by Walther Ploos van Amstel
Transportation is one of the essential services in cities that contribute to the quality of life. As a result, efficient methods for transport planning have become increasingly important. Decision makers have considered collaborative strategies to reduce the overall cost of the supply process and to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of urban logistics systems.
The uptake of electric vehicle (EV) technology appears to be progressing faster than expected, with industry forecasts routinely being revised upwards. This is in part the result of strong policy stimulus from the Chinese and Western governments, but is also increasingly due to favorable economics as battery costs have tumbled in recent years.
It is an inspiring dream image of the future, but also a vision that is slowly turning into reality. The use of human-powered vehicles in urban distribution is increasing, but how should we adapt the city to accommodate these newcomers?
The SUCCESS project targeted the construction industry as a sector with a major impact on city logistics which has an un-exploited potential of improvement as regards the efficiency of trips associated with the delivery of goods, waste and service in EU cities. The SUCCESS project goal is to provide tools and answers to the challenges …
New opportunities arise to design profitable last-mile delivery strategies. In particular, companies can influence customer behavior by choosing the lead-times or time-slots that are offered (capacity controls) and as well as their associated fees (pricing controls). These decisions ultimately seek to balance the capacity utilization and increase the profitability of the delivery operation.
The growth of urban populations will generate a need to further develop cities, which will lead to a significant increase in construction work in cities. Because of the change from building in greenfield areas to brownfield areas, more people will experience the accompanying nuisances the increase of construction work brings.
As the steady rise of e-commerce pushes logistics companies and their retail partners to deliver more parcels, faster, speedy delivery is becoming a major competitive advantage. And no company has capitalized on this opening like Amazon, which has made a name for itself in fulfillment with its Prime and Prime Now delivery offerings.
Urban Consolidation Centres (UCCs) are often conceived as an enabler to alleviate negative effects associated with distribution of goods in cities, such as traffic congestion and hazardous emissions. UCCs not only have the potential to reduce these effects but also provide alternative distribution solutions by introducing new transhipment points.
More European cities see construction logistics as part of urban freight policies, but also a lot of European cities do not have any initiatives yet. However, the awareness to deal with urban construction logistics is growing. These are the conclusions of the latest SUCCESS-report on the experience and maturity of 12 European cities in construction logistics.
Urban consolidation centres (UCCs) are a popular measure in city logistics. However, many UCCs strongly rely on government subsidies and are granted a short life because of their inability to reach financial sustainability. Despite the interest from both the practitioners and the research community, there are a limited number of quantitative contributions that investigate the …