by Walther Ploos van Amstel
The further development of local policies to stimulate more CO2-productivity in city logistics and a shift to zero-emission city logistics is inevitable: growing political and societal pressure demands it. This push can already be recognized in the existing variety of local regulations, customized to different local circumstances in different cities or parts of cities.
Regulatory policies aim at reducing the negative effects of urban freight transportation, especially those related to traffic, emissions and noise. Nonetheless, stakeholders in city logistics often have divergent objectives, which lead to difficulties upon defining the best possible choices regarding regulation. A new paper on HoReCa deliveries in Paris by MINES ParisTech presents a multi-agent …
Several indicators have been established to monitor and evaluate the sustainability of cities. Urban freight and related transportation activities are under represented in these established frameworks despite the substantial negative impact of urban freight on the environment, society and economy. The result is the lack of an understanding of freight flows’ impact on the liveability of …
Across Europe there are examples of existing tram networks being used to attract businesses to use the network for urban freight transport. Could this extension help make a success of trams in other cities in the years ahead? The Guardian reports about a number of European initiatives in Dresden (D) and Saint-Étienne (F). These cities using …
Growth in e-commerce has led to increasing use of light goods vehicles for parcel deliveries in urban areas. A new paper by UK researchers provides an insight into the reasons behind this growth and the resulting effort required to meet the exacting parcel services offered by e-retailers which often lead to poor vehicle utilisation in the …
Since the amount and complexity of urban shipments is increasing drastically, cities are facing new challenges such as illegal parking and more emissions. Common logistic practices need to be reconsidered by all participants to foster smarter urban logistic solutions.
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, delivery operations are carried out by using passengers’ excess capacity on journeys that are already taking place, resulting in economic, social and environmental benefits.
Waste collection is an important volume in city logistics today. In the LEVV-LOGIC project the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (NL) performed research on waste and the potential use of light commercial vehicles for waste collection in cities.
Paris wants to be a carbon-neutral city in 2050, thats recycles its waste, improves the water cycle, organises city logistics differently and has renewable energy resources. Achieving these goals engages Paris in a double revolution, both industrial and cultural. In this context, the Atelier Parisien d’Urbanisme (Apur) made a first prospective atlas of the Great Urban Services of …
The Center of Excellence for Sustainable Urban Freight Systems (CoE-SUFS) is dedicated to investigating new ways of infusing sustainability and efficiency into the way businesses send and receive goods. The new $4 million center, recognized as a Volvo Research and Educational Foundations (VREF) Center of Excellence, is funded by the VREF through its Future Urban Transport research program.