How can the city support economic activity? The contributions of the urban freight transport system to the economic vitality of a city are significant, spanning from the its role in connecting nodes (e.g. Suppliers, retailers, endusers, etc.) in various supply chains, to retaining industrial and commercial activities and associated jobs, to strengthening the overall competitiveness of a region. However, urban freight
What is a CDU? “An urban distribution centre is a facility involving the trans-shipment of goods directed to urban areas, aiming to consolidate deliveries, and thus provide greater efficiency in the distribution process by increasing the truck load factor and decreasing the number of trucks used, which help mitigate urban congestion and air pollution.”*
movement does not come without costs, including externalities
scale diminish from the point the vehicle has left the road network (Lewis, et al, 2010). This inefficiency refers to the “small order problem” with urban deliveries and collections often involving only a small number of parcels and hence vehicles operate below their maximum carrying capacity or less than full truckloads (LTL). UDCs are seen as one way to solve this inefficiency by bringing together different parties engaged in “small orders” distribution to collaborate in joint-deliveries from a common urban freight platform.
such as traffic congestion and/or noise and air pollution as well as private losses such as additional fuel and labour costs during stop-and-go traffic and fees or penalties accrued during legal or double-parking). Minimizing the negative impacts of delivery trips in congested urban areas while achieving seamless and reliable goods distribution is arguably a daunting task. With the increasing density of residential and economic activity typical of large cities, the distribution of goods to retailers and final consumers enters the realm of paradox, becoming both something essential as well as a growing nuisance for urban dwellers (Anderson et al., 2005). In an effort to achieve greater efficiency in urban logistics, a number of cities in Europe and Japan have implemented Urban Distribution Centres (UDCs) and Urban Consolidation Centres (UCCs) schemes, which enable the cooperation among shippers, carriers, and retailers to consolidate deliveries, thus requiring a lower number of delivery trips by trucks between a distribution centre and final delivery destinations, while achieving the same throughput (BESTUFS, 2007; Browne, et al, 2005). Such schemes can address the “last mile” or “final mile” problem – often the most expensive leg of a delivery journey since economies of
Notes: * http://wagner.nyu.edu/rudincenter/publications/URBAN DISTRIBUTION CENTERSA MEANS TO REDUCING FREIGHT VEHICLE MILES TRAVELED.pdf CONTESTED PERIPHERIES | 34