Laetitia Dablanc

Logistics Sprawl: Differential Warehousing Development Patterns in Los Angeles, California, and Seattle, Washington

The warehousing industry experienced a period of rapid growth from 1998 to 2009. This paper compares the growth in geographic distribution of warehouses in the Los Angeles, California, and Seattle, Washington, metropolitan areas during that period. These two West Coast cities were chosen because of their geographic spread, proximity to major ports, as well as their size difference. The phenomenon of logistics sprawl, or the movement of logistics facilities away from urban centers, which has been demonstrated in past research for the Atlanta, Georgia, and Paris regions, is examined for the two metropolitan areas. To measure sprawl, the barycenter, or geographic center of warehousing establishments, is determined, as is the average distance of warehouses to that center. The average distance of warehouses to the warehousing barycenter was compared with the average distance from the barycenter for all establishments. Between 1998 and 2009, warehousing in Los Angeles sprawled considerably, with the average distance increasing from 25.91 to 31.96 mi, an increase of more than 6 mi. However in Seattle, the region locations remained relatively stable, showing a slight decrease in average distance from the geographic center. Possible explanations for that difference are discussed.

The rise of on-demand ‘Instant Deliveries’ in European cities

ABSTRACT This exploratory paper contributes to a new body of research that investigates the potential of digital market places to disrupt transport and mobility services. We are specifically looking at the urban freight sector, where numerous app-based services have emerged in recent years. The paper specifically looks at ‘instant deliveries,’ i.e. services providing on-demand delivery within two hours – by either private individuals, independent contractors, or employees – by connecting consignors, couriers and consignees via a digital platform. The paper provides an overview of the main issues concerning instant deliveries, supported by data (including a survey of 96 courier delivery providers) and examples. After presenting a typology of companies (digital platforms) involved in ‘instant deliveries,’ we question in what way they transform the urban freight current patterns. We highlight four issues, discussing their potential to impact urban freight services and related policies in European cities: 1) Freight trips and data; 2) Business models; 3) Labor legislation and work conditions; and 4) Local public policies. We conclude by saying that predicting the medium-term consequences of these changes is difficult, but it is essential that city planning and policies take account of these developments and consider how planning and possibly regulation needs to be adapted to these new ways of doing things.

Testing the “Freight Landscape” Concept for Paris

The concept of “freight landscape,” the basis for a modeling approach for urban freight traffic estimation using commonly available datasets, was proposed in 2017 with a case study applying it to the Los Angeles metropolitan area. To extend the scope of that research, we conduct another case study using data from the Paris region, France. We estimate spatial lag models using population, employment, or establishment transportation accessibilities as explanatory variables and network-based truck traffic as the dependent variable, modifying the approach used in the Los Angeles study. We identify differences in the characteristics of the variables and the models between the Los Angeles and Paris cases, each having a distinctively different urban structure. While the models estimated for the Paris region provide beneficial insights into the relationships between freight landscape indicators and urban freight traffic, the complex correlation structure among indicators, as well as the limitation of the models for specifying the areas of very high truck traffic, underlines the need for further research on the modeling framework and for more case studies.

Distribuição urbana de mercadorias e planos de mobilidade de carga: Oportunidades para municípios brasileiros

No documento apresenta conceitos sobre Solucoes de Logistica Urbana de Baixo Carbono, o contexto dos planos de mobilidade de carga no Brasil, exemplos de formas de obtencao de dados e sugestoes de solucoes de logisticas urbana que podem ser implementadas de acordo com o tamanho do municipio.