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

Modelling Planner-Carrier Interactions in Road Freight Transport: Optimization of Road Maintenance Costs Via Overloading Control

A bi-level modelling approach is proposed to represent the interaction between the vehicle loading practices of road freight transport carriers, and the decisions of a road planning authority responsible both for road maintenance and for the enforcement of overloading control. At the lower (reactive) level, the overloading decisions of the carriers impact on road maintenance expenditure, while at the upper (anticipatory) level the planner decides fine and enforcement levels by anticipating the responses of the carriers. A case study using data from Mexico is used to illustrate the method

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

Technical report about sustainable urban freight solutions, part 2 of

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

Technical report about sustainable urban freight solutions, part 1 of

New trends on urban goods movement: Modelling and simulation of e-commerce distribution

In this paper, a modelling framework to complete the recent scientific works on urban goods modelling is proposed. More precisely, we introduce a substitution procedure that estimates the number of trips and the corresponding travelled distances for shopping drive, home delivery and reception points' strategies. Moreover, an appraisal of scenarios is proposed in order to study how these three new forms of proximity delivery services impact on the overall urban goods movement distribution. Starting from four extreme situations, we introduce more realistic scenarios in order to find a suitable combination of delivery strategies. All the scenarios are simulated using the proposed framework, and the main traffic issues related to e-commerce distribution channel are discussed. The best realistic combination promotes the joint usage of home deliveries and proximity reception points and allows a reduction of about 13% of the road occupancy rates in urban areas.urban goods movement, modelling, shopping trips, e-commerce

The Importance of Material Flow Analysis for Commodity Transport Demand and Modelling

It can be shown that generated and attracted transport volumes, measured in tons, are closely related to direct material input (DMI). However, structural changes and new logistics concepts still lead to an increase of transportation performance. Therefore, the paper at hand aims to explain the scales of freight transport volumes (measured in tons) and performance (measured in ton-kilometers) from material flow analysis by additionally taking into account information from physical input-output tables. In so doing, effects of changing final demand on transport indicators can be identified. But while input-output tables give a good idea about technological processes, important information on the transport chain is missing. For this reason, the macroscopic approach of input-output analysis is supported by a microscopic analysis on freight transport markets and modern logistic concepts.

Disaggregated Approaches to Freight Analysis: A Feasibility Study.

Forecasting the demand for freight transport is notoriously difficult. Although ever more advanced modelling techniques are becoming available, there is little data available for calibration. Compared to passenger travel, there are many fewer decision makers in freight, especially for the main bulk commodities, so the decisions of a relatively small number of principal players greatly influence the outcome. Moreover, freight comes in various shapes, sizes and physical states, which require different handling methods and suit the various modes (and sub-modes) of transport differently. In the face of these difficulties, present DTp practice is to forecast Britain's freight traffic using a very simple aggregate approach which assumes that tonne kilometres will rise in proportion to GDP. Although this simple model fits historical data quite well, there is a clear danger that this relationship will not hold good in the future. The relationship between tonne kilometres and GDP depends on the mix of products produced, their value to weight ratios, number of times lifted and lengths of haul. In the past, a declining ratio of tonnes to GDP has been offset by increasing lengths of haul. This has come about through a complicated set of changes in product mix, industrial structure and distribution systems. A more disaggregate approach which studies changes in all these factors by industrial sector seems likely to provide a better understanding of the relationship between tonne kilometres and GDP. However, there are also problems with disaggregation. As we disaggregate we get more understanding of what might change in the future, but are less able to project trends forward. This can be seen if we consider the future amounts of coal movements. Theoretically there is clearly scope for better forecasting by allowing for past trends to be overturned by a movement towards gas powered electricity generation and more imports of coal direct to coastal power stations. However, making such a sectoral forecast is extremely difficult, and inaccuracy here may more than offset the theoretical gain referred to earlier. This is because it is usually easier to forecast to a given percentage accuracy an aggregate rather than its components. For example, the percentage error on sales forecasts of Hotpoint washing machines will be greater than that for the sales of all washing machines taken together. This occurs because different makes of washing machines are substitutes for each other, so forecasts for Hotpoint washing machines must take into account uncertainty over Hotpoint's market share as well as uncertainty over the future total sales of washing machines. Nevertheless, a disaggregate investigation of the market could spot trends which were `buried' in the aggregate figures. For example, rapidly declining sales for one manufacturer might indicate their leaving the market, which with less competition would then price up and so reduce the total future sales. We have assumed above that the use of the term disaggregate in the brief refers to disaggregation by industrial sector. An alternative usage of the word disaggregate in this context is when referring to modelling at the level of the individual decision making unit. Disaggregate freight modelling in this sense would involve analysing decisions in order to determine the utility weight attached to different attributes of available transport options. Because data on suitable decisions is not readily available in this country, due to commercial confidentiality, we have recently undertaken research in which we have presented decision makers with hypothetical choices, and obtained the necessary utility weights from their responses. Whilst initial scepticism is understandable, this method has produced results acceptable for use in major projects. ITS itself has provided algorithms (known as Leeds Adaptive Stated Preference) which have been used to derive utility weights for use by British Rail in forecasting cross-channel freight, by DTp in evaluating the reaction of commercial vehicles to toll roads, and by the Dutch Ministry of Transport in modelling freight in the Netherlands. In the light of the above, the following objectives were set for the feasibility study: (1)To determine if a forecasting approach disaggregated by industrial sectors, as under the first definition above, can be used to explain recent trends in freight transport; (2)To test the feasibility of the disaggregated approach for improving the understanding of likely future developments in freight markets, this being informed by current best understanding of the disaggregate decision-making process as under the second definition above

Designing the venue logistics management operations for a World Exposition

World Expositions, due to their size and peculiar features, pose a number of logistics challenges. This paper aims at developing a design framework for the venue logistics management (VLM) operations to replenish food products to the event site, through a combination of qualitative and quantitative research approaches. First, an in-depth interview methodology, combined with the outcomes of a literature review, is adopted for defining the key variables for the tactical and operational set-up of the VLM system. Second, a quantitative approach is developed to define the necessary logistics resources. The framework is then applied to the case of Milan 2015 World Exposition. It is the first time that such a design framework for a World Exposition is presented: the originality of this research lies in the proposal of a systematic approach that adds to the experiential practices constituting the current body of knowledge on event logistics

How to make modal shift from road to rail possible in the European transport market, as aspired to in the EU Transport White Paper 2011

The total demand for freight transport in Europe has increased significantly in recent decades, but most of it has been handled by road transport. To fulfil the modal shift targets set in the EU White Paper 2011, it will be necessary to double rail’s market share from today’s 18 %, by 2050. Translating this into reality means rail will have to handle 3 to 4 times the cargo volume it does today. With this in mind, the paper develops a vision of an efficient rail freight system in 2050. Methodology To achieve the above objective, the research applies literature survey and group discussion methodology and applying a system approach. Keeping on board the EU Transport White Paper 2011 modal shift targets, as well as future freight demand and customer requirements, the current research attempts to answer the following three critical questions: -How can rail offer the quality of service that will attract customers and fulfil the targets? - How can rail offer its customers a price that is competitive with road? - How can rail offer the capacity to meet the increased demand from modal shift

Modeling an offshore container terminal: the Venice case study

In order to reduce marine transportation times and related costs, as well as the environmental impacts, an alternative multimodal route to the current Suez-Gibraltar-North Sea corridor for the containers shipped from Far and Middle East was identified as potentially very effective. A key operational problem to achieve this result is the capacity and the effectiveness of the terminals within the concerned new logistic chain. In this framework, the Venice Port Authority is developing a project aimed to improve relevantly the potential of its container terminals to al-low loading/unloading of containers to and from the Central Europe. The project includes a new offshore terminal for mooring huge ships (up to 18.000 TEU) in the Adriatic Sea and a link operated by barges with an onshore terminal in Venice to overcome the constraints for the navigation of the containers ships in the Venetian lagoon. This innovative operational scheme requires a deep functional analysis to ensure the full capacity operation, assess the reachable performances and correspondingly dimensioning the required equipment (cranes, barges, quays, etc.). For this purpose, the authors developed a specific discrete-events simulation model. The paper includes the presentation of the model and the results of its application to Venice case study, by identifying the benefits achievable with this approach and the potential wider application fields