City Logistics

The Urban Distribution (or Consolidation) Centers (CDU) are one of the available solutions for the last mile logistics that have gained greater interest in both academic and transportation corporate fields. Despite the widespread of the projects involving CDUs, only few of them are recognized as effective over the years. In this paper, through a case survey methodology, we identified the common elements of successful projects and aspects that have instead caused their failure; the final aim is to identify best practices and common mistakes in developing a new urban distribution center project.

The advantages of logistics centers for companies, cities, and countries have been discussed in the literature and generally mathematical model-based evaluations besides multi-criteria approaches are proposed for site selection processes. However, since mathematical modeling of multiple site selection often turns out to be NP-hard problem structure, it is not always possible to obtain an optimal solution by the solvers. For this reason, various meta-heuristic approaches have emerged to solve these complex models. In this context, the aim of this study is to propose an integrated methodology which seeks an optimum result efficiently regarding a logistics center location selection problem. Thus, the optimal clustering of logistics mobility in a metropolitan area was carried out with GIS and a meta-heuristic approach. GIS produced the spatial information needed by p-median model, then the meta-heuristic approach determined the optimal result that considers the logistics costs. BPSO algorithm has employed as the meta-heuristic and it is observed that the algorithm can reach the optimum results within superior times for the problem sizes tested where binary integer programming verified the optimums and the algorithm continued to reach improved solutions where the exact algorithms failed for larger instances. The integrated solution methodology is applied to a large metropolitan region and it is found that it can be used properly by the urban city planners and supply chain managers to analyze critical nodes of transportation networks of megacities.

Utvecklingen av samordnad distribution (samdistribution eller samlastningssystem) är ett tema inom transportlogistiklösningar som inleddes i Sverige i slutet av 1970-talet. Temat har fortfarande stor betydelse inom effektiviseringen av transportlogistik. Intresse och behov av effektivare logistiklösningar uppkommer i samband med flera frågor, exempelvis: a) stadsmiljökvalitet – särskilt inom reducering av buller, gasutsläpp, trängsel och trafiksäkerhetsrisker; b) ekonomiskt – att skapa förutsättningar för kommunen att utveckla det lokala näringslivet, reducering av transportkostnader; och c) socialt – bättre livskvalitet.
I Sverige har flera kommuner tagit initiativ att starta upp samordnad distribution. Bland de andra kommunernas initiativ utmärker sig Borlängesinitiativet. Initiativet blev ett tanke-mönster – en modell – för att organisera kostnadseffektiva transporter samt ett exempel där krav på miljö och trafik¬säkerhet  ställdes på leverantörerna.
I det här arbetet indentifierar vi vilka logistiska och icke-logistiska aspekter en modell av samdistribution innebär. Vidare beskriver vi hur projektet Lolog – Lokal logistik har genomförts och hur omständigheterna ser ut efter projektets avslut. Falköping, Trollhättan och Vänersborg är de tre kommunerna som var direkt inblandade i Lolog-projektet. Vi räknar med att att bilda oss en uppfattning om vad effektivisering av kommunal varudistribution innebär.
Arbetet har genomförts med hjälp av litteraturstudier om samordnad distribution, intervju samt insamling av lokal information om Lolog-projektet. Vi anser att arbetet är användbart för att bättre kunna förstå frågor som rör lokala leveranser, samordnade transporter och upphandlingar.
Studien visade att samdistributionsmodellen omfattar planering och genomförande av de fysiska logistikaktiviteterna (som övertas av tredjepartslogistiken), ett inköpssystem (upphandlings¬processen) och ett gemensamt e-handelssystem (inköpsstöd). Vi saknar ett uppföljningssystem och fakta för att kunna bedöma effektiviseringen av logistik, miljö- och trafiksäkerhet. Vi anser att bättre förutsättningar för miljö- och trafiksäkerhet kan uppstå om kommunen lyckas med att ställa utvärderingskriterier som leder till ökade förändringar av leverantörernas utrustning i upphandlingsprocessen.
Obs.: Co-author Sandra Younes

This chapter proposes a general integrated demand modeling system developed within a simulation system to forecast both internal (transportation cost variations) and external (variations of pollution, noise and road accidents) direct effects of city logistics measures. In the first part, the paper considers the shopping and restocking components of urban freight mobility and the relative actor's choices that can be influenced by city logistics measures. The road simulation system is then considered with its various components, and the demand models are analyzed with particular attention to shopping demand models.

As current cities are attributed to particular dynamism consists of population density and increased urbanization, urban areas are facing some challenges for city logistics, both in terms of economic, environmental, and social impact. Especially, the debates over last-mile logistics are arising with inefficiencies in delivery cost (half truckload on delivery) and delivery time per parcel (unnecessary waiting-load periods at multiple stops) while inner-urban areas are especially suffered from traffic congestion, emission, and noise pollution. In this regard, smart cities as a concept with the potential to produce sustainable solutions to urban problems bring along with the need for innovative urban logistics systems to make conventional distribution channels of the city up to date. The key objective tackled in this paper can be defined as the identification of the city logistics schemes with highlighting current approaches in smart cities. The study adopts a systemic approach based on the typology of consolidation-distribution schemes in city logistics to define the feasibility of micro logistics initiatives from the scope of the smart city consisting of mobility, sustainability, and liveability. Thanks to a detailed examination of city logistics dynamics, this study can contribute theoretically to smart city logistics literature as well as practically the logistics sector.

The goal of essentially CO2-free city logistics in major urban centers by 2030 remains one of the most ambitious challenges that still seems very difficult to achieve. The efforts made so far by local governments have barely managed to counteract the freight demand growth in recent years. In this domain, the increasing penetration of the e-commerce (and vehicle flows) can further afflict air quality, traffic congestion, road safety and life quality in urban centers or can be guided by regulation to seize the opportunity to develop more livable cities. This paper aims at assessing the sustainability of future urban logistics developments, with an application to the case study of the city of Rome. Future exploratory scenarios are simulated through an aggregate multi-stage urban freight model and are assessed according to the measurement methodologies recommended by the joint European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme (EMEP)/European Environment Agency (EEA) inventory guidebook. The results show that the e-commerce penetration growth, which mainly implies a fragmentation of deliveries over space and time and an increase of smaller operating Light Goods Vehicles (LGVs), leads to an increase in overall vehicular mileage. This outcome, combined with forecasts on commercial vehicles distributions by fuel and eco-standards highlights that the transition to the latest petrol and diesel engines is already effective for reducing pollutant emissions, but not enough to reduce GHG emissions and energy consumption ; for a significant reduction of the latter, a shift towards more eco-sustainable alternative fuels and the optimization of the distances traveled by LGVs appears necessary.

U ovom seminarskom radu biti će opisana logistika u gradovima koja se u današnje vrijeme sve više koristi kao tema znanstvenih istraživanja. Koristeći većinom članke pronađene na internetu i jedne knjige pokušati će se dati karakteristike logistike u gradovima. U prvom dijelu rada će se opisati, odnosno dati kratak uvod u logistiku koja se javlja u urbanim naseljima. Kako bi shvatili što je zapravo gradska logistika dati će se definicija tog pojma i objasniti će generatori, tj. pokretači takve logistike i koja prijevozna sredstva se javljaju u takvoj logistiki. Drugi dio ovog seminarskog rada će se bazirati na problemima s kojima se susreće gradska logistika i ti problemi će se pobrojati kao i moguća rješenja za nabrojane probleme. Pred kraj slijede metode distribucije robe i njihov pojedinačan opis, dok na samom kraju je dan zaključak koji će rezimirati sve navedeno zajedno sa mojim vlastitim razmišljanjem o toj temi.

The city centre of Amsterdam is transforming to a more attractive place for pedestrians and cyclists, by creating more space for these slow modalities. Entrepreneurs see their profits growing, since an attractive city centre attracts more customers for their commercial facilities. However, the shops need to be supplied as well. With more space given to the slow modalities, the urban logistics sector has less space to deliver goods. On the other side the logistics movements have many negative effects on the walkability in cities too. This can be marked as a paradox, where entrepreneurs on one side profit from the more attractive city centre, while on the other side they have problems with supplying their shops and catering facilities. In practice urban logistics and walkability are conflicting with each other. In Amsterdam this is a current issue, where the pressure on the city centre is much discussed. This research takes the view of the pedestrian and analyses the pressure of urban logistics on the city centre. By looking at the Haarlemmerstraat/Haarlemmerdijk it became clear that the urban logistics are affecting the shopping area in such a negative way that the walkability in the street is under pressure. This is not striking, because with 30.000 cyclists, and a few thousand pedestrians a day the street is already crowded. Taking in mind that the high commercial density and high commercial diversity of the approximately 250 commercial facilities leads to 200-300 logistics movements a day the problem is even getting worse. Nevertheless a reduction between 10% and 20% of logistics movements is possible by implementing potential solutions. This will solve part of the problems in the Haarlemmerstraat/Haarlemmerdijk and enlarge the walkability in the area. However more research is needed to get a better insight in the whole logistics process. Also the stakeholders should cooperate more to reach this goal and the gap between the policymakers and the real life situation should be bridged.

ii iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge that I could not have completed this dissertation research without the thoughtful and kind supports of many people, including faculty members, senior researchers, friends and family. I am profoundly grateful to my academic advisor and dissertation committee chair, Professor Kazuya Kawamura. I believe my studies at the PhD program were never as meaningful as they actually are without having Kazuya as my advisor. Kazuya is extremely knowledgeable and insightful and his advices and comments always hit the nail on the head. To discuss with Kazuya about research issues is exciting and inspiring. In addition to his intellectual supports, he seriously cared about my future success as a researcher and offered me a lot of opportunities to work with other researchers and to publicize myself. I appreciate the supports of the dissertation and preliminary committee members. Prof. Mohammadian, Prof. Derrible and Dr. Auld provided me beneficial comments and advices on the model specifications. I really enjoyed the constructive discussions on how to improve the models and expand them for the broader scope. Prof. Tilahun also gave me valuable advices on modeling.

Cities are the areas that consumer goods, building materials, household goods, many different types of waste and cargo are constantly in transit. Efficient and sustainable delivery solutions in urban areas are concluded by city logistics concepts. City logistics aims at the fast and reliable transportation of goods in terms of efficient and environmentally acceptable delivery tours. Concerning transportation, it seeks for approaches allowing for fast, accurate and reliable pickup and delivery operations as conducted by parcel services or waste disposal services. In this respect, effective vehicle routing approach is gaining more importance for improvement of urban freight transport efficiency and productivity, reducing traffic congestion, reducing the impact on the environment, correction adverse geographical results (migration, increased freight traffic, etc.). In this study vehicle routing in urban/city logistics publications will be analyzed and a recent literature review was conducted and implementations are sequenced. The paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the studies in the field of vehicle routing for city logistics, between the (2005) and the present day (2015).

The operation of transportation determines the efficiency of moving products. The progress in techniques and management principles improves the moving load, delivery speed, service quality, operation costs, the usage of facilities and energy saving. Transportation takes a crucial part in the manipulation of logistic. Reviewing the current condition, a strong system needs a clear frame of logistics and a proper transport implements and techniques to link the producing procedures. The objective of the paper is to define the role of transportation in logistics for the reference of further improvement. The research was undertaken to assist logistics managers, researchers and transportation planners to define and comprehend the basic views of logistics and its various applications and the relationships between logistics and transportation.

Urban delivery, especially the last-mile delivery, has become an increasingly important area in the global supply chain
along with the boom of e-commerce. Delivery companies and merchants can introduce some innovative solutions such
as the equipment of autonomous vehicles (AVs) to decrease their operating costs, environmental impact, and social
risks during the delivery process. This paper mainly develops a mathematical model to get the best allocation of AVs
among city logistics centers (CLCs) as a mixed delivery method. The advantage of the presented model stems from
considering the equipment cost, the delivery cost, and the CO2 emission, which is measured through social carbon cost
(SCC). In addition, this paper establishes a risk model considering the impact of seasonal variations to evaluate the
infection risk of delivery during pandemic periods for four potential delivery scenarios: customers going to CLCs,
ordering online and picking-up at CLCs, delivering by traditional vehicles (TVs), and delivering by the mixed method
with the optimal allocation of AVs. The research finds the optimal allocation for a London case, reveals the relationship
between the nominal service capacity (NCpa) of CLCs and the optimal number of CLCs equipped with AVs, concludes
that the more CLCs are equipped with AVs, the fewer CO2 emissions and the fewer citizens will be infected, and
provides some managerial insights that may help delivery companies and merchants make appropriate decisions about
the allocation of AVs.

For the predicted growth of e-commerce, supply chains need to adapt to new conditions, so that delivery can be fast, cheap and reliable. The key to success is the last-mile product delivery (LMD) – the last stage of the supply chain, where the ordered product is delivered to the final consumer’s location. One innovative proposal puts foundations in a new delivery model where a professional delivery fleet (PF) is supplemented partially or fully with crowdshipping. The main idea of crowdshipping is to involve ordinary people – in our case in-store shoppers – in the delivery of packages to other customers. In return, occasional couriers (OC) are offered a small compensation. In hitherto formulated problems it was assumed that OCs always accept delivery tasks assigned to them. In this paper we consider OCs as independent agents, which are free to reject assignments. The main contribution of the paper is an original bi-level methodology for matching and routing problem in LMD with OCs and the PF. The goal is to use crowdshipping to reduce the total delivery cost in a same-day last-mile delivery system with respect to occasional couriers’ freedom to accept or reject the assigned delivery. We introduce probability to represent each OC’s willingness to perform the delivery to a given final customer. We study the OCs’ willingness to accept or reject delivery tasks assigned to them and the influence of their decision on the total delivery cost associated to both the OCs’ compensation fees and the delivery cost generated by the PF used for the delivery of remaining parcels.

The Urban Distribution (or Consolidation) Centers (CDU) are one of the available solutions for the last mile logistics that have gained greater interest in both academic and transportation corporate fields. Despite the widespread of the projects involving CDUs, only few of them are recognized as effective over the years. In this paper, through a case survey methodology, we identified the common elements of successful projects and aspects that have instead caused their failure; the final aim is to identify best practices and common mistakes in developing a new urban distribution center project.

The aim of the paper is to present some smart solutions which could be recognised as innovative solutions in both areas: technology and organisation. The above mentioned solution could be implemented by logistics, especially city logistics. However, there are two different topics with different meanings: sustainable development and the innovations – the concept of sustainability and innovation have important characteristic in common. Both terms represent concepts that are often poorly defined but they have positive connotations in most cases. The innovations and sustainable development are used as actual or supposed problem solvers in crises where a possible, immediate course of action is not discernible.

Jedną z konsekwencji rozwoju cywilizacyjnego miast jest wzrost potrzeb obsługi dostaw realizowanych na ich obszarze, a ściślej-w obrębie centrum. Realizacja dostaw napotyka jednak na wiele problemów, jak wkomponowanie się w ruch komunikacji miejskiej i indywidualnej, eskalacja kongestii oraz konieczność neutralizacji negatywnego oddziaływania na środowisko naturalne, zgodnie z założeniami rozwijanej coraz powszechniej idei zrównoważonych miast. Logistyka miasta proponuje wiele rozwiązań, które mogą łagodzić wskazane problemy. Jednym z nich może być wykorzystanie tramwaju towarowego. Celem rozważań jest przybliżenie tego rozwiązania. Rozważania podparte będą przykładami wykorzystania tramwajów towarowych we Wrocławiu, Dreźnie i Zurychu.

Celem artykułu jest prezentacja wybranych zagadnień i kierunków działań
w zakresie wdrażania rozwiązań projektowych logistyki miejskiej w kontekście ich skuteczności
i efektywności. W pierwszej części artykułu zaprezentowano ogólnie istotę projektu
z zakresu logistyki miejskiej. Następnie wskazano poziomy i działania warunkujące skuteczną
i efektywną implementację projektów logistyki miejskiej wraz z zestawieniem proponowanych
analiz, technik i narzędzi możliwych do wykorzystania na każdym etapie ich wdrażania.
Druga część pracy zawiera klasyfikację omawianych projektów z uwzględnieniem
takich kryteriów, jak wielkość nakładów inwestycyjnych oraz konieczność działań i regulacji
administracyjno-prawnych niezbędnych do wdrożenia planowanego przedsięwzięcia. W tej
części pracy wskazano również listę instrumentów, jakimi władze lokalne mogą wpływać
na skuteczne i efektywne wdrażanie rozwiązań projektowych z zakresu logistyki miejskiej.

The paper, within the field of city logistics sustainability, recalls the overview of measures to be implemented, in a “what if” framework, with strong references to the ex-post assessment of environmental impacts. It provides a tool for supporting the definition of city logistics scenarios that should have to be evaluated ex-ante by simulation models. The analysis is done in relation to the goals of environmental sustainability to be pursued and the main characteristics of cities (e.g. population). The environmental sustainability in terms of carbon dioxide is deepened. In fact, the carbon dioxide can be considered a proxy variable of air pollution emission.

Urban population is steadily growing, bringing along a manifold increase of demand for goods and services, mainly concentrated in relatively limited or overly constrained areas. This is inevitably leading cities around the world to face increasing challenges in terms of efficient transportation of persons and goods, while controlling and ideally reducing its negative impacts on the quality of life of their citizens. City logistics projects (CLP) try to address the issue, with the aim at optimizing the logistics and transport activities by public and private actors in urban areas while considering the traffic environment, the traffic congestion and energy consumption within the framework of a market economy. In Bergamo, as part of a larger project, called Bergamo 2.(035) A new Urban Concept in a changing World led by the University of Bergamo, the Bergamo Logistica project aims to identify and analyze the main issues, the ongoing projects and initiatives, and the ideal directions of development in a small-medium city. Therefore, in this paper, we discuss the main evidences and findings gathered so far through several investigation activities, including literature analysis, workshops and interviews with the main stakeholders. In doing this, we mainly assume an industrial engineering perspective, highlighting the main issues to address and the main barrier against the development of a city logistics project, as well as the possible contribution the engineering discipline can provide.

Sustainable urban transport is fundamental not only for economic growth but also for the environmental protection, thus all logistics activities within the cities should be organized in a way to be environmentally friendly. The article aims at presenting the environmental sustainability of city logistics measures from different stakeholder perspectives. In the paper, a multi-method approach was implemented: literature review, text analysis, text mining, and statistical analysis. The paper presents how the stakeholders perceive urban logistics, if they see the need for coordination of its elements, who should be responsible for it, and what areas are the most important for them. The main task of this study is to recognize the priorities of different stakeholders. In consequence, the final effect of this article is an insight that is valuable not only for the local authorities but for many stakeholders, groups operating within the city that are and in many cases cooperating within the...

The pursuit of sustainable solutions for moving goods in urban areas with minimum impacts on the society and the environment is nowadays a broadly discussed subject. To better frame the research interests in this area, in this paper we discuss the main evidences emerged from a systematic literature review regarding the field of city logistics, which encompasses (but is not limited to) the transportation of goods inside and across urban centers. Following our research protocol, we collected and analyzed a corpus of papers from which we identified i) the most popular research methodologies adopted to study city logistics issues, ii) how research methodologies and topics have evolved through years, and iii) the emerging gaps. This study represents a starting point to understand the future evolution and topics to investigate concerning city logistics.

Introduction European Commission has promoted actions and policies with the aim of reducing the negative impacts on traffic and environment caused by city logistics. One increasingly popular measure is the use of cargo bikes in city logistics due to their improved energy efficiency, lower emissions and lower traffic disturbance. The paper assess the impacts of electric cargo bikes, from a public policy perspective and, simultaneously, taking into account variables that cover the urban logistics operators' interests. Under a public policy perspective, the considered variables evaluate mobility, environmental impacts and indirectly, the quality of life. In terms of private interests, the studied variables cover costs levels (operation and driving) and efficiency. This evaluation aims at clarifying if electric cargo bikes can indeed represent a sustainable mobility policy under specific boundaries, by leading to better environmental and social impacts and not hindering the operational efficiency of urban logistics activities. Methods For that purpose, the measurement of the traffic key performance indicators, as well as of Well-to-Wheel energy and CO 2 emission savings is performed allowing to quantify mobility , reliability and operational efficiency indicators. Several scenarios related with the introduction of electric cargo bikes replacing conventional vans were assessed and evaluated in order to compare the effects of different market shares in the mobility of the studied area located in Porto (Portugal). Acknowledging the short distance range of cargo bikes, the simulation is carried out and an estimation of the total transportation cost is performed, which includes transport and emission cost when the vehicle is driving, emission cost while idling and labor cost. Results The main conclusion is that cargo bikes can replace up to 10% of the conventional vans in areas with maximum linear distances of about 2 km, without changing the overall network efficiency. Additionally, urban logistics WTW CO 2 emission impacts can be reduced by up to 73%, which represents 746 kg of CO 2 avoided emissions. Furthermore, the introduction of electric cargo bikes in urban logistics activities has positive effects for all the vehicle categories and all the scenarios, reaching up to 25% of reductions in external costs. Conclusions As a result, cargo bikes implemented at the appropriate spatial scale within the city can be a sustainable solution for urban logistics, depending on a prior delimitation of the conditions and adequate implementation strategy, to guarantee that it actually leads to improvements in terms of mobility, environment, energy, running costs and externalities.

Öz: Şehirlerin çevresel sürdürülebilirlik üzerindeki olumsuz etkilerinin bir sonucu olarak akıllı şehir uygulamaları bir zorunluluk haline gelmiştir. Kent sakinlerinin mobil uygulamalar aracılığıyla akıllı şehir uygulamalarına entegrasyonu ise bu uygulamaları benimsemelerine bağlıdır. Bu çalışma, İzmir Ulaşım Merkezi (İZUM) uygulamasına yönelik kullanıcı tutumunu teknoloji kabul modeli aracılığıyla analiz etmeyi amaçlamaktadır. Çalışmada; İZUM kullanıcı yorumları Maxqda yazılımı aracılığıyla ve içerik analizi yöntemiyle değerlendirilmiştir. Araştırma sonuçlarına göre, uygulamaya dönük kullanıcı tutumu olumsuzdur. Algılanan fayda, kullanıcıların tutumu üzerinde daha fazla etkiye sahip olup, en temel sorun sisteme erişilebilirlik ve sistemin eksik verilerle çalışmasıdır.

Nowadays, selective solid waste management in the European Union belongs to important responsibilities of municipalities. In Solid Waste Management (SWM) the main operational task is to set a schedule for solid waste collection and to find optimal routes for garbage trucks, so that the total costs of the solid waste collection service can be minimized, subject to a series of constraints which not only guarantee the fulfillment of the SWM's obligations but also ensure the desirable quality level of that service. The optimization in garbage truck routing belongs to so called rich Vehicle Routing Problems as it aims to cover the following constraints: pickup nodes (clients) must be visited during their predefined time windows; the number and capacity of depots and specialized sorting units cannot be exceeded; each garbage truck can be assigned to at most one depot; each route should be dedicated to collecting one type of segregated solid waste, and the route must be served by a garbage truck which can collect that type of solid waste; the availability of garbage trucks and their drivers must be respected; each garbage truck must be drained at a specialized sorting unit before going back to the depot. This paper contributes a newly developed Mixed-Integer Programming (MIP) model for the Municipal Solid Waste Selective Collection Routing Problem (MSWSCRP) with time windows, limited heterogeneous fleet, and different types of segregated solid waste to be collected separately. Results obtained for solving small-sized instance of the MSWSCRP are reported.

City evolution is connected to social, economic and technological evolutions. New technologies induce further changes, which are highly innovative, which again affect the urban and territorial systems. The city once again adjusts to new opportunities in relation to information and communications technologies, energy and mobility. In this paper, smart city, configured as a set of interacting systems with people, is focused as a possible model to follow for pursuing sustainability in real cities of the twenty-first century. Three processes are recalled: city development, city planning theories and city rules. Smart city seems to be the convergent point for all processes evolving in European urban areas. Theoretical definitions of smart city are recalled. At the same time, the European Commission is promoting smart city rules for implementation. Moreover, in the last years some local decision-makers implemented specific measures that today can be considered in the class of smart city measures. The objective of the paper is to analyse the European perspectives for smart city, trying to separate the three processes that are strongly integrated, but without formal links. To verify the European smart city approach, a study case concerning city logistics is considered.

Emerging info-communication and vehicle technologies (especially vehicle automation) facilitate evolvement of autonomous road freight transportation. The entire transport system and its operation undergo a major change. New service concepts are growing and the existing ones are being transformed. The changing is particularly significant in city logistics. However, there are debates about the ways of automation of processes targeting improvement of capacity utilisation and decrease of expenditures. The main research questions of the paper are therefore: what properties of the future autonomous freight transportation are presumed; what system structure is to be constructed and how the system is to be operated? After introducing the basic notions and reviews of the current systems and developments , the shifting from traditional freight transportation to autonomous system is investigated by several aspects. A system-and process-oriented analytical modelling method has been applied. The main system constituents and their connections are modelled. Finally, we elaborate the operational model of road freight transportation, which is applicable principally in metropolitan areas. In conclusion, the presented results appoint the research and innovation trends towards the automation of freight transportation.

The lack of data is one of the most common problems when dealing with the design of solutions that optimize urban freight transport (City Logistics Projects). In fact, to be able to process an effective City Logistics Projects for a certain area of the city, it is necessary to have the data concerning the number of daily deliveries that each commercial activity receives in this area, with detailed information regarding the time of delivery, the type of used vehicle and the amount of delivery. Only in this way is it possible to have a correct and realistic dimensioning of the freight demand. In the reality, it is not always possible to have this data for an adequate period of time. This paper, starting from the existing literature on demand forecasting and from an analysis of real data, provides the proposal of an alternative method of forecasting the demand for goods for a given area in the city when only the typology of commercial activities and a small amount of data are known.

This paper addresses freight management in large, congested urban settings. Congestion creates a substantial variation in travel time (speeds) during morning peak and evening peak periods. Besides the day-to-day dynamics of traffic conditions, traffic incidents contribute significantly to urban congestion, resulting in unplanned travel delays. Urban route designs that ignore such significant variations are often found to be inefficient or even infeasible (in regard to delivery or pickup time windows) in a congested traffic environment. This limitation may lead to delays, higher operational costs, and inferior customer service. To take the dynamics of traffic conditions into account, the proposed modeling
framework includes an underlying dynamic network traffic simulationassignment
model that is able to compute time-dependent shortest paths
(TDSPs) and simulate individual vehicles on a realistic representation
of urban road network elements, including signalization, ramp metering,
and other operational controls. A two-phase set-partitioning–based
heuristic approach is proposed to construct freight vehicle routes. No
parameter tuning is required. The integrated modeling framework
was first tested on a small network, and then the application was demonstrated on a real-world urban network, the Chicago, Illinois, area network, with problem instances of up to 500 customers with TDSPs updated at 10-min intervals.

Despite the growing research interests on the spatial restructuring of logistics facilities that occurred in many cities around the world, the relationship between the spatial pattern of logistics land use and the level of externalities is far from being elucidated. We use the Urban Logistics Land-use and Traffic Simulator (ULLTRA-SIM), developed for the Tokyo Metropolitan Area, to evaluate the level of externalities that accompany different spatial distribution patterns of logistics facilities. The ULLTRA-SIM takes a novel approach to analyze the urban freight impacts through the simulations of logistics facility locations, urban logistics chains, and truck flow. The results indicate that, while the moderate concentration and deconcentration of logistics facilities do not significantly affect the level of externalities, scarcity of logistics facilities in or near the high demand locations exacerbates negative externalities. Also, the results of the simulations underscore the need for rigorous analysis in order to reduce negative externalities through logistics land use policies.

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.

Recently, urbanization has been expanded rapidly in the world and a number of metropolitan areas have been appeared with a population of more than 10 million people. Because of dense population in metropolitan and consequently increasing the delivery of goods and services, there has been a lot of problems including traffic congestion, air pollution, accidents and high energy consumption. This made some complexities in distribution of urban goods; Therefore, it is essential to provide creative solutions to overcome these complexities. City logistics models can be effective in solving these complexities. In this paper, concepts and definitions related to city logistics are explained to provide a mathematical model in order to design city logistics distribution network aim at minimizing response times. This objective is effective for goods and emergency services, especially in times of crisis and also for goods that are delivered as soon as possible. This is a three-level network and has been used in modeling of queuing theory. To validate the model, a numerical example has been established and results of the model have been explained using BARON solver in Gams software. Finally, conclusions and recommendations for future research are presented.

Urban freight transportation plays a pivotal role in ensuring the liveability of urban areas, due to its fulfilment of citizens needs and its induced economic impact. Building upon the body of research on the topic of city logistics and its connected impacts and measures, this paper focuses on the development of a framework which is collectively exhaustive in describing the concerning crucial elements and in revealing their multiple and mutual influences. Through the investigation of an academic definition of ecosystem, its explanation in terms of urban logistics followed by its application to case studies, such a framework has been firstly theoretically designed and then some application examples are given.

The operation of transportation determines the efficiency of moving products. The progress in techniques and management principles improves the moving load, delivery speed, service quality, operation costs, the usage of facilities and energy saving. Transportation takes a crucial part in the manipulation of logistic. Reviewing the current condition, a strong system needs a clear frame of logistics and a proper transport implements and techniques to link the producing procedures. The objective of the paper is to define the role of transportation in logistics for the reference of further improvement. The research was undertaken to assist logistics managers, researchers and transportation planners to define and comprehend the basic views of logistics and its various applications and the relationships between logistics and transportation.

The high volume of traffic originates two well-known problems in many cities: congestion and pollution. In recent years, a social phenomenon is emerging cooperation. This work is aimed at evaluating the circumstances under which transport cooperation is possible between different stakeholders operating in the same geographical area. To this end, a double survey process was conducted in a marketplace situated in the Seville City (Spain) centre. The first survey was designed to know the characteristics of the retailers and their preferences with respect to cooperation and regulations. A rela-tional analysis between retailer features and their willingness to cooperate was carried out. After analysing the motivations for non-cooperation, a mixed proposal was designed and surveyed. Although the research was limited to a marketplace, the relevant data gathered from this double survey process highlights some implications: (a) the importance of personal relations in retailer cooperation; (b) a high volume of freight and the use of vans as on-street warehouses appear as significant motivations for non-cooperation; (c) forcing changes in the statu quo encourages cooperation.