scholarly journals MULTI-STAKEHOLDER COLLABORATION IN URBAN FREIGHT CONSOLIDATION SCHEMES: DRIVERS AND BARRIERS TO IMPLEMENTATION

Transport ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 913-929 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniela Paddeu ◽  
Graham Parkhurst ◽  
Gianfranco Fancello ◽  
Paolo Fadda ◽  
Miriam Ricci

Due to the motivations of climate change, the health impacts of poor air quality, and the importance of cities for economic growth, transport policy at all levels of governance places emphasis on reducing and managing urban traffic and congestion. Whilst the majority of urban traffic is created by personal travel, freight vehicles make a relatively large contribution per vehicle to congestion, pollution and severe accidents. The European Commission (EC 2011) estimates that 6% of all EU transport carbon emissions are from urban freight. For these reasons, a well-structured portfolio of measures and policies oriented towards more sustainable and efficient management of supply chain activities carried out in urban areas is needed, in order to reduce negative externalities related to urban mobility and improve economic performance. In recent years, there has been enthusiasm amongst commentators that shared-resource economic models can both create new commercial opportunities and address policy problems, including in the transport sector. Within the city logistics subsector, this new model is exemplified by the emergence of Urban freight Consolidation Centres (UCCs). UCCs replace multiple ‘last-mile’ delivery movements, many of which involving small consignments, by a common receiving point (the consolidation centre), normally on the periphery of a city, with the final part of the delivery being shared by the consignments in a small freight vehicle. Such arrangements can represent a good compromise between the needs of city centre businesses and their customers on the one hand (i.e. high availability of a range of goods) and local and global sustainability objectives on the other. At the same time, by sharing logistics facilities and delivery vehicles, UCCs offer added-value services to both urban economic actors, such as retailers, and network logistics providers. However, UCCs add to the complexity of logistics chains, requiring additional contracts, communications and movement stages. These arrangements also introduce additional actors within the supply of delivery services, notably local authorities present as promoters and funders, rather than simply as regulators, companies specialised in the UCC operation, and companies, which provide specialist technologies, such as electric delivery vehicles. UCCs therefore also represent an example of multi-stakeholder collaboration. Drawing on the results of a 2013 survey in Bristol (United Kingdom) and a further survey carried out in 2015 in Cagliari (Italy), the present paper will provide an in-depth comparison of the differences in the perceptions of urban freight users and stakeholders towards UCCs. Retailers involved in the survey carried out in Bristol showed high satisfaction with the delivery service provided by the UCC. Different topic areas (e.g. timeliness, reliability, safety) are examined through analyses of both qualitative and quantitative data. The survey carried out in Cagliari investigated the inclination of potential users to join a UCC scheme. The comparison between the two cities considers factors such as the nature of business holding (e.g. SME versus multiple retailers), operational practices (e.g. pattern of deliveries) and operating subsector (e.g. food versus no food). An analysis on the barriers to the implementation of UCCs in Bristol and in Cagliari is provided at the end of the paper.

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khalid Aljohani ◽  
Russell Thompson

Freight carriers, receivers and citizens in the inner-city area suffer the most from issues impacting last mile delivery due to exacerbated traffic congestion, limited parking and unsustainable delivery vehicles. Freight consolidation policies offer a sustainable solution to address these problems. The freight vehicles used in the consolidated deliveries could play a significant role in the sustainability and success of these policies. This paper applies a multi-stakeholder decision support approach to evaluate the suitability and potential of various delivery fleet configurations in addressing the perspectives and requirements of all stakeholders involved in last mile delivery to perform the consolidated delivery in the inner-city area. The Multi-Actor Multi-Criteria Analysis (MAMCA) framework was utilised to assess and rank various delivery configurations involving a combination of eco-friendly delivery vans, trucks and cargobikes based on the objectives of the stakeholders. The weight allocation of the criteria was determined through the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (F-AHP) method using responses collected from key actors representing all stakeholder groups in Melbourne, Australia. The multi-stakeholder analysis, which was performed using the Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluation (PROMETHEE) method, suggested that the consolidated delivery should be performed using a combination of eco-friendly delivery vans and cargobikes to incorporate the concerns of the societal stakeholders and operational requirements of the business stakeholders. The mono-actor analysis revealed the heterogeneity of the stakeholders’ preferences and clashing views regarding the optimal delivery fleet. This highlights the importance of incorporating a multi-stakeholder perspective in the planning and selection of suitable urban freight policies. Accordingly, a suitable implementation plan for the consolidated delivery fleet was proposed to reflect the perspectives and requirements of these stakeholders.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 6611
Author(s):  
Paola Andrea Cruz-Daraviña ◽  
Iván Sánchez-Díaz ◽  
Juan Pablo Bocarejo Suescún

This paper assesses the effects on urban freight transportation of implementing Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems. BRT systems have been widely implemented in Latin American cities in recent decades, with positive results driven by their high capacity and relatively low cost. Implementing BRT strategic corridors has led to changes in land use, and has required some restrictions on other urban traffic, particularly freight. These restrictions have significantly affected the supply of goods to establishments along those corridors, restricting freight operations and urban freight traffic in general. This paper studies the overall effects of BRT system implementation on urban freight using Cali (Colombia) as a representative case study to understand the origin and size of these impacts. Six key criteria were analyzed to assess the impacts of implementing a BRT system: 1. Mobility patterns; 2. environmental impacts; 3. infrastructure; 4. land-use; 5. legislation; and 6. geographic distribution. Observations and semi-structured interviews were used to complement hard data. The results from Cali show that the areas surrounding BRT corridors generate more than 62% of urban freight traffic. This concentration of freight activity has exacerbated the negative effects of restrictions that have accompanied BRT implementation and altered freight mobility and land-use patterns, not only locally but within the city centre, as well as suburban areas. In summary, the results show that post implementation, a significant share of freight-related externalities were amplified and transferred from BRT corridors to other parts of the city and to inter-regional corridors as well.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 304
Author(s):  
Anna Pernestål ◽  
Albin Engholm ◽  
Marie Bemler ◽  
Gyözö Gidofalvi

Road freight transport is a key function of modern societies. At the same time, road freight transport accounts for significant emissions. Digitalization, including automation, digitized information, and artificial intelligence, provide opportunities to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and increase service levels in road freight transport. Digitalization may also radically change the business ecosystem in the sector. In this paper, the question, “How will digitalization change the road freight transport landscape?” is addressed by developing four exploratory future scenarios, using Sweden as a case study. The results are based on input from 52 experts. For each of the four scenarios, the impacts on the road freight transport sector are investigated, and opportunities and barriers to achieving a sustainable transportation system in each of the scenarios are discussed. In all scenarios, an increase in vehicle kilometers traveled is predicted, and in three of the four scenarios, significant increases in recycling and urban freight flows are predicted. The scenario development process highlighted how there are important uncertainties in the development of the society that will be highly important for the development of the digitized freight transport landscape. One example is the sustainability paradigm, which was identified as a strategic uncertainty.


Prosthesis ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 110-118
Author(s):  
Hannah Jones ◽  
Sigrid Dupan ◽  
Maxford Coutinho ◽  
Sarah Day ◽  
Deirdre Desmond ◽  
...  

People who either use an upper limb prosthesis and/or have used services provided by a prosthetic rehabilitation centre, hereafter called users, are yet to benefit from the fast-paced growth in academic knowledge within the field of upper limb prosthetics. Crucially over the past decade, research has acknowledged the limitations of conducting laboratory-based studies for clinical translation. This has led to an increase, albeit rather small, in trials that gather real-world user data. Multi-stakeholder collaboration is critical within such trials, especially between researchers, users, and clinicians, as well as policy makers, charity representatives, and industry specialists. This paper presents a co-creation model that enables researchers to collaborate with multiple stakeholders, including users, throughout the duration of a study. This approach can lead to a transition in defining the roles of stakeholders, such as users, from participants to co-researchers. This presents a scenario whereby the boundaries between research and participation become blurred and ethical considerations may become complex. However, the time and resources that are required to conduct co-creation within academia can lead to greater impact and benefit the people that the research aims to serve.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 1783
Author(s):  
Maria Luisa Lode ◽  
Geert te Boveldt ◽  
Cathy Macharis ◽  
Thierry Coosemans

Energy communities (ECs) play a role in the transition towards a low-carbon economy by 2050 and receive increasing attention from stakeholders within the energy sector. To foster ECs, transition management (TM) is a promising managerial approach to steer and guide the transition towards more sustainable practices. However, TM lacks a consistent methodology that addresses the criticism of the current application. To investigate what a structured and replicable TM approach for ECs can look like, this paper applies the multi-actor multi-criteria analysis (MAMCA), a participative multi-criteria decision method, to a case study EC in the Netherlands involving various stakeholders. The impact of the application on power relations, the political sphere, sustainability conceptualization, guidance of transitions, and representation was analyzed. MAMCA was found useful for multi-stakeholder settings seen in potential ECs, offering a unifying methodology for the practical application of TM. In the EC setting, the added value of MAMCA within TM lies more in the social representation, insight into stakeholder viewpoints, and communication rather than in final decision-making.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 3923
Author(s):  
Anton Berwald ◽  
Gergana Dimitrova ◽  
Thijs Feenstra ◽  
Joop Onnekink ◽  
Harm Peters ◽  
...  

The increased diversity and complexity of plastics used in modern devices, such as electrical and electronic equipment (EEE), can have negative impacts on their recyclability. Today, the main economic driver for waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) recycling stems from metal recovery. WEEE plastics recycling, on the other hand, still represents a major challenge. Strategies like design ‘for’, but also the much younger concept of design ‘from’ recycling play a key role in closing the material loops within a circular economy. While these strategies are usually analysed separately, this brief report harmonises them in comprehensive Design for Circularity guidelines, established in a multi-stakeholder collaboration with industry leaders from the entire WEEE value chain. The guidelines were developed at the product and part levels. They are divided in five categories: (1) avoidance of hazardous substances; (2) enabling easy access and removal of hazardous or polluting parts; (3) use of recyclable materials; (4) use of material combinations and connections allowing easy liberation; (5) use of recycled materials. These guidelines are the first harmonised set to be released for the EEE industry. They can readily serve decision-makers from different levels, including product designers and manufacturers as well as policymakers.


2015 ◽  
Vol 46 ◽  
pp. 115-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anping Xie ◽  
Pascale Carayon ◽  
Randi Cartmill ◽  
Yaqiong Li ◽  
Elizabeth D. Cox ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Manning ◽  
Elizabeth Kendon ◽  
Hayley Fowler ◽  
Nigel Roberts ◽  
Segolene Berthou ◽  
...  

<p>Extra-tropical windstorms are one of the costliest natural hazards affecting Europe, and windstorms that develop a phenomenon known as a sting-jet account for some of the most damaging storms. A sting-jet (SJ) is a mesoscale core of high wind speeds that occurs in particular types of cyclones, specifically Shapiro-Keyser (SK) cyclones, and can produce extremely damaging surface wind gusts. High-resolution climate models are required to adequately model SJs and so it is difficult to gauge their contribution to current and future wind risk. In this study, we develop a low-cost methodology to automate the detection of sting jets, using the characteristic warm seclusion of SK cyclones and the slantwise descent of high wind speeds, within pan-European 2.2km convection-permitting climate model (CPM) simulations. Following this, we quantify the contribution of such storms to wind risk in Northern Europe in current and future climate simulations, and secondly assess the added value offered by the CPM compared to a traditional coarse-resolution climate model. This presentation will give an overview of the developed methods and the results of our analysis.</p><p>Comparing with observations, we find that the representation of wind gusts is improved in the CPM compared to ERA-Interim reanalysis data. Storm severity metrics indicate that SK cyclones account for the majority of the most damaging windstorms. The future simulation produces a large increase (>100%) in the number of storms exceeding high thresholds of the storm metric, with a large contribution to this change (40%) coming from windstorms in which a sting-jet is detected. Finally, we see a systematic underestimation in the GCM compared to the CPM in the frequency of extreme wind speeds at 850hPa in the cold sector of cyclones, likely related to better representation of sting-jets and the cold conveyor belt in the CPM. This underestimation is between 20-40% and increases with increasing wind speed above 35m/s. We conclude that the CPM adds value in the representation of severe surface wind gusts, providing more reliable future projections and improved input for impact models.</p>


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