboration with private sector operators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a framework that supports the collection and classification of information about the features of a city relevant to Urban Freight Transport (UFT). The information is organized in a framework of 28 different layers that are then stored in a Geographic Information System (GIS) tool to enable efficient data retrieval and effective information graphical display. The resulting GIS tool thus represents a decision support system for UFT problems, providing decision makers and stakeholders with a wide range of easy to understand information aimed to support the identification and preliminary evaluation of UFT solutions. Moreover, by providing a standardized set of features and sources of information, the framework enables the comparison of different cities. To illustrate the benefits, prototypical real-scale tests based on the framework have been realized in two mid-sized European cities: Bergamo (North of Italy) and Luxembourg. For both cities, data were mainly collected from publicly available sources and organized according to the framework. The data and information collected have been used in collaboration with the stakeholders in order to identify the priorities of intervention and evaluate alternative UFT solutions. The real-scale applications confirmed the usability and effectiveness of the framework in engaging stakeholders and support the process of envisioning shared UFT solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]