Urban freight sustainability: A European perspective
Prof. Michael BrowneUniversity of Westminster
Outline• Urban freight: supply chain context and external
issues• Examples of urban freight initiatives (SUGAR
categories)– Regulation– Planning– Intelligent Transport Systems– Consultation – Consolidation
• Concluding remarks
Urban freight: The logistics context
• Logistics systems evolving: inventory, supply chain velocity and design
• Supply chain boundaries changing
(e.g. delivery direct to consumer)
• Growth in outsourcing (freight and services)
• Competition for space and time
Urban transport-related problems
• Congestion
• Energy use
• Environment (air quality)
• Safety
• Disturbance – noise, visual intrusion
• Access restrictions and narrow roads
• Lack of loading and unloading space
Participants/stakeholders
A wide range of participants…
• Senders and receivers
• Logistics service providers
• Residents / consumers / visitors
• Government / Administration...
…leads to complexity
Road freight traffic in urban areas: UK example
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
1992 2001 2005 2008
Bn
veh
km
s p
er y
ear
Van Rigid HGV Artic HGV
Source: DfT, 2009
Urban freight: European policy context
• EU research programmes (e.g. BESTUFS, CIVITAS)
• EU Action Plans – (e.g. Urban Mobility)
• City and local authority transport plans increasingly include freight policies
• Sustainable distribution concepts growing despite the economic challenges
• City demographics – changing
Vision and goals…
• Vision– Better interface between long distance and last-mile
transport– Freight consolidation centres and delivery points– Loading areas– ITS for better logistics– Low noise and low emission trucks for deliveries
• 10 goals including…– Halve the use of conventionally fuelled cars in urban
areas by 2030 – phase out completely by 2050– Achieve essentially CO2 free city logistics in major
urban centres by 2030
Examples of urban delivery initiatives
• Regulation
• Planning
• Intelligent Transport Systems
• Consultation
• Consolidation
Regulation: traffic, access, loading, environmental standards
• Generally seen as simple and cheap (but enforcement costs)
• Provide important impacts on the city’s environment (if enforced)
• New standards used: Euro standards (truck pollution level), loading capacity
• New concepts such as congestion charging, low emission zones, night delivery time windows, time sharing of the roadway (multi-use)
• New enforcement measures: dedicated enforcement, clock stickers, cameras, ITS
Low Emission Zones Europe website
Low Emission Zone: Cologne
The zone operates 365 days yearApplies to residents and visitorsRed, yellow, green stickers used
Extracts from The Low Emission Zone Europe website and BESTUFS II Workshop
Zones in Scandinavia
Extracts from The Low Emission Zone Europe website and BESTUFS II Workshop
London Low Emission Zone (Feb 2008)
Source: Transport for London
Examples of urban delivery initiatives
• Regulation
• Planning
• Intelligent Transport Systems
• Consultation
• Consolidation
Planning: land use and building control
• Integrating freight into planning policies (urban and/or transport planning) and building codes - a strategy for local government
• These strategies have both short and long term consequences
• Common concepts: off-street delivery space provision
• New concepts: compulsory storage space, multi-story logistic terminals in urban areas, reservation of logistics land use in urban master plans
Examples of urban delivery initiatives
• Regulation
• Planning
• Intelligent Transport Systems
• Consultation
• Consolidation
Intelligent Transport Systems
• Not yet widely used for the management of freight transport in cities but the identified practices have proved very efficient
• Strategies to use ITS to better manage goods transport will develop in the future as ITS become more precise and less costly
• ITS are especially efficient to enforce access measures
• May assist data collection and real time information for truck drivers on traffic and parking conditions
Combined-use Lane: Balmes Street Example
VMS messages clarify use (residents, clear-way, deliveries)
according to time of day.
Plans to extend to similar Primary Network streets
Source: BESTUFS II - Workshop
1
Information:
« 5h – 11h: only for deliveries » / « Free parking limited to 10
mn»
2
The vehicle is detected, lights up
diodes, counts down the remaining time
Information:
« free parking limited to 10 mn: remaining
time 03:41 »
3
Time exceeded
Information:
« overunning: 02:34, call to the Police, fine
11 € »
Poitiers: Implementation of dynamic delivery areas
Source:CIVITAS Presentation, Poitiers 2009
Examples of urban delivery initiatives
• Regulation
• Planning
• Intelligent Transport Systems
• Consultation
• Consolidation
Consultation processes and labelling schemes (partnerships)
• These policies have raised awareness among freight transport companies
• Providing forums for discussion can ensure that a policy targeted towards freight transport is successful
• Giving specific labels to virtuous truck companies (companies using clean vehicles for example) has proved useful in some cities
• Signing “charters” or giving labels is well appreciated but promises must be met
• If not well enforced, the participating truck companies feel frustrated
Source: UK Department for Transport Guides
Loading/unloading Code of Practice
Document prepared by Central London Freight Quality Partnership
An innovative facilitating system for incoming goods
For city centre deliveries
ELP: Bordeaux
Source: D.Patier (LET, France)
ELP - Results
• Reduced stopping time
• Less pollution and disturbance
• Reduction in congestion caused
• Kerb space occupancy reduced
• More efficiency
Examples of urban delivery initiatives
• Regulation
• Planning
• Intelligent Transport Systems
• Consultation
• Consolidation
Consolidation and measures targeting urban supply chains
• Setting up urban consolidation centres and urban logistic spaces experimented by cities
• Many experiments failed because of costs
• Some experiments met with success:
– When consolidation centres are specialized (construction sites, perishable goods)
– When municipalities provide low cost urban logistic space to innovative companies
– When retailers actively associated
Bristol Freight Consolidation Centre
Located on North East
fringe of Bristol on
established business
park
Close to strategic road
network (M4, M32);
Approx 5000 sq ft
warehousing space;
7 miles from city centre
target area;
Approx 25mins journey
time to target area;
Now using 9 tonne
electric vehicle for final
delivery.Extracted from presentationsmade by Bristol City Council and Exel
ELCIDIS ProjectPilot started 2001
HOW IT WORKS
• Parcels on pallets sent to CDU
• Sorted & grouped by sector and delivered by electric vehicle (Citroen Berlingo, 3.5t FAAM)
• Value added services developed Source:Dominique Breuil, EIGSI, La Rochelle
OBJECTIVES
• Reduce polluiton, noise and congestion in the ‘hyper-centre’
• Improve the organisation of deliveries
Examples of urban delivery initiatives
• Clean vehicles
Paris - clean urban delivery vehicles(Source: Christophe Ripert)
Electric ScootersLungta
Cargo Cycle
La Petite Reine
Electric vehicle
l’Oréal
Gas powered
Used by Ooshop, Monoprix, DHL, etc.
“Chrono City”
CHRONOPOST
Electric Motorbike Natoora
CargoCycle in City of London: Office Depot operated by gnewt
Outcomes – Concluding comments
• Constraints will grow:
• System complexity will grow
• Behaviour change is key – but very hard
• Many examples of what is possible: operations, technology, partnership
• Find ways to evaluate and share the good practices
• Inspire change
Prof. Michael BrowneTransport Studies DepartmentUniversity of Westminster35 Marylebone RoadLondon NW1 5LS
tel: +44 20 7911 5154
email: [email protected]
website: www.westminster.ac.uk/transport
www.greenlogistics.org
Relevant websites
• http://www.niches-transport.orgNICHES: Policy notes on Alternative Solutions for Home Delivery, Spece Management for Urban Delivery and Inner-city Night DeliveryNICHES+: Guidelines for Assessing theTransferability of an Innovative Urban Transport Concept
• http://www.civitas.eu• http://www.turblog.eu• http://www.eltis.org• http://www.sugarlogistics.eu• http://www.bestufs.net• http://www.cityfreight.eu/• http://www.citymoveproject.eu/• http://www.freilot.eu/en/home/• IDIOMA (Innovative distribution with intermodal freight operation in metro-politan
areas), http://cordis.europa.eu/transport/src/48343.htm• http://www.smartfreight.info/index.htm• START (Short Term Actions to Reorganize Transport of Goods), http://www.start-
project.org/• http://www.straightsol.eu/• http://www.trendsetter-europe.org• http://www.bestfact.net/index.html
