urban logistics

Urban logistics has to change to become more silent and eco-friendlier. Off-peak delivery is regarded as an effective measure to cut carbon emissions. Implementing this concept will require the deployment of electric trucks to comply with noise regulations. This article provides an overview of current research themes in this field and uses McKinnon’s “Analytical framework for green logistics”to illustrate off-peak delivery as a concept, its benefits and limitations as well as the key requirements to make this concept work.

The urban population is growing and with it the need to meet the emerging challenges with sustainable solutions. The concept of the Physical Internet (PI) represents such an approach, which includes a complete supply chain perspective, but also a direct effect on the urban environment. At the same time, its implementation comes with requirements for the integration into the city district, which makes it necessary to adapt various urban characteristics. This article creates a generic design framework for this.

One of the main challenges in urban logistic is the collaborated handling of freight transportation and urban public transport. Especially during peak periods, e.g. when commuters travel between their place of residence and place of work, the urban infrastructure for car traffic and public transport risks to collapse. In addition, often the freight transportation in urban areas competes with the public transport because of the use of the same road infrastructure. Therefore, it would make sense also to use free capacities of public transportations like trams for freight transports. First, this paper analyzes current concepts of urban logistics and concepts for the use of freight trams. Second, a new approach for the use of autonomous trolleys combined with the use of public trams will be introduced by the authors.