New Urban Logistics

1. Urban logistics: what are we talking about?

The transport of goods and urban distribution is one of the major challenges facing cities today. Until recently, they were always treated as sources of pollution. These questions now appear to be essential elements for the functioning of urban spaces.

Urban logistics can be defined as any service that contributes to effectively managing the movement of goods in cities and to providing innovative responses to demand (from companies and individuals) while respec - ting good social and environmental conditions (Dablanc, et al., 2017). In the 2000s, it emerged as a new model for understanding urban freight transport and rethinking urban distribution. Urban logistics is concretely reflected in entrepreneurial and organizational innovations in urban logistics services, as well as in public policies, in traffic and parking management (traffic rules, delivery time windows, loading/unloading areas, low emission zones) to reduce congestion and pollution emissions. Urban logistics is based on environmental innovation, particularly in terms of vehicles (electric vehicles, electrically assisted cargo bikes), on the use of new technologies, but also on innovation in the practices and organization of freight transport (consolidation, optimization, modal shift, digital platforms). Finally, urban logistics is also based on real estate. The development of urban logistics spaces (ULS) and logistics hotels, as Sogaris has named them, constitutes a new service provision for urban logistics (Heitz, 2017). The niche real estate supply provided by urban logistics spaces makes it possible to increase the network of available logistics facilities, particularly in the dense part of cities.

2. Complexity & heterogeneity of urban logistics

is a complex field of study. From small packages to pallets to river or rail containers, urban logistics relies on a wide range of products, containers, and transport modes. While road transport remains the most widely used (90% of tons in Ile-de-France), inland waterways and rail transport are also part of some logistics chains. Road transport is also far from being homogeneous since it includes bicycles, tricycles, small vans, large vans, and trucks (of very different sizes), all of which can be petrol, CNG, hybrid, electric, or even hydrogen in the future. This diversity will increase when vehicles with varying degrees of autonomy are on the streets. The regulation of traffic and parking of these vehicles is all the more heterogeneous as it is mainly local public actors (municipalities) who decide on the conditions and restrictions of circulation and delivery. This creates a vast spatial mosaic that is not harmonized from a regulatory point of view. The heterogeneity of urban logistics is also expressed in the operational characteristics of urban supply chains, which are very specific to each of the different economic sectors operating in the city (Toilier et al., 2018). This makes public policies complex because they must be able to take into account the disparities in the sector. Research on urban logistics tends to focus on city centers and the dense areas of metropolitan areas. The concentration of population, businesses, and jobs is very high and the difficulties and cost of delivery increase with density. However, observing urban logistics from the perspective of dense areas only can be biased. Due to the socio-economic composition of the urban fabric in city centers, some logistics sectors will be over-represented in the more general representation we can have of logistics, its needs, and its organization within global supply chains. Food distribution or parcel transport for example are sectors very much represented and analyzed in urban logistics research. In response, the 2010s saw the emergence of work on metropolitan and regional issues, thus making it possible to put logistics into perspective in a broader spatial context, combining dense and less populated areas. Understanding urban distribution requires an understanding of the heterogeneity of actors and practices. The complexity of this activity and the challenges it poses to cities goes beyond the sectorial issue of transport and is part of a systemic reflection on the urban environment. The distribution of goods in cities involves a very wide and heterogeneous range of actors and practices. These include shippers from e-commerce, mass retail or wholesale trade, manufacturing, but also transport and logistics service providers in the broad sense, including carriers for BtoB and BtoC 1 deliveries, which can be large international companies or small companies (which are often subcontractors to large companies and make up the majority of urban freight flows). There is also a growing number of self-employed entrepreneurs, such as bike couriers connected to digital platforms (2000 micro-businesses for bike deliveries were created each month in France in 2018, according to the national statistics agency INSEE). Urban freight transport is therefore very diversified. It is a very competitive sector, complex and difficult to know comprehensively, especially by public authorities.

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