Urban logistics is a concept that is still difficult to define unambiguously. One definition states that it encompasses all activities aimed at optimizing the flow of goods, people, and information within the social system that is a city. Another definition points to freight transport, taking into account processes of warehousing, supply of water, gas, electricity, and heat, organization of telecommunications networks, transit transport, individual, urban, and suburban passenger transport, as well as waste and refuse collection, and even the shaping of transport links between the agglomeration and the logistics system of the region, the country, or even the global level.
Urban logistics is also defined as the process of optimizing business activities in the field of logistics and transport in urban areas, supported by modern information systems, taking into account the transport environment, safety, and energy efficiency within a market economy, as well as congestion. It may include cooperative freight transport systems, public logistics terminals, cargo control, underground transport systems (an innovative solution to the problem of transporting goods in cities), and modern information systems – Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS).
Thus, in short – urban logistics covers logistics systems located in urbanized areas, and the task of this branch of logistics is the proper organization of the activities of all participants operating within the city, so as to reduce global operating costs and increase customer satisfaction, where the customers are the residents of those cities. Furthermore, urban logistics conditions further processes of opening cities to the diffusion of innovation or the functioning of cities in a network.
An important issue in urban logistics today is transport. It is assumed that 75% of logistics costs consist of transport costs, hence special attention has been focused in recent years on the transport system in urban logistics, covering the transport of people within the agglomeration, supply transport, and waste and refuse collection. Transport in urban logistics is limited to 3 basic branches: road transport (bus, trolleybus, individual), rail transport (tram, railway – rapid urban rail, use of railways to serve the city, and metro), and transmission transport (water pipes, gas pipelines, power lines, heating lines, sewage systems).
In recent times, the transport of goods has encountered many problems in cities. Strong pressure is being exerted on carriers to increase service levels and reduce costs within just-in-time delivery systems. And as the urban population grows, transport needs increase, which leads to a constant rise in congestion levels. The consequences of road accidents involving trucks are also a serious problem. However, urban logistics can increase safety by reducing the number of transport operations in urban areas and reducing the number of kilometers traveled. Furthermore, new technologies in the fleet, such as navigation systems, can relieve the driver of many tasks, allowing for monitoring and transport safety. Additionally, integrated electronic and telecommunication technologies can solve many problems in the transport of goods. Also very important in implementing the concept of urban logistics is the management of the supply chain to stores in shopping centers. Therefore, most sales and purchasing departments try to cooperate very closely with the Distribution Center.
A huge challenge for urban logistics is large-format stores, which have limited capacity for receiving and storing goods, and it is difficult for them to build stocks and plan their flows. The situation is further complicated by a large number of promotions, during which large batches of goods are received and sold. To minimize delivery timeliness problems, most retail chains create distribution schedules, allowing for the determination of the cyclicity and repeatability of deliveries. Another widely used practice is preparing sales forecasts well in advance and rationing the available stock in the Distribution Center for each of the stores (hypermarkets). Equally frequently used practices intended to improve flows include:
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organizing pickings (goods collection points) in Distribution Centers according to the map of retail chains (stores)
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order picking in smaller transshipment points, located closer to individual cities and their centers, i.e., where there are the most recipients
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labeling pallets with a pallet composition label, which improves the process of checking the pallet’s contents
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data exchange platforms used to download information about basic article data
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in the absence of EDI communication between the Distribution Center and the store, attaching a disk or other data carrier to the delivery in order to read the delivery data.
The article comes from the magazine “Logistyka” 5/2010.