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This research germinates from the statement that cities need to solve the impacts caused by freight transport to improve their sustainability by implementing a set of city logistic measures. Urban freight distribution through environmentally friendly vehicle measures is one of the main sustainable actions being implemented worldwide, with a significant potential to reduce the congestion and pollution levels according to the assessment performed around the world. In this context, this paper aims to explore the use of railways for urban freight transport and then focuses on the potential of shifting from a road to railway system, which uses an advanced demand modelling framework specified and calibrated according to the results of surveys carried out in the study area. Subsequently, the potential benefits of introducing this urban freight transport through the metro system in Rome (Italy) are investigated, showing significant positive effects, both in terms of operational and external costs.

The supply chain sector plays a crucial role in driving economic development and globalization. However, the environmental repercussions of logistics and freight transport have become more pronounced. Nowadays, there is an ever-increasing acceptance regarding the opinion that the use of more sustainable urban freight transport has the potential to offer great social, economic, and environmental benefits. This study examines and highlights, via a systematic literature review, the urban environment’s factors that can essentially influence the promotion and usage of cargo bikes for last-mile deliveries in the urban environment. The aforementioned literature review revealed the importance of the quality of the urban environment’s components for the perceived and objective safety of people who make use of cargo bikes. In particular, the most essential factors for the increased use of cargo bikes were found to be traffic load, speed limits, and heavy vehicle traffic. Bicycle infrastructure is also an important factor in bicycling acceptance, as it provides the backbone for a comfortable and safe bicycle ride. Two other factors that can seriously affect cyclists’ sense of safety are street intersections and the width and number of road lanes, as the interaction between cargo bikes and motorized vehicles increases the possibility of traffic accidents. All the above factors need to be considered via various public policies that are not isolated countermeasures but form part of Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans that are currently being implemented in many European cities to ensure continuity and create a sustainable future.

Modern cities face the challenge of reconciling dynamic development with environmental protection, as well as ensuring a high quality of life for their residents. In a time of continuous urbanization, with more than half of the world’s population living in cities, city logistics plays a crucial role in managing complex urban environments. As part of the concept of sustainable development, city logistics aims to minimize the negative impact of transport on the environment, while increasing operational efficiency and improving the comfort of life of residents in urban agglomerations. This article presents the results of a comparative analysis of the intensity of sustainable urban logistics development in selected cities of the European Union. It examines various strategies that reduce CO2 emissions, improve air quality, and increase building energy efficiency. The analysis demonstrates that cities investing in sustainable urban logistics not only improve their environmental performance but also increase their attractiveness and competitiveness as desirable places to live and work.

In urban logistics, effective maintenance is crucial for maintaining the reliability and efficiency of energy supply systems, impacting both asset performance and operational stability. This paper addresses the scheduling and routing plans for maintenance of power generation assets over a multi-period horizon. We model this problem as a multi-period team orienteering problem. To address this multi-period challenge, we propose a dual approach: a novel reinforcement learning (RL) framework and a biased-randomized heuristic algorithm. The RL-based method dynamically learns from real-time operational data and evolving asset conditions, adapting to changes in asset health and failure probabilities to optimize decision making. In addition, we develop and apply a biased-randomized heuristic algorithm designed to provide effective solutions within practical computational limits. Our approach is validated through a series of computational experiments comparing the RL model and the heuristic algorithm. The results demonstrate that, when properly trained, the RL-based model is able to offer equivalent or even superior performance compared to the heuristic algorithm.

The aim of this paper was to propose a model for the evaluation of the flow of goods delivered to urban centers based on a systematic approach, generating possible scenarios of delivery activities and selecting those criteria for evaluation that contributed to the development of delivery activities and their evaluation by individual stakeholders. The number of users of delivery services is increasing, which leads to an increase in the volume of goods in the city center, creating additional traffic congestion—so-called bottlenecks—which results in an increased noise level and the emission of harmful exhaust gases, increasing dissatisfaction with the quality of life of the city population. It is, therefore, necessary for decision-makers to make a decision that achieves the best consensus among stakeholders. A test was carried out in the city of Rijeka. Based on a review of the literature and the spatial planning of the city of Rijeka, this paper proposed the following possible scenarios for the delivery of goods within the city center: status quo, delivery from one consolidation center, delivery from two consolidation centers, delivery by environmentally friendly vehicles from one consolidation center and livability. The criteria were evaluated by relevant stakeholders to determine the weight of each criterion for the development of goods deliveries in the city center. This paper used a multi-actor multi-criteria analysis (MAMCA) based on the optimization and ranking of scenarios in accordance with the given objective, the research problem, the defined criteria and the interests of the stakeholders. The solution of the MAMCA analysis evaluated the scenario with two consolidation centers best in accordance with the specified optimization objective.

Background: Various innovations have been proposed to improve the efficiency and sustainability of last-mile delivery in urban and rural environments. Notable examples of innovative delivery solutions are parcel lockers, cargo bicycles, crowdsourced delivery, and so on. Methods: This study contributes to the ongoing research by developing a large-scale digital model of England and Wales to evaluate a new generation of solutions for last-mile delivery challenges being faced in both rural areas and cities. The two innovations chosen for comparison in this study are (i) carrier consolidation and (ii) alternative delivery locations (i.e., delivery to the workplace instead of the home). As well as the effect on any individual locations, the digital model evaluates both the benefits for England and Wales as a whole. Furthermore, the influence of the market share on the results, as well as the effect of changing the number of depots, is assessed. Results: By delivering to the customer’s workplace instead of the home, the vehicle kilometres travelled (VKT) reduce slightly (less than 10%). Carrier consolidation shows significant potential in reducing the overall VKT (up to 53%). When looking at individual areas in isolation, the consolidation option reduces the VKT or changes it up and down all within tolerance. Naturally, the first option causes a significant shift in delivery activity across England and Wales. Areas of central London would see in-excess of a 10-fold increase in the number of parcels delivered, whereas the demand for parcels in rural areas is further, and significantly reduced. Conclusions: This study highlights the importance of large-scale and detailed digital models that not only calculate the overall benefits of an innovation but also their effect on each individual area.

Electromobility is the challenge of modern cities. The following article explores this issue. The article presents the authors’ assessment of the impact of sustainable urban mobility indicators on the development of electromobility strategies in cities. The purpose of the paper is to describe which indicators of sustainable urban mobility may influence the development of electromobility strategies in cities by increasing the number of not only low-emission cars (electric and hybrid) and low-emission buses but also public bicycles. The hypothesis posited in the work is: sustainable urban mobility is an important factor in the development of electromobility in cities. Our literature analysis, expert research, and statistical analysis allowed us to prepare a possibly comprehensive set of indicators for sustainable urban mobility that have a potential impact on the development of electromobility strategies. We ran a thematic analysis of systematic literature reviews and collected around 50 specific types of indicators and measures of sustainable mobility. After consulting the indicator database with experts, we expanded a list of 21 indicators of sustainable mobility. Next, using regression analysis, it was determined which of the sustainable urban mobility indicators is the most important for the development of electromobility strategies in the three identified transport systems.

Drone-based transportation is emerging as a novel mode in city logistics, featuring first-mile pickup and last-mile instant delivery using drones and truck transshipment. A fundamental challenge involves coordinating merchants, drones, transshipment hubs, trucks, and consumer communities through the hub-and-spoke network (HSN). This study formulated the optimization problem for HSN to minimize logistics costs and loss of orders constrained by service time limits. The ε-constraint model, two evolutionary algorithms based on Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II) using permutation (EAp) and rand key-based (EAr) encoding/decoding schemes were devised to solve the bi-objective mathematical program. Three groups of twelve experiments were conducted using ideal datasets and datasets generated from Shenzhen city to validate the models and algorithms. Relaxing the logistics objective by 10% and subsequently minimizing the loss of orders can significantly reduce average unmet orders by 24.61%; when spokes were beyond 20, the ε-constraint model failed to achieve solutions within an acceptable time. While EAp and EAr demonstrated competence, EAr proved to be more competitive in computation time, hypervolume, spacing metric, and the number of non-dominated solutions on the Pareto fronts. Key parameters influencing the HSN solutions include drone and truck speeds, acceptable delivery times, and the processing and waiting time at hubs.

This paper proposes the assessment of the impacts of using electric vehicles for urban service trips. In particular, the focus is on trips performed for delivering and installing products, as well as for reverse logistics. Such components of commercial traffic in urban areas have not received the level of attention it deserves. In fact, recent research on commercial traffic mainly deals with shop restocking, service visits to establishments and e-commerce deliveries, and limited attention has been paid to the service sector (e.g., installation, maintenance, repairs) which can have a high impact on city sustainability in terms of pollution emissions, congestion as well as land use for parking. Furthermore, pushed by the current trend towards the promotion of electric vehicles, an assessment is developed comparing potential service patterns using real data from the inner area of Rome (Italy) when the electric fleet replaces the traditional one. Results show the opportunity to decouple the delivery operation from the installation one, and to integrate service with reverse logistics. These significant results could address the adoption of suitable integrated urban policies to make the most of the opportunities arising from the use of electric vehicles.

This study presents a conceptual framework proposal for integrating urban freight initiatives (UFIs), or city logistics initiatives, into urban planning and urban management (UPUM) land use and infrastructure systems. As a novel approach, this framework integrates three components: Firstly, a conceptual basis on three economic geography theory principles—location, agglomeration, and urbanisation. Secondly, spatial analysis and subsequent clustering integrate companies’ spatial positions, their proximity to other companies, their freight intensity, and the characteristics of the zonal road infrastructure; these clusters are defined as freight traffic zones (FTZs). Thirdly, a functional yet strategic UFI clustering or grouping is proposed to work in an optimised and integrated manner with the FTZs’ opportunities for efficiency and reduced externalities. It is expected that the integrated result of these three components can serve to optimise freight initiatives and road infrastructure from a city governance perspective, reduce freight externalities, and function as a stakeholder cooperation tool from government-led, policy-driven perspectives. This research also identifies and characterises various variables influencing the emergence and existence (planned or organic) of FTZs and shows how these could be incorporated into high-level UPUM processes. Although it is deemed that the principles and methodological approach followed here could be common to urban areas, an example for the Metropolitan Area of the Aburra Valley (MAAV), in Colombia, is presented as an initial case study. Conclusively, this paper introduces a pioneering methodology for integrating UFIs into city or metropolitan governance, offering guidance for policymakers to promote sustainable freight systems.

Drone delivery in city logistics is gaining attention due to road congestion, environmental threats, etc. However, there are risks associated with using drones which can result in hazardous events, such as conflicts in the air, loss of control, and system failures. It is crucial to assess the risks involved in using different types of drones and choose the option with the lowest risk. The existence of different criteria important for this decision imposes the need to apply the multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) method(s). This paper proposes a new hybrid model that combines the fuzzy Factor Relationship (FARE) method for obtaining the criteria weights and the Axial Distance-based Aggregated Measurement (ADAM) method for obtaining the final ranking of the alternatives. A single-rotor microdrone weighing up to 4.4 lb was chosen as the optimal solution, and after that, the most favorable are also the drones of this size (multi-rotor and fixed-wing microdrones). The establishment of a novel hybrid MCDM model, the identified risks, the set of criteria for evaluating the least risky drones, and the framework for prioritizing the drones are the main novelties and contributions of the paper.

Effective last-mile (LM) delivery is critical to the efficient functioning of supply chains. In addition to speed and the cost of delivery, environmental and social sustainability are increasingly important factors in last-mile logistics (LML), especially in urban areas. Sustainable solutions such as drones attract special attention from researchers due to their high potential. The future of drone logistics is uncertain due to many barriers. This study analyzes, evaluates and ranks barriers to identify those that most significantly hinder broader drone adoption in LML, and proposes and ranks strategies to overcome them. This type of issue requires the involvement of multiple stakeholders with conflicting goals and interests. Therefore, the study employs a novel hybrid multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) model that combines fuzzy Delphi-based fuzzy factor relationship (Fuzzy D-FARE) and fuzzy comprehensive distance-based ranking (Fuzzy COBRA) methods. The results indicate that the main obstacle to drone implementation in LM is the lack of aviation regulations. The risks of unauthorized access, data misuse, privacy breaches, and data security represent significant challenges. They are followed by ambiguously defined or burdensome requirements for insurance and liability for drone owners. The main contributions of this study are the establishment of a novel hybrid model, identification and ranking of barriers for broader application of drones in LML, and strategies for overcoming them.

Background: The global concern for the environment and sustainable development goals has led to a growing focus on the increasing activities of city logistics. This research study aims to evaluate the current state of city logistics within the framework of sustainable development and analyze the key factors that impact the efficient management of city logistics in Jordan. Methods: To achieve these research objectives, a quantitative approach utilizing a survey questionnaire was employed. The findings emphasize a significant disparity between current practices in city logistics and desired outcomes, indicating an urgent need for improvement in cost reduction, enhancement of quality of life, and promotion of sustainability. Results: The results reveal that the performance of urban authorities in managing city logistics is influenced by various factors, including regulatory inefficiencies, suboptimal human resource performance, deficiencies in information systems, and challenges related to coordination amongst stakeholders. Conclusions: Consequently, this paper puts forth actionable recommendations for improving city logistics management, which involve amending existing regulations, implementing comprehensive training programs for employees, strengthening infrastructure for information systems, and fostering robust communication channels between urban authorities and stakeholders.

Crowdsourced deliveries or crowdshipping is identified in recent literature as an emerging urban freight transport solution, aiming at reducing delivery costs, congestion, and environmental impacts. By leveraging the pervasive use of mobile technology, crowdshipping is an emerging solution of the sharing economy in the transport domain, as parcels are delivered by commuters rather than corporations. The objective of this research is to evaluate the impacts of crowdshipping through alternative scenarios that consider various levels of demand and adoption by public transport users who act as crowdshippers, based on a case study example in the city of Volos, Greece. This is achieved through the establishment of a tailored evaluation framework and a city-scale urban freight traffic microsimulation model. Results show that crowdshipping has the potential to mitigate last-mile delivery impacts and effectively contribute to improving the system’s performance.

Time-sensitive parcel deliveries—shipments requested for delivery in a day or less—are an increasingly important aspect of urban logistics. It is challenging to deal with these deliveries from a carrier perspective. These require additional planning constraints, preventing the efficient consolidation of deliveries that is possible when demand is well known in advance. Furthermore, such time-sensitive deliveries are requested to a wider spatial scope than retail centers, including homes and offices. Therefore, an increase in such deliveries is considered to exacerbate negative externalities, such as congestion and emissions. One of the solutions is to leverage spare capacity in passenger transport modes. This concept is often denominated as cargo hitching. While there are various system designs, it is crucial that such a solution does not deteriorate the quality of service of passenger trips. This research aims to evaluate the use of mobility-on-demand (MOD) services that perform same-day parcel deliveries. To test the MOD-based solutions, we utilize a high-resolution agent- and activity-based simulation platform of passenger and freight flows. E-commerce demand carrier data collected in Singapore are used to characterize simulated parcel delivery demand. We explore operational scenarios that aim to minimize the adverse effects of fulfilling deliveries with MOD service vehicles on passenger flows. Adverse effects are measured in fulfillment, wait, and travel times. A case study on Singapore indicates that the MOD services have potential to fulfill a considerable amount of parcel deliveries and decrease freight vehicle traffic and total vehicle kilometers travelled without compromising the quality of MOD for passenger travel. Insights into the operational performance of the cargo-hitching service are also provided.

This paper investigates the opportunities offered by floating car data (FCD) to infer delivering activities. A discrete trip-chain order model (within the random utility theory) for light goods vehicles (laden weight less than 3.5 tons) is hence proposed, which characterizes delivery tours in terms of the number of stops/deliveries performed. Thus, the main goal of the study is to calibrate a discrete choice model to estimate the number of stops/deliveries per tour by using FCD, which can be incorporated in a planning procedure for obtaining a preliminary assessment of parking demand. The data used refer to light goods vehicles operating in the Veneto region. The database contains more than 8000 tours undertaken in 60 working days. Satisfactory results have been obtained in terms of tour estimation and model transferability.

The purpose of this study is to conceptualize a novel idea of potentially sustainable city logistics concepts—the development of urban consolidation centers (UCCs) on riverbanks and the establishment of city-dry port (DP) micro-consolidation centers (MCCs) as their displaced subsystems within the delivery zone. The concept enables the application of river transportation in delivering goods to the UCC, where the modal shift to electric delivery vehicles takes place for delivering goods to city-DP MCCs. In the final delivery phase (from city-DP MCCs to flow generators), smaller eco-vehicles are utilized. An innovative methodology for the planning and selection of the most sustainable concept variant is developed. The methodology combines mathematical programming and the axial-distance-based aggregated measurement (ADAM) multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) method. The application of the defined approach is demonstrated in a case study inspired by Belgrade, Serbia. The theoretical contribution of this study is in demonstrating how a wide set of potentially viable city logistics concepts can be defined, starting from an initial idea (city-DP MCC). The practical contribution lies in developing a robust methodology that considers all relevant tactical and operational-level planning questions and takes into account qualitative and quantitative criteria in evaluating different concept variants.

Smart cities need energy-efficient and low-emission transportation for people and goods. Most studies focus on sustainable urban-transportation systems for passengers. Freight transportation in cities has increased significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to greenhouse gases emissions and negative externalities, such as traffic congestion. The purpose of this paper is to identify through a systematic literature review which innovations (hardware and software) applied by logistics service providers (LSPs) in sustainable urban freight (SUF) are suitable to support the transition to energy-efficient smart cities. We propose to classify the existing innovations in last-mile delivery for SUF into categories: (1) urban freight consolidation and/or trans-shipment; (2) the Consumer as a Service Provider (CaaSP); (3) choice of transportation modes. We introduce the concept of CaaSP as an innovative solution in last-mile delivery (LMD), where customers take over some transport operations with the use of smart technologies, and thus reduce the energy demand. We consider the modes of transportation, such as: drones, autonomous delivery robots, autonomous vehicles, cargo bikes (including e-cargo bikes, e-tricycles), electric vehicles (mainly vans), and combined passenger-and-cargo transportation rapid-transit systems. From the analyzed dataset, we find that energy-efficiency in smart cities can be improved by the consolidation of parcels in micro-depots, parcel lockers, and mobile depots. We analyze smart technologies (the Internet of things, big data, artificial intelligence, and digital twins), which enable energy efficiency by reducing the energy demand (fuel) of SUF, due to better operational planning and infrastructure sharing by logistics service providers. We propose a new IEE matrix as an actionable tool for the classification of innovations applied by LSPs in SUF, according to the level of their interconnectivity and energy efficiency. Additionally, this paper contributes to the theory by exploring possible future research directions for SUF in energy-efficient smart cities.

The main idea of this article is to identify the benefits of the full vehicle substitution process for a fully sustainable Urban Freight Transport (UFT) in economic, social, and environmental terms, based on the application of the experimental method. The scientific assumption was made that Electric Delivery Vehicles (EFV) can be complementary in the first stage, and only in the next stage, substitutable to the traditional diesel-powered fleet servicing transport (courier) tasks within the delivery limits in the Szczecin Agglomeration. To assess the level of substitutability, observational instruments were used, while ensuring an active modification of the studied phenomenon (introduction to the operation of selected routes of electric vehicles). The focus was on three key elements, the environment, rules, and regularities. The article presents the architecture of such experiments regarding 22 selected routes, which allowed for the calculation of selected performance indicators for ex-ante evaluation in planning delivery scenarios. The results were verified using a simulation-based approach in the Szczecin Metropolitan Area. As a result, it made it possible to find answers to the research questions posed, in particular: is it possible to fully replace combustion-engine vans with electric ones, and what integrated benefits can be identified, and their systematics has been illustrated in the proposed proprietary model “Electromobility Octagon Profit”. Future research could extend the theoretical knowledge by further exploring the development processes for the use of electric vehicles in the urban freight transport system and by adding insights from other contexts, stakeholders, and theoretical areas.

This paper presents the results of a study on city logistics in the urban tourist area as a research field. Both disciplines are developing intensively, and the research results have many implications for business practices, in particular for alternative fuel for transport, energy savings, waste management, and creating new business models that meet the challenges of modern society. In the era of decarbonisation, city logistics and tourism must define new rules for coexistence. The identified dominant subfields (tourism, logistics, urban transport, urban development and planning, new technologies, and sustainable development) and the links between them have pointed to some research gaps and suggested a direction for further research. The research procedure applied, adapted to the overall goal of the study, consists of an analysis of publications in the Scopus database (February 2022). A keyword co-occurrence network for the research field of city logistics in the urban tourist area is constructed with the use of the VOSviewer software. It follows from the analysis that the research area combining city logistics and city tourism remains relatively unexplored. Forming only a small part of research into city logistics, it has unexplored research potential. The research area under analysis is interdisciplinary in nature.

E-grocery is fast growing worldwide and represents a relevant issue for city logistics. Although in almost all countries the percentage of food e-buyers was lower than those purchasing other commodity categories, due to the pandemic, they have increased significantly in the last two years, with consequences that are difficult to fathom and estimate. This phenomenon therefore deserves more attention, especially with respect to its environmental impact, mostly at the urban scale. This paper presents a systematic literature review (SLR) on how e-grocery impacts the environment through the CO2 emissions generated and the equivalent energy consumption. The methodology used for the review follows a standard approach, with different combinations of keywords used for the search performed in SCOPUS and the Web of Science databases. Emissions and energy consumption assessments were performed for all of the papers considered. The results point to two different findings: some studies consider online grocery as an environmentally friendly channel, while others note that the energy consumption of this emerging channel is higher than alternative ones. This paper contributes by suggesting future research directions to be explored on the relationship between e-grocery and energy use and provides some reflections that are useful not only to e-grocers and logistics operators, but also to policy makers with an interest in developing sustainable urban plans and promoting less environmentally impacting distributions/configurations of grocery delivery systems within city logistics.

Industry 4.0 tools, such as the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, digital twinning, and cloud computing, create a technological revolution that accelerates efforts to optimize the efficiency of cyber-physical operations and services. The waste management system requires a critical share of city logistics optimization, especially when using cyber-physical systems. Modern tools reduce the required municipal waste handling, such as loading and unloading, transportation, and warehousing, which leads to an increase in efficiency and flexibility, saving energy and time, and protecting the environment. In this paper, we present a cyber-physical waste management system solution by providing a cyber-physical model design and description, mathematical modeling, and two cases to investigate the impact on energy consumption and emissions. After an introduction and literature review, we describe the design of the cyber-physical model and tackle the first echelon. The designed system incorporates the IoT, smart bins with multi-percentage sensors, data and information analysis, vehicles’ actual routes, energy and emissions optimization, multi-echelon systems, time windows, and flexibility. Mathematical modeling equations for the optimized total energy consumption are presented. Thirty and twenty smart bins located in VIII District in Budapest are detailed as two case studies, where solutions for the optimized real routes and energy consumption are found using three metaheuristic algorithms: genetic, particle swarm, and simulated annealing optimization algorithms. The accrued emissions of CO, NMHC, CH4, NOx, and PM for the optimized solutions are calculated. Finally, the results are compared with a random traditional solution to measure the effectiveness.

Inland navigation is hardly ever used to transport cargo in cities. In most urban areas, it is performed almost exclusively via road transport, with the virtual exclusion of rail and inland transport. Research and implementation projects in several European cities have shown that employing inland navigation is a viable alternative for road transport in urban areas. The research involved a case study of transporting the same number of 40-foot containers by inland waterway and road and then comparing the results in terms of transport time, transport costs, and carbon dioxide emissions between two metropolitan areas in Poland. The article shows that River Information Services (RIS) system can contribute to improving freight transport efficiency not only on longer routes, but also in urban and inter-urban conditions. The findings were that inland shipping is much cheaper and more environmentally friendly, but transport takes much longer and is not always possible due to insufficient waterway infrastructure. The paper can be used as a road map to proceed with new approach to planning urban and inter-urban logistics, with the use of inland navigation supported by the RIS system. The study delivers evidence that the main benefits of using RIS for urban logistics are: optimization of the cargo route, improved supervision and control of cargo transport, optimization of inter-branch transport, optimization of the use of fleet, more efficient use of technical infrastructure of waterways, combination of many recipients/senders into one transport, and reduction of administrative barriers.

This paper addresses the issue of incorporating rail transport into an urban delivery system. Its main purpose was to identify the possibilities of utilising rail transport in a Zero-emission Urban Delivery System (ZUDS) by applying Light Freight Railway (LFR) electric trains. The study applied the following research methods: literature review, observation, case study, and mathematical computations. In order to estimate the volume of transport external costs reduction resulting from shifting urban deliveries from road to rail transport in the city of Szczecin, the EU methodology was applied to specify the amounts of external costs generated by individual modes and means of transport. The research study showed that application of LFR electric trains makes it possible to significantly reduce external costs generated by transport. Moreover, this solution may have an impact on developing Clean Transport Zones (CTZs) and may also contribute to expansion of the ZUDS. The research study results also provide grounds to conclude that application of the LFR system makes it possible to reduce negative effects generated by Urban Freight Transport (UFT) and to achieve a coherent zero-emission system for handling cargo and passenger flows in cities, which consequently contributes to achieving electromobility goals in transport.

In the last decade, logistic systems based on small aerial vehicles (drones) have become attractive for urban delivery operations as a sustainable alternative to ground vehicles because they are not affected by the congestion of the road network, thus allowing for faster and more reliable services. Aerial logistic systems, however, require a substantially different approach to operations management and need specifically designed supportive infrastructures. While the research on urban aerial delivery mostly focuses on the optimization vehicle operations, the appropriate design of supportive infrastructures is seldom considered. This paper focuses on the energy efficiency of aerial logistic systems, and proposes a new original methodology to obtain a realistic estimate of the overall energy consumed by a swarm of drones employed for urban delivery, taking into account the extension of the area served and its specific features. The methodology proposed offers relevant information for the decision problems related to the appropriate sizing of the infrastructures, the dimensioning of the swarm of drones and the capacity of the energy storage system. The paper also reports a comparison with ground vehicles in the same scenarios, showing the relevant tradeoffs. The results obtained demonstrate how an appropriate design of the supportive infrastructures for urban aerial logistics may significantly impact the overall efficiency of the delivery system.

Surges in e-commerce sales represent a huge challenge for urban freight transport. Parcel lockers constitute a valid solution for addressing the challenges home deliveries imply. In fact, eliminating courier–consumer contact (also relevant for health-related issues, as made evident by the COVID-19 pandemic) and delivering in fewer predefined places might help coping mechanisms for missed deliveries substantially. Furthermore, this option enables consolidated shipping and reduced delivery trip costs. This paper analyses and compares consumer preferences for alternative collection strategies. It investigates home delivery vs. parcel locker use and forecasts their future market shares. This is performed based on both customer socio-economic variables and the attributes characterising these alternative logistic fulfilment strategies. The case study considered tests upon a stated preference survey deployed in the city of Rome. The investigation specifically targeted young people (i.e., population under 30 years) since they represent early adopters. Discrete choice models allow both quantifying the monetary value of parcel lockers attributes (i.e., willingness to pay measures) and estimating the potential demand for this innovative delivery scheme. Results show that distance and accessibility are the main choice determinants. Furthermore, there is an overall high propensity to adopt parcel lockers. This research can support policymakers when implementing such solutions.

The implementation of new forms of urban mobility is a fundamental challenge for improving the performance of city logistic systems in terms of efficiency and sustainability. For such purposes, the exploitation of electric vehicles is currently being investigated as an alternative to traditional internal combustion engines. In particular, the employment of lightweight electric cargo bikes is seen as an attractive possibility for designing improved city distribution systems. Such vehicles, however, present substantial limitations related to their endurance, speed, power, and recharging times; therefore, their configuration must be optimized considering the actual operational context and the specific characteristics of the service operated. This paper proposes the employment of modular electric cargo bikes for urban parcel delivery, with the possibility of customizing some features of the vehicle in order to optimize the performance of the system. This research initially focuses on the design of the modular vehicle and subsequently on the selection of the best configuration through a multi criteria decision method. A numerical application demonstrates the effectiveness of the approach proposed by analysing different design options and determining the most efficient solution in a specific context.

The aim of this paper is to define and measure the relevance of the criteria for the evaluation of the inflow of goods in city centers, in order to improve delivery activities within city centers. The development of the city center leads to the grouping of numerous business operators, which results in the increase of the quantity of goods entering the city center, causing additional traffic congestion, higher levels of noise and emissions of harmful gases. In the long term, this leads to major dissatisfaction with the quality of life among city residents. Therefore, the planning of goods delivery must be in line with the sustainable development of city logistics, while at the same time considering the interests of relevant stakeholders. However, in the existing literature the criteria for evaluating delivery flows have not been comprehensively identified or evaluated by the stakeholders of city centers. In order to fill the research gap, the authors have defined four groups of criteria: technical-technological, economic-financial, organizational and social criteria. To determine the relevance of these criteria, it was necessary to use the questionnaire method to collect data from the stakeholder groups defined by the literature review. Regarding the relevant stakeholders (carriers, delivery recipients, residents and urban policy makers), the results have pointed out that the technical-technological and organizational criteria groups are considered the most relevant by the stakeholders regarding the inflow of goods in city centers.

These days, seamless moving about a city is a determinant of the city’s competitiveness, and is decisive for the life quality in the city. Hence, taking care of appropriate traffic organisation is one of the major tasks of the city authorities. Development of optimal production and spatial interrelations, considering their costs, efficiency and scope of services rendered to individual entities, enables economic and ecological development of the region. Therefore, the issue of major importance for a city is implementing a transport policy that makes it possible to choose a specified method of development (transformation) of the existing transport system in such a way so that it is coherent with the adopted strategy for the city development. The purpose of a transport policy conducted by city authorities should be maintaining the functioning of the urban transport on at least a satisfactory level. The main purpose of the article is to present an innovative solution for optimising the journeys of public transport vehicles, using the PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique) method. The method was developed on the basis of the research carried out in the city of Opole, Poland. The article presents a Multicriteria Model of Controlling the vehicles of the Municipal Public Transport-CVMPT) and the method implementation algorithm along with assumptions. The model presented in this article shows the possible way of optimising public transport systems operated in cities, taking into account the travel time of any given bus service, based on normal distribution and the computed probability of such traffic. The application of the method has brought many positive effects through providing optimisation measures in the structure of the municipal public transport.

Nowadays, cargo bikes are seeing an ever-greater role in city logistics with an increasing number of deliveries, and it is essential to examine their future role in green and smart cities. In our work, we examine the application of cargo bikes in the city logistics system of the urban concentrated sets of delivery locations, focusing first on shopping malls, with the investigation of the geometrical structure of the logistics network. In the examined concept, the use of cargo bikes will be combined with electric trucks to make possible green deliveries of urban concentrated sets of delivery locations. In this paper, we present the experiences of the existing systems and the related research, the simulation model of the examined new concept with cargo bikes and its results, the graph theory-based geometric model of the examined city logistics system with graph theory-based notation, and the application of the new approach for Budapest. The main output of this research is the geometrical model of the urban concentrated sets of delivery locations and its application. Based on this geometrical model, it will be possible to decide about the suitability of the examined cargo bike-based city logistics concepts for given cities.

COVID-19 has brought about a substantial change in urban mobility, as well as an unprecedented increase in e-commerce throughout the world due to the emergence of new ways of shopping and consumption habits. In this context, urban logistics plays a crucial role in the triple bottom line of sustainability. The present document establishes a holistic vision of the problem aiming to (i) measure and compare the traffic generated in the Madrid Central area (low-emission zone) during the periods before and after the pandemic, and (ii) quantify e-commerce orders made by residents, as well as the Light Commercial Vehicles (LCV) required to deliver these parcels, measuring their environmental impact. The results show that road traffic in the Madrid Central area decreased by approximately 2/3 compared to normal levels and 1/2 in the case of LCVs. With regards to e-commerce, the number of parcels delivered doubled. This fact entailed an increase in the number of LVCs dedicated to package delivery in the central district and more pollution, but to a lesser extent than the growth of e-commerce. The challenge faced by urban logistics in the post-Covid era is managing to blend new mobility within large cities with the high volumes of e-commerce deliveries demanded by residents.

Sharing economy requires cities to redefine their management strategies. As a consequence of the development of new ideas, the main aim of modern cities should focus on achieving the sustainable use of resources. In the existing literature, only a partial analysis of resources management in cities can be found. For this reason, the authors decided to prepare the framework for empirical research about resources management in sharing economy in cities, especially in the urban logistics system. The main aim of the study is systematizing criteria related to the assessment of the management of urban resources in the era of sharing economy. To achieve the goal of the research, a systematic literature review was made according to chosen approaches and procedures. This resulted in creating a set of criteria for the analysis and evaluation of resources management in urban areas. It contains five areas with 26 criteria and a map of assumed correlations between them. Those outcomes can be used by local authorities or even other urban logistics stakeholders to define or improve their actions aimed at developing a sharing economy services portfolio on the local market. Additionally, they constitute a set of initial information for further scientific research.

Especially in urban areas, a large proportion of air pollution can be attributed to road traffic. Thus, in many countries, bans are being discussed on diesel vehicles in inner cities. These diesel bans pose a severe threat to logistics service providers (LSPs) that are active in city logistics, since their fleets are based on diesel-powered vehicles. One solution for LSPs is to introduce battery-electric heavy-duty trucks (HDTs). However, this is rarely done at present, due to high investment costs of such trucks. In order to compensate these high investments, high mileages are required in order to benefit from such vehicles’ low operating costs. Implementing 24-hour delivery would increase the daily mileage of HDTs. Because of noise emission regulations, 24-hour delivery could only be performed using battery-electric HDTs. In this study, we explore whether using batteryelectric HDTs for 24-hour delivery is economical for LSPs. We use data from a German LSP in food logistics, develop a system dynamics model, and integrate a total cost of ownership calculation along with an LSP and a retail store discrete choice model to determine whether 24hour delivery with battery-electric HDTs is profitable for the LSP, and how it might be accepted and diffused among stores. We find that 24-hour delivery using battery-electric HDTs is immediately profitable. This is due to the almost 50% increase in the daily trip potential of battery-electric HDTs in comparison to diesel HDTs, which leads to a lower required total number of HDTs in the fleet. Lower transportation costs, increased delivery quality, and decreased risk lead to rapid adoption of 24-hour delivery among stores, while lower total costs of ownership (TCO) accelerate the adoption by the LSP. Diffusion through the fleet and stores takes only slightly longer than one HDT lifetime. Consequently, 24hour delivery with battery-electric HDTs is a promising solution for innovative and sustainable city logistics.