Urban freight transport is a dynamic system of great complexity, resulting, among other things, from the significant number of its diverse participants (logistics service providers, shippers, recipients, city and regional authorities, residents and city visitors, etc.), numerous constraints (e.g., traffic regulations), the fragmentation of goods flows which limits the efficiency of transport operations, critical links in the supply chain (transshipments, customer contacts, last-mile delivery execution), as well as the risk of conflicts between the expectations of individual stakeholders (e.g., residents and carriers).
These problems cause significant difficulties in organizing transport, which is why initiatives aimed at implementing solutions that allow for more effective management of transport and delivery processes in cities are being undertaken more and more frequently.
One of the key factors necessary to control the growing lack of order within urban freight transport and to condition its sustainable development is the effective management of goods flows between the various parties involved to a greater or lesser extent in its operation. The lack of data on cargo streams, their flow direction, structure, etc., contributes to the difficulty in controlling them and directing them in a way that limits their negative impact on the urban organism, and in particular on the environment and residents. These aspects have been included in many European projects aimed at the development of sustainable urban freight transport, such as BESTUFS/BESTUFS II, CITYLOG, CITYMOVE, SUGAR, or C-LIEGE. Documents indicating the directions for the development of transport systems in Europe also draw attention to these issues. They were highlighted, among others, in the “Action Plan on Urban Mobility” published by the European Commission.
The starting point for determining the information flows necessary for the effective management of freight transport in a city is an in-depth ex ante analysis of the current situation and the state of a given system (city) and the proper identification of problems occurring in a given urban structure. It is worth noting that, in general, the problems related to the transport of goods occurring in different cities have a similar character, however, the specificity of the cities themselves makes it necessary to apply a detailed assessment, allowing for the development of recommendations regarding solutions that can improve the functioning of freight transport within a given city.
The results presented below are the outcome of the first stage of research work undertaken as part of the project “Research on the information needs of a heterogeneous environment in a sustainable urban freight transport system”, carried out by the Maritime University of Szczecin, the aim of which is to define data structures relevant to the functioning of sustainable urban freight transport, determine the sources of their acquisition, the degree and scope of integration, as well as indicate methods for extracting knowledge from the acquired data and information resources, necessary for improving the efficiency of freight transport in cities.
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Source: Logistyka Magazine