Analytical Modeling Framework to Assess the Economic and Environmental Impacts of Residential Deliveries, and Evaluate Sustainable Last-Mile Strategies

In the last decade, e‐commerce has grown substantially, increasing business‐to‐business, business‐to‐consumer, and consumer‐to‐consumer transactions. While this has brought prosperity for the e-retailers, the ever-increasing consumer demand has brought more trucks to the residential areas, bringing along externalities such as congestion, air and noise pollution, and energy consumption. To cope with this, different logistics strategies such as the introduction of micro-hubs, alternative delivery points, and use of cargo bikes and zero emission vehicles for the last mile have been introduced and, in some cases, implemented as well. This project, hence, aims to develop an analytical framework to model urban last mile delivery. In particular, this study will build upon the previously developed econometric behavior models that capture e-commerce demand. Then, based on continuous approximation techniques, the authors will model the last-mile delivery operations. And finally, using the cost-based sustainability assessment model (developed in this study), the authors will estimate the economic and environmental impacts of residential deliveries under different city logistics strategies.View the NCST Project Webpag

How to Improve the Capture of Urban Goods Movement Data?

The surveys specifically focused on the thorough knowledge of urban freight transport appeared about ten years ago. The local problematic of goods transport at local level was partially taken into account by the city planners and by the researchers: until recent years, the integration of goods transport in the total urban flows models was estimated applying a multiplying factor to car traffic. Delivering goods was not considered like a concern.Because of the quick growth of car traffic in the cities, the main stakes changed too: the fight against traffic congestion, the management of the lack of space (shipment consolidation and storage), the attempts to reduce local environmental impacts and global externalities (energy saving, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions), and economic valuation of city centres (under the pressure of a slowed down economic growth).All these changes were taking place in a context in which available rooms for manoeuvre were limited by factors such as congestion, concerns about the quality of urban life and budget restriction. It resulted in a growing unease on the freight transport industry and the city authorities, the latter having little or no data, methods and references in order to elaborate a satisfactory policy framework.surveys on urban freight transport ; urban freight movements ; urban freight data collection ; urban goods data collection ; diversity of measurement units and methods ; state of the art

Three essays on urban freight transport: models and tools for effective city logistics projects

The main purpose of these three years of research, summarized in this thesis, was to investigate the obstacles to the development of the city logistics initiatives by seeking solutions to overcome them through model and framework coming from management and transportation engineering. In particular, following a first analysis of a collection of European projects and a systematic analysis of scientific literature, three main gaps in city logistics have been identified: the lack of the stakeholders’ involvement, the need for data sharing platforms to overcome the current lack of data and the need to define city logistics solutions within the urban ecosystem, making consistent design choices coherently with what is already existing in terms of infrastructures, rules and stakeholders in the context. From these three gaps, three main research questions have arisen: (RQ1) Is it possible to support stakeholders in analysing CL solutions fitting their necessities applying some already existing and consolidate decision-making methods? (RQ2) Is it possible to define a database platform in which it is possible to collect, consult and update as many existing data as possible regarding urban freight transport? (RQ3) How is it possible to optimize city logistics infrastructures in a harmonious and coherent way with respect to the entire city logistics ecosystem? To answers to the research questions, a collection of articles is illustrated in this thesis work. From time to time different methodologies are used and illustrated, derived from the field of management and transport engineering, these different methodologies, such as the Systematic Literature Review, the House of Quality, a framework for building a data sharing platform, the city logistics Ecosystem and a decision-making support model (based on both a covering model and a Monte Carlo simulation) are described in detail in the various chapters of the thesis. In this dissertation work for the first time, the main obstacles to the development of city logistics initiatives, that are the lack of involvement of stakeholders, the lack of data, and the lack of an ecosystem vision of urban transport, have been identified and addressed at the same time. Even if literature sometimes offers some possible solutions to these gaps, few are simple to understand for those who work in the urban freight transport industry, easy to apply and replicable. Both in identifying the gap and in seeking solutions, the solutions showed in this thesis sought to address to those who work in the industry, mainly carriers, retailers, shop owners and public administration representatives, trying to combine scientific research with the search for solutions that can be implemented in practice as requested by such a practical research topic. For this reason, each proposed solution and methodology in this thesis has been implemented and experimented using as a case study the city of Bergamo (and testing its replicability in other European cities such as Saint-Etienne, Luxemburg and Amsterdam). In particular, the initial experience in the “Bergamo Logistica” project, part of the Bergamo 2.035 smart city research program, gave me the opportunity to understand the main critical issues found by the main actors who work in this field (i.e., carriers, couriers, retailers and institutions), to confirm some evidences that I found in the theory (i.e., main research gaps which originates the research questions) and to search for solutions that could both solve research gaps and optimize the daily logistics activities of the operators.The main purpose of these three years of research, summarized in this thesis, was to investigate the obstacles to the development of the city logistics initiatives by seeking solutions to overcome them through model and framework coming from management and transportation engineering. In particular, following a first analysis of a collection of European projects and a systematic analysis of scientific literature, three main gaps in city logistics have been identified: the lack of the stakeholders’ involvement, the need for data sharing platforms to overcome the current lack of data and the need to define city logistics solutions within the urban ecosystem, making consistent design choices coherently with what is already existing in terms of infrastructures, rules and stakeholders in the context. From these three gaps, three main research questions have arisen: (RQ1) Is it possible to support stakeholders in analysing CL solutions fitting their necessities applying some already existing and consolidate decision-making methods? (RQ2) Is it possible to define a database platform in which it is possible to collect, consult and update as many existing data as possible regarding urban freight transport? (RQ3) How is it possible to optimize city logistics infrastructures in a harmonious and coherent way with respect to the entire city logistics ecosystem? To answers to the research questions, a collection of articles is illustrated in this thesis work. From time to time different methodologies are used and illustrated, derived from the field of management and transport engineering, these different methodologies, such as the Systematic Literature Review, the House of Quality, a framework for building a data sharing platform, the city logistics Ecosystem and a decision-making support model (based on both a covering model and a Monte Carlo simulation) are described in detail in the various chapters of the thesis. In this dissertation work for the first time, the main obstacles to the development of city logistics initiatives, that are the lack of involvement of stakeholders, the lack of data, and the lack of an ecosystem vision of urban transport, have been identified and addressed at the same time. Even if literature sometimes offers some possible solutions to these gaps, few are simple to understand for those who work in the urban freight transport industry, easy to apply and replicable. Both in identifying the gap and in seeking solutions, the solutions showed in this thesis sought to address to those who work in the industry, mainly carriers, retailers, shop owners and public administration representatives, trying to combine scientific research with the search for solutions that can be implemented in practice as requested by such a practical research topic. For this reason, each proposed solution and methodology in this thesis has been implemented and experimented using as a case study the city of Bergamo (and testing its replicability in other European cities such as Saint-Etienne, Luxemburg and Amsterdam). In particular, the initial experience in the “Bergamo Logistica” project, part of the Bergamo 2.035 smart city research program, gave me the opportunity to understand the main critical issues found by the main actors who work in this field (i.e., carriers, couriers, retailers and institutions), to confirm some evidences that I found in the theory (i.e., main research gaps which originates the research questions) and to search for solutions that could both solve research gaps and optimize the daily logistics activities of the operators

Internal report cluster 1: Urban freight innovations and solutions for sustainable deliveries (2/4)

Technical report about sustainable urban freight solutions, part 2 of

Framework de Tomada de Decisão para Last-Mile Sustentável

The e-commerce growth, propelled by factors like globalization, urbanization, or the COVID-19 pandemic, has been raising the demand for logistic activities. This affects the entire supply chain, especially the last-mile, as it is considered the most ineffective part of the supply chain and a source of negative externalities. Although various solutions promise to alleviate these problems, understanding them and selecting the best has proven to be difficult due to conflicting criteria, multiple perspectives, and trade-offs. The vicissitudes of complex and sensitive urban contexts like historic centers also contribute to this difficulty. This work contributes an integrated framework that may assist the involved stakeholders in decision-making. To this end, this work is based on a three-part methodology. The extensive systematic literature review developed provided an integrated overview of this fragmented research area. This review confirmed the multidisciplinary nature of the topic, as there is an increasing number of studies conducted under very different perspectives. Furthermore, it was found that the economic dimension is the most considered; the most polluting countries contributed little to the research; and the solutions involve trade-offs. The literature review supported the definition of the hierarchical model that structures last-mile operations in historic centers. This model was evaluated by interviewing a group of experts. After integrating the experts’ feedback, the model was quantified by the same experts according to an AHP-TOPSIS approach. This quantification had as a case study the historic center of Porto, Portugal. The experts considered the three sustainability dimensions identically important. Air pollution was the most valued sub-criterion whereas Visual pollution was the least. All last-mile solutions considered in the model achieved similar results, therefore suggesting a combined distribution strategy. Nevertheless, the use of parcel lockers is the most favorable solution and seems adequate in Porto’s historic center.O crescimento do e-commerce, impulsionado por fatores como a globalização, a urbanização ou a pandemia de COVID-19, tem aumentado a procura por atividades logísticas. Isto afeta toda a cadeia de abastecimento, principalmente a última-milha, por ser considerada a parte mais ineficaz da cadeia de abastecimento e uma fonte de externalidades negativas. Embora existam várias soluções que prometem aliviar estes problemas, entendêlas e selecionar a melhor tem se provado difícil devido a critérios conflituosos, múltiplas perspetivas e trade-offs. As vicissitudes de contextos urbanos complexos e sensíveis como os centros históricos também contribuem para essa dificuldade. Este trabalho contribui um framework integrado que pode auxiliar os stakeholders envolvidos na tomada de decisão. Para este fim, este trabalho é baseado numa metodologia composta por três partes. A extensa revisão sistemática da literatura desenvolvida forneceu uma visão integrada desta área de investigação fragmentada. Esta revisão confirmou o caráter multidisciplinar do tema, pois há um número crescente de estudos conduzidos sob perspetivas muito diferentes. Além disso, verificou-se que a dimensão económica é a mais considerada; os países mais poluentes contribuíram pouco para a pesquisa; e as soluções envolvem trade-offs. A revisão da literatura suportou a definição do modelo hierárquico que estrutura as operações de última-milha em centros históricos. Este modelo foi avaliado entrevistando um grupo de experts. Após a integração do feedback dos experts, o modelo foi quantificado pelos mesmos de acordo com uma abordagem AHP-TOPSIS. Esta quantificação teve como caso de estudo o centro histórico do Porto, Portugal. Os experts consideraram as três dimensões da sustentabilidade identicamente importantes. O subcritério relativo à poluição atmosférica foi o mais valorizado, enquanto o menos foi o relativo à poluição visual. Todas as soluções de últimamilha consideradas no modelo alcançaram resultados semelhantes, sugerindo uma estratégia de distribuição combinada. No entanto, o uso de parcel lockers é a solução mais favorável e é aparentemente adequada para o centro histórico do Porto

Internal report cluster 1: Urban freight innovations and solutions for sustainable deliveries (1/4)

Technical report about sustainable urban freight solutions, part 1 of

Urban Freight Transport Policies in Rome: Lessons Learned and the Road Ahead

Given that few studies have investigated the effects of implementing city logistics measures, this paper focuses on actions implemented in the inner area of Rome in the last 10 years in order to improve both livability and freight distribution, providing insights into the effectiveness of such measures. The analysis covers the famous inner area of the city where the main tourist monuments are located and includes several pedestrianized shopping streets. Evaluation is based on data collected in 1999 and 2008 consisting of traffic counts and interviews with retailers and truck drivers. The implemented measures provided effective in abating through-traffic, in reducing the share of transport on own-account and in increasing the use of less polluting vehicles. Further, the increase in the number of stops per tour, in the average quantity delivered and hence in the average loading factor was revealed. Although all these changes improved the freight transport within the city, some critical issues remain and further measures have to be implemented

A step-by-step guide to assist logistics managers in defining efficient re-shelving solutions for retail store deliveries

Purpose City logistics is a challenge in many cities. Literature works focus on the analysis of large or local-scale solutions to increase the efficiency of freight transport. However, store deliveries from the perspective of practitioners, particularly retail stores, are still an issue. In this context, the purpose of this paper is to propose a decision framework to assist logistics managers in defining efficient re-shelving solutions for store deliveries, according to the emplacement characteristics, city administration constraints and social issues. Design/methodology/approach An iterative step-by-step decision framework is developed, which allows taking decisions in a clear and structured way, including the preferences of key stakeholders. Moreover, a “what if” procedure is proposed, aiming to modify some initial conditions of the target store to achieve more efficient solutions. Findings The proposed decision framework is applicable in practice and helps users (mainly logistics managers) to identify solutions for efficient re-shelving in urban settings. Research limitations/implications The decision framework is applied by the logistics manager of two Spanish food retail stores, but it could be used in different logistics sectors and cities/regions, although adapting the decisions taken at each phase. Practical implications Logistics managers have a support tool when addressing re-shelving solutions for store deliveries. Social implications A balance can be found between company interests (minimise costs) and citizens quality of life (less contamination, noise, traffic, etc.). Originality/value This study simultaneously deals with large- and local-scale decisions faced by logistics managers in their day-to-day activity, considering details about the store location, its surroundings and the company it belongs.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Internal report cluster 1: Urban freight innovations and solutions for sustainable deliveries (3/4)

Technical report about sustainable urban freight solutions, part 3 of