Municipal Co-Distribution of Goods – Business Models, Stakeholders and Driving Forces for Change

The presentation provides background information and illustrates driving forces of the development of municipal co-distribution of goods in Sweden. The business model is “somewhat unique” to Sweden, given the country’s comprehensive welfare sector through which local governments are often the main transport buyers in smaller municipalities without industries or commerce. In this respect, Sweden has been a pioneer in streamlining public administration at all levels replacing manual work procedures and paperwork with the use of computers and digital information, with an overall aim to allow for spending on social and political reform policies. The main business model used in municipal administration is purchases with free delivery whereby the transport of goods occurs directly from contracted suppliers to municipal receivers and where transport costs are included as a hidden surcharge in the product price. Contrary, municipal co-distribution of goods entails a physical and legal consolidation of all external purchases, where in its rudimentary form suppliers leave goods at a freight consolidation center (FCC) where goods are loaded for distribution in shared vehicles to receivers. Municipal co-distribution of goods has evolved from an isolated innovation developed in 1999 to an approach implemented in 39 municipalities of Sweden’s 290 by 2016, through which the business model and procurement practices has been refined with digital tools, first through e-commerce and then with vehicle routing software. Ultimately, the business model could be applied to non-municipal receivers but this would involve digitization and that municipalities regulate vehicle movements as done in public transport.https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/trec_seminar/1129/thumbnail.jp

Using triangulation to assess a suite of tools to measure community severance

There is a lack of tools to identify and measure community severance caused by large roads and motorised traffic, despite the evidence of its negative impacts on local communities. This paper reports the development of a suite of tools to measure and value community severance, undertaken as a part of the Street Mobility and Network Accessibility research project. The tools include participatory mapping, spatial analysis, a video survey, street audits, a health and neighbourhood mobility survey, and a valuation tool based on a stated preference survey. They were tested in the area around Finchley Road, a busy arterial road in North London. The study found that Finchley Road is an unpleasant place for pedestrians due to high traffic levels, air and noise pollution, and the lack and poor quality of pedestrian crossing facilities. This has a negative impact on the mobility and accessibility of local residents and, to some extent, on their health and wellbeing. The analysis showed coherence between the findings from the different measurement tools applied individually, but also revealed interconnections between factors which contribute to severance, demonstrating that overall the suite is reliable for assessing community severance in urban areas. Overall, the paper provides a multidisciplinary approach to developing standardized methods to measure a negative impact of transport that is still relatively unknown