Freight & Logistics
Urban freight transport is a crucial enabler of economic activity in cities, ensuring the flow of goods for citizens and businesses. Urban freight transport comprises the delivery and collection of goods in towns and cities. It involves the transportation, handling, and storage of goods, as well as home delivery services. There is a growing consensus that more sustainable urban freight operations (and significant benefits in terms of energy efficiency) can be achieved by an appropriate mix of different measures. The Gothenburg Transport Strategy provides an example of how to achieve this.
Links to Freight Improvement Measures are grouped under the following topics:
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Sustainable Urban Logistic Plans (SULPs)
A Sustainable Urban Logistic Plan (SULP) is a strategic plan designed to satisfy freight mobility needs of people and business in cities and their surroundings, in order to achieve a better quality of environment and of life. It builds on existing planning practices and takes due consideration of integration, participation, and evaluation principles. Developing a SULP is a part of the Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning process devoted to integrating urban logistics schemes within overall mobility strategies and solutions.
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Urban Logistics Profiles
An Urban Logistics Profile is a concept introduced by Rosário Macário in 2008 that divides urban zones into several homogeneous groups, judged from several criteria including city area features, product characteristics, and agents / deliveries profiles. In the areas of the city in which Logistic Profiles can be deļ¬ned, it is possible to adjust urban logistic services to optimize public and private resources (space, vehicles, etc.), in function of the needs of the different market segments. The following links provide access to Urban Logistics Profile guidelines and case studies.
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Urban Logistics as an on-Demand Service
Three European municipalities committed to zero emissions city logistics (Bremen, Mechelen and Groningen) have joined forces with logistics stakeholders and leading academic institutions to accelerate the deployment of innovative, feasible and shared zero-emissions solutions, addressing the challenges generated by the rise of the on-demand economy in urban logistics. Rome, Edinburgh, Bergen and Alba Iulia will follow the process and feed into the overall project methodology and co-create additional urban freight solutions. The cities will experiment with containerised urban last mile delivery, city-wide platforms for integrated management of urban logistics, integration of passenger and urban freight mobility services and networks, transport vehicle capacity sharing, integration of logistics activities into urban planning at local and regional level, and deployment of zero-emission vans and cargo-bikes.
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Freight Quality Partnerships (FQPs)
Freight Quality Partnerships (FQPs) are composed of members the freight industry, local government, local businesses, the local community, environmental groups and others with an interest in freight that come together to deal with matters of freight access and deliveries in a particular location such as routing, load sharing and town centre access. These can help to reduce congestion, emissions and the number of vehicles in and around urban centres.
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Specific Measures
Specific Freight Improvement Measures include Freight Handling Facilities (container depots, truck depots, urban freight consolidation centres, logistic hubs, etc.) and Freight Management Measures (truck routes, access and loading/unloading regulations, low emission zones, nearby delivery areas, etc.).