Application of benchmarking in city logistics

City logistics should be a tool facilitating the practical resolution of problems related to the management of passenger and freight flows in cities. The challenge here is the diversity of urban logistics systems, which hinders the creation of universal action plans. Analyzing the experience gained in this field so far, it seems reasonable to state that the obstacle is not so much the lack of good solutions, but the inability to identify and verify the causes of problems. Therefore, practical methods for analyzing the urban logistics system are needed, which are simple to implement and, as far as possible, based on available datasets. By comparing different systems and the solutions applied within them on this basis, it will be easier to select those that are optimal for the needs of a specific city. This is the approach used in benchmarking, which is a method of searching for the best solutions in a given field and adapting them to the needs of a specific recipient. In the case of its application in city logistics, the problem lies in constructing a set of criteria that takes into account the specificity of both the freight and passenger transport systems, as well as the ability to correctly interpret the results obtained.APPLICATION OF BENCHMARKING IN THE CITY LOGISTICS
Abstract
City logistics should be considered as a tool for developing practical solutions for the problems regarding goods and passengers flows in the urbanized areas. The challenge here is a diversity of city logistic systems, which impedes creation of the universal action plans. When analyzing up to date experiences on this filed it is justified to say that it’s not an issue to see the solution, but to see the problem. It suggests that operative methods of analyzing the city logistic systems are needed. They must be easy to use and based on the existing sources of data. Applying these methods to compare different systems would allow to pinpoint main problems choose the best solutions for them. Benchmarking methods are based on such approach, aiming at finding best practices within selected sector and transforming them into practical actions. The most important problem regarding application of benchmarking in the city logistics is to create sets of criteria, complying with the specificity of both goods transport system and passenger transport system and rendering the results. (…)

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