Methods of Comparison of the Economic Order Quantity and Just-In-Time Restocking Technologies. The Case Study

Estimation of the optimal size of order is one of the key tasks in determining the parameters of the urban freight restocking system. The existing analytical models and methods are considering each technology separately and they do not compare the Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) and Justin-tme (JIT) restocking technologies. The purpose of this research was to evaluate efficiency of the JIT and EOQ restocking technologies. The research would help in selecting the delivery model, analyzing functioning of existing JIT and EOQ models. The article presents an approach to determining the comparison in organizing supplies to the retailer. For this, the two supply models were compared. The Just-in-Time model is characterised by costs that are spend on transportation. The Economic Order Quantity model includes costs of transportation and storage in a warehouse. After calculations, application of the Just-in-Time model in the given conditions was determined.

Assessing the Impacts of Crowdshipping Using Public Transport: A Case Study in a Middle-Sized Greek City

Crowdsourced deliveries or crowdshipping is identified in recent literature as an emerging urban freight transport solution, aiming at reducing delivery costs, congestion, and environmental impacts. By leveraging the pervasive use of mobile technology, crowdshipping is an emerging solution of the sharing economy in the transport domain, as parcels are delivered by commuters rather than corporations. The objective of this research is to evaluate the impacts of crowdshipping through alternative scenarios that consider various levels of demand and adoption by public transport users who act as crowdshippers, based on a case study example in the city of Volos, Greece. This is achieved through the establishment of a tailored evaluation framework and a city-scale urban freight traffic microsimulation model. Results show that crowdshipping has the potential to mitigate last-mile delivery impacts and effectively contribute to improving the system’s performance.

Defining Urban Freight Microhubs: A Case Study Analysis

Urban freight distribution has confronted several challenges, including negative environmental, social, and economic impacts. Many city logistics initiatives that use the concept of Urban Consolidation Centers (UCCs) have failed. The failure of many UCCs does not mean that the idea of additional terminals or microhubs should be rejected. There is limited knowledge about the advantages and disadvantages of using microhubs, requiring further exploration of this concept. To expand this knowledge, this research combines 17 empirical cases from Europe and North America to develop a framework for classifying different microhubs typologies. This research presents an integrated view of the cases and develops a common language for understanding microhub typologies and definitions. The research proposes microhubs as an important opportunity to improve urban freight sustainability and efficiency and one possible step to manage the challenge of multi-sector collaboration.

Contribution of Best Practices to Promote Sustainable Urban Freight Transport

Urban logistics decision makers face serious challenges in trying to make urban freight transport (UFT) efficient and sustainable. Therefore, it is necessary to identify best practices (BPs) to promote improvements on activity levels, modal shifts to lower-carbon transport systems, lowering energy and intensity, and reducing fuel carbon intensity. This paper conducts an exhaustive literature review that seeks to identify that are directly applicable to BPs promoting sustainable UFT and that indicate the opportunities and challenges of urban logistics. The results indicate that, although BPs make sense for themselves, the most powerful effect occurs when two or more of them are used together, multiplying their strengths. Furthermore, there is an expressive participation of environmental and economic indicators (costs and service levels) to the detriment of social indicators, thus indicating a literary gap.

Different Charging Strategies for Electric Vehicle Fleets in Urban Freight Transport

The transition from diesel-driven urban freight transport towards more electric urban freight transport turns out to be challenging in practice. A major concern for transport operators is how to find a reliable charging strategy for a larger electric vehicle fleet that provides flexibility based on different daily mission profiles within that fleet, while also minimizing costs. This contribution assesses the trade-off between a large battery pack and opportunity charging with regard to costs and operational constraints. Based on a case study with 39 electric freight vehicles that have been used by a parcel delivery company and a courier company in daily operations for over a year, various scenarios have been analyzed by means of a TCO analysis. Although a large battery allows for more flexibility in planning, opportunity charging can provide a feasible alternative, especially in the case of varying mission profiles. Additional personnel costs during opportunity charging can be avoided as much as possible by a well-integrated charging strategy, which can be realized by a reservation system that minimizes the risk of occupied charging stations and a dense network of charging stations.

Effects of Incorporating Rail Transport into a Zero-Emission Urban Deliveries System: Application of Light Freight Railway (LFR) Electric Trains

This paper addresses the issue of incorporating rail transport into an urban delivery system. Its main purpose was to identify the possibilities of utilising rail transport in a Zero-emission Urban Delivery System (ZUDS) by applying Light Freight Railway (LFR) electric trains. The study applied the following research methods: literature review, observation, case study, and mathematical computations. In order to estimate the volume of transport external costs reduction resulting from shifting urban deliveries from road to rail transport in the city of Szczecin, the EU methodology was applied to specify the amounts of external costs generated by individual modes and means of transport. The research study showed that application of LFR electric trains makes it possible to significantly reduce external costs generated by transport. Moreover, this solution may have an impact on developing Clean Transport Zones (CTZs) and may also contribute to expansion of the ZUDS. The research study results also provide grounds to conclude that application of the LFR system makes it possible to reduce negative effects generated by Urban Freight Transport (UFT) and to achieve a coherent zero-emission system for handling cargo and passenger flows in cities, which consequently contributes to achieving electromobility goals in transport.