Hans Quak

Customized Solutions for Sustainable City Logistics: The Viability of Urban Freight Consolidation Centres

The current way of organizing the urban freight transport system is inefficient and generates an unsound basis for sustainable development. Urban freight transport is widely recognized for its unsustainable impacts on the environment. The common perception is that the current urban freight transport system has negative impacts on all three sustainability P’s: people, profit and planet, also known as the social, economic and environmental issues of sustainability.

Relevance of City Logistics Modelling Efforts: A Review

Abstract This paper presents a review of city logistics (also known as urban freight transportation) modelling efforts reported in the literature for urban freight analysis. The review is based on an extensive search of the academic literature. We position the contributions in a framework that takes into account the diversity and complexity found in the present-day city logistics practice. The framework covers the fundamental aspects in the modelling selection process, including: (1) the stakeholders involved in the model, (2) the defining criteria, that is the descriptor for modelling purpose, (3) the objective of the model and (4) the solution approach implemented for achieving the objective. In our discussion and overview, we take these situational factors as the starting point for categorizing and evaluating the city logistics modelling literature. The review analyses the trends of city logistics modelling research in terms of its relevance to city logistics problems and attempts to identify missing links in modelling the urban freight domain.

City Logistics: A Chaos between Research and Policy Making? A Review

Although the interest in urban freight transport is growing, it is commonly seen as an area where there is, for several reasons, a lack of research, especially if it is compared with the amount of research that deals with passenger transport. The attention of governments especially for urban goods movement has increased over recent years and with that the number of studies in the urban goods movement field. However, the practice of city logistics policies is not very often the result of detailed analyses and evaluations. This is reflected in similar types of regulations repeated through the different cities regardless of their characteristics, the same schedules for time windows and load zones, and the failure to recognize different types of urban distribution which require different types of regulations. Apart from copying regulation frameworks, however, cities hardly share information, knowledge or cooperation. The lack of national or regional bodies dealing with city logistics, as there exist for urban passenger traffic, is significant. In this paper the authors address the main research contributions in city logistics and try to illustrate how the research contributions are (not) related to the daily practice of policymaking and town planning. Finally the paper ends with the conclusion that a real gap exists between research and practice and the paper provides some explanations, conditions and directions for setting up new research projects.

Towards zero emission urban logistics: Challenges and issues for implementation of electric freight vehicles in city logistics

Purpose Electric freight vehicles (EFVs) are one of the solutions to improve city logistics’ sustainability. EFVs, that are electric powered light and heavy vehicles with a number plate, have the potential to make zero emission city logistics possible within the urban area. However, although trials have been undertaken for the last years, large-scale usage of EFVs in city logistics does not occur yet. EFVs are technically possi- ble, but the implementation of EFVs in practice is relatively limited. Design This chapter examines by reviewing current and past EFV implementations, what are the challenges, barriers and success factors for EFVs in city logistics operations. EFVs have especially positive envir- onmental effects, but are overall usually more expensive (especially in procurement) than conventional vehicles. Besides, other technical and operational issues remain to be solved, and many uncertainties still exist on long-term usage. Findings Three main barriers for large-scale EFV uptake are identi- fied. The current logistics concepts are developed for conventional vehi- cles and should be redesigned to fit EFVs better. Local authorities’ support is essential in order to find a positive (or not too negative) business case. And EFV implementation requires companies that want to be sustainable. This contribution presents examples of how some companies or authorities deal with these barriers. Value This chapter concludes by identifying elements that are necessary for acceleration of EFV uptake in city logistics operations. ©2014 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited All rights of reproduction in any form reserved