Urban logistics is a major issue for both the logistics industry and transportation systems. The noise in cities is becoming a real issue, especially for people living in bars or shopping areas. Why today, more than never, we hear about people complaining about noise. Several reasons could explain this rise of noise level. First, the development of businesses, there are more and more people living in cities, creating more needs and more shops to meet the expectations of inhabitants. Secondly, the rise of consumption, due in part to the interest of the population for new products. Finally, we have to consider the level of expectation of consumers. People want their fresh products at the first hours of the day which implies night deliveries. All these reasons makes the traffic level rise. For example, in Paris, 15% to 20% of traffic concerns goods transportation during day as well as at night, and that the night deliveries are more problematic in terms of noise pollution. Furthermore, they are encouraged by cities regulations that forbid access during the day to trucks in order to facilitate passenger traffic.
[...] Warehouses are located at the borders of cities, which are expanding and consequently rents are getting expensive, and transportation into town is getting harder as the population and businesses increase. We are in a transitive period, in which we will see major changes in the urban distribution. We will take here two examples about changes in urban logistics, which may be the norm in the following years. Monoprix: Monoprix is a chain of “supermarkets”, located principally in Paris of their shops). [...]
[...] Indeed some figures confirm that statement: car movements every day in and out of the city center alone, traffic speed in peak hours are about 16mph and 23% of the traveling time is spent waiting in traffic jams. According to the situation, the city council decided in 2004 to react and to set up a consolidation center at the entrance of the city. The aims of the “Broadmead freight consolidation scheme” are the reduction of the number of vehicles in the city, the improvement of the air quality, a reduction of conflicts for parking between vehicles loading and delivering, improve the level of service to retailers and provide added value services as packaging, waste collection and recycling or remote storage. [...]
[...] They decided to use trains, they currently load one train of 20 wagons every day and this train leaves the distribution center at 8PM to cover the 30km distance from distribution center to the cross-docking platform. This train carries about palettes/year, the equivalent of trucks which will not enter the city anymore. So what are the advantages and disadvantages of this organization? Advantages are, as we have just seen, the distance covered by trucks; it responds accurately to the problem of congestion and pollution. [...]
[...] There are no emissions, and it is a rather quiet way of transporting. This means of transport is quite considered as an important actor on the market, for example, DHL has understood the potential of such an idea. This way of transport, apart from its advantages described before, is also a way to communicate with people and show that the brand is concerned by environmental issues. There are nevertheless some disadvantages relative to the delivery tricycle. Capacities are limited, the maximum weight is approximately 200 kgs, and distances are limited too. [...]
[...] Is this context, goods transportation is not a priority, but it will become a really strategic subject when it will affect citizens more directly. Capacities for transportation have to be taken into account before the cities continue to develop. Costs Costs, when speaking about urban logistics, can be from different origins. First the energy; prices of fossils energies, even if they felt with the crisis, are a major component of the logistics industry. With the programmed rise of the demand due to the increasing activity and the rarefaction of these energies, the deal will be less and less profitable for carriers. [...]
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