City Logistics

City Logistics is a relatively new field of investigation brought by the challenges of moving growing quantities of freight within metropolitan areas. While cities, particularly since the industrial revolution, have always been important producers and consumers of freight, much of these activities were taking place in proximity to major transport terminals, such as ports and railyards, with limited quantities of freight entering the city per se. The functional specialization of cities, the global division of production as well as increasing standards of living are all correlated with larger quantities of freight coming from, bound to or transiting through urban areas. According to the Institute of City Logistics, city logistics is “the process for totally optimizing the logistics and transport activities by private companies in urban areas while considering the traffic environment, the traffic congestion and energy consumption within the framework of a market economy.” Simplistically, it concerns the means to achieve freight distribution in urban areas, by improving the efficiency of urban freight transportation, reducing traffic congestion and mitigating environmental impacts.

City logistics, as a distributional strategy, can take many forms. On the above figure, a high density and congested central city can be serviced by an independent freight distribution system calling from a terminal located at the margin. The vehicles used to service the customers (either for deliveries or pickups along a flexible route) are likely to be smaller and thus better adapted for distribution in an urban environment. There is also the possibility of using the existing public transit system to move freight but this implies several challenges in terms of the adaptation of modes, the usage of existing passengers terminals and scheduling issues. The urban terminal itself could be a neutral facility interfacing with a set of distribution centers, each being connected to their respective supply chains. Thus, a wide array of supply chains connected to the city can achieve a better distributional efficiency within the central city.