What is Urban Logistics and Why is it Important?

Urban logistics means the movement of goods, equipment and waste through and within an urban area.  As such, it forms the counterpart to urban passenger transportation.  But while urban passenger transportation concepts are thriving in many cities, urban logistics seems like a rather neglected area of urban mobility development.  This is, however, unjustified.  Due to a drastic raise in delivery, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, a general rise in e-commerce, changing consumer habits and ongoing urbanization, urban logistics is rapidly gaining more and more importance.

What are the Key Issues?

The environmental impact of urban logistics is significant.  It highly contributes to road damage as well as air and noise pollution, especially through CO2 emissions.  One reason for this is the relatively short distances with frequent starts and stops.  Also, there are numerous delivery vehicles on the roads.  The large fleets contribute to congestion in urban areas, especially if vehicles and road space are not optimally used.  This causes inefficiencies in logistics operations and increases costs in the “first” and “last mile” of delivery.

This is combined with a lack of focus and strategy within city planning as well as a lack of co-ordination of urban logistics actors.  There is rarely information and understanding of freight flows which makes it difficult to improve efficiency and develop long-term strategies.  In order to create a functioning approach, data from numerous economic operators would have to be collected.  Transport operators and other stakeholders are, however, often unwilling to share information about their operations or even cooperate.  In addition, cities often do not have enough financial or personnel resources to conduct necessary studies and test possible solutions.

How can Urban Logistics Contribute to a More Sustainable Municipal Transport?

These issues show that there is clearly room for improvement.  Also, it becomes clear that the area of urban logistics has a high potential to contribute to optimising urban transport and to implement new technologies.  This does not only mean the electrification of vehicles or fleets.  Urban logistics is also a destined area for autonomous delivery shuttles, drones and other cutting-edge technology.  New regulatory frameworks on the international and national level intend to clear the way for the incorporation of such technologies.  In Germany, for example, a new ‘Law on Autonomous Driving’ that allows for highly automated driving at SAE Level 4 has just recently entered into force.

Possible approaches also include the use of micro-depos and package stations.  Off-hour deliveries or a shift to different modes of transportation may help to avoid congestion and improve delivery speed.  The use of information and communication technologies can help with an optimal route planning and with the more efficient use of delivery and freight vehicles.

How is the EU Supporting the Development of Urban Logistics?

Early steps to improve the area of urban mobility were taken by the European Commission in 2009 with the ‘Action Plan on Urban Mobility’, followed by the ‘Roadmap to a Single European Transport Area’ (White Paper) two years later.  However, it was the European Commission’s ‘Urban Mobility Package’ in 2013 with the annexed working document “A call to action on urban logistics” that really put a spotlight on urban logistics.  Inter alia, it stressed the importance of optimizing the last mile distribution.  Since then, the European Commission has launched several other initiatives and programs.  In 2018, for example, the results of the ‘Study on Urban Mobility – Preparation of EU guidance on Urban Logistics’ was published.  The guidance documents aim to support local and regional authorities to identify and overcome logistical challenges.  Major EU cornerstones like the European Green Deal have also influenced the developments in the area of urban logistics.  The European Green Deal recognizes that transport accounts for a large part of the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions and thus calls for a 90 % reduction in transport emissions by 2050 to achieve climate neutrality.

More recent initiatives that deal with sustainable solutions for (urban) mobility in general are the ‘Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy’ and the planned ‘new EU urban mobility framework’.

The ‘Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy’ was adopted by the European Commission in December 2020 together with an Action Plan of 82 concrete initiatives to achieve sustainable mobility.  The main goal is to provide a strategy to accomplish the “green and digital transformation” of the EU transport sector and meet the goals as set out by the European Green Deal.  One focus is, for example, to boost the uptake of zero-emission vehicles and vessels and generally increase the use of renewable and low carbon fuels.  To achieve the goals set out by the strategy, several existing EU laws as well as the ‘Urban Mobility Package’ of 2013 shall be revised. 

According to the published roadmap, the ‘new EU urban mobility framework’ initiative intends to create a framework for Member States, regions and cities to develop safe, accessible, inclusive, smart, resilient and emission-free urban mobility.  It is supposed to help resolve the current challenges in mobility and transportation that affect inhabitants of cities and the surroundings.  The main target is to achieve the overall climate and transport goals as set out by the European Green Deal and the Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy.  Consultations for mobility practitioners, stakeholders and the public on various related topics, including urban freight transport and logistics, were held in June 2021.  Currently, the initiative is open for feedback.  The adoption by the European Commission is envisioned for the third quarter of this year.

Next steps

The recent developments on the EU level show that there has been a shift towards more focus on urban logistics.  However, in order to achieve a green and sustainable municipal transport, there are multiple factors to consider.  As a large part of the issues ultimately has to be dealt with on the local level, it remains to be seen how cities and urban areas implement the necessary changes.  The recent incentives and the revised and new regulatory framework will be one main factor to support such changes.