Engineering:Urban logistics

Urban logistics includes in general all solutions, infrastructures, organizations and stakeholders aiming to transport, store, collect and distribute goods within urban areas.

Types of flows in urban logistics

According to , the main flows of urban logistics are:

• Inter-establishment movements, where one finds all transport flows between two economic activities (thus a large majority of urban B2B flows).
• End-consumer movements, defined as all goods trips made between the point of sale or terminal warehouses, and the location of the final consumer. TThese flows contain shopping trips of households (whether motorized or not) and B2C flows, that is, transport flows between an economic activity and an individual.
• Trips for urban management, which embrance a heterogeneous categoey of flows having in common its purpose of constructing, maintaining or managing the urban space. One find in this category flows linked to the collection of waste, those related to the construction and maintenance of buildings, infrastructures and networks or removals (professional or on behalf of individuals), among others.
• To those three categories, internal or intra-organization flows can be added. They deal with logistics flows inside an establishment or a private area and do not have an impact on the occupation of the road network, as they are internal to urban settlements and activities. However, they may have impacts on the economy, the environment or society. That is the case, for example, with internal flows of warehouses and cross-docking platforms, but also to certain production activities within the city.

It is important to note that in urban freight distribution only a part of B2B flows (i.e. inter-establishment movements) are considered, in general those related to retailing or wholesaling last mile, but neither end-consumer movements or other B2B flows not related to last mile are considered in that definition. Moreover, urban freight distribution and urban freight transport is related to only transportation flows, excluding intra-organization flows or non-transport logistics flows.

The stakeholders of urban logistics

In urban logistics, different stakeholders interact. The main categories of stakeholders are the following :

• Demand-generating stakeholders (generators).
• Stakeholders performing transport and logistics activities (carriers).
• Stakeholders planning transport and logistics (planners).
• Authorities and institutions organizing urban space with an executive, legislative or public decision-making role (regulators).
• Control and sanction bodies (controllers).
• Consulting, lobbying or decision-making support activities (influencers).
• Stakeholders subject to flows (mainly congestion) without acting directly on urban logistics (exogenous).