Planning and Modelling Urban

Consolidation Centres

Assoc. Prof. Russell G. Thompson

Department of Infrastructure Engineering

rgthom@unimelb.edu.au

IIT Bombay 10th April 2014

Outline

Definition

Key Concepts

Advantages & Disadvantages

Common Structures

Case Studies

Binnenstadservice

Motomachi Shopping Street

Modelling Approaches

Ongoing Research

References

UCC Definition

A logistics facility that is situated in relatively close

proximity to the urban area that serves a city centre, an

entire town or a specific site such as a shopping

centre, airport, hospital or major construction site.

Goods destined for these locations are dropped off at

the UCC.

UCC Definition

A logistics facility that is situated in relatively close

proximity to the urban area that serves a city centre, an

entire town or a specific site such as a shopping

centre, airport, hospital or major construction site.

Goods destined for these locations are dropped off at

the UCC. The UCC operator sorts and consolidates

these loads dropped off by logistics companies and

makes deliveries to the final destinations, often using

environmentally friendly vehicles, for example electric

and gas-powered goods vehicles, and electrically-

assisted tricycles.

Browne at al. (2005)

Key Concepts

• Consolidation identified as key to achieving

sustainable urban goods transport (OECD, 2003)

• Increasing consolidation for last kilometre

reduces unnecessary vehicle movements, and

thus congestion & pollution

• To increase efficiency of city distribution

systems, different deliveries have to be bundled

1 UCC with Pick-up Points (Kassel)

Kolher & Groke, 2004

1 UCC with Pick-up Points (Kassel)

Kolher & Groke, 2004

1 UCC with Pick-up Points (Kassel)

Kolher & Groke, 2004

Multiple UCC

Kolher & Groke, 2004

Advantages of UCCs

• Environmental & social benefits

• Better planning & implementation of logistics

operations

• Better inventory control, product availability &

customer service

• Compatibility with wider policy and regulatory

initiatives

• Public relations benefits for participants

• Better use of resources at delivery locations

• Opportunity for carrying out value-added activities

Disadvantages of UCCs

• Potentially high set up & operating costs

• Large transport companies & retailers already efficient

• Difficulty handling a wide range of goods

• Increased direct delivery costs

• Lack of enforcement of regulations for vehicles not

included in consolidation scheme

• Organisational & contractual problems often limit

effectiveness

• Potential to create monopolies (legal)

• Loss direct interface between suppliers & customers

1 UCC with Pick-up Points (Kassel)

Browne et al, 2005

1 UCC with Pick-up Points (Kassel)

Browne et al, 2005

Poorly Loaded Vehicles on Direct Deliveries Replaced by Better Loaded Vehicles from UCC

1 UCC with Pick-up Points (Kassel)

Browne et al, 2005

Large Goods Vehicles on Direct Deliveries Replaced by Smaller Vehicles from UCC

Motomachi Shopping Street

• Commenced in Yokohama, Japan in 2004

• Developed to address concerns: roadside

environment (air quality & noise) & traffic safety

• Aim: reduce number of trucks going through &

parking on shopping street (300 shops)

See PIARC, (2012)

1 UCC with Pick-up Points (Kassel)

PIARC, 2012Motomachi Joint Delivery Centre in Yokohama, Japan

1 UCC with Pick-up Points (Kassel)

PARC, 2012

Features of Motomachi Shopping St

• Joint Delivery Centre (1km from shopping street,

managed by independent business)

• 3 Eco-Cargo-Areas (parking stations to

load/unload goods)

• Low emission vehicles (3 CNG vehicles)

• Delivery from Eco-Cargo-Area to each shop

performed by cart

• Distribution companies pay 150 Yen per parcel to

operator

• Trucks reduced from 100 to 29PIARC, (2012)

Binnenstadservice (inner city service)

• Commenced in Nijmegen, the Netherlands in 2008

• Focuses on receivers & shippers rather than on

carriers

• Subsidy only provided in 1st year (>9 cities now

operating)

• After 1st year: ↓5% truck kilometres & ↓7% of truck

stops

• Consolidation centre located 1.5 km outside city

centre, open 18 hours a day

• When small retails join, suppliers then sent UCC

address for carriers to deliver goods towww.binnenstadservice.nl

Optimal location for each objective function

Objective

function

Optimal location

pattern

f1 :

Transportation

cost

(2,5,7,10)

f2 : Costs of

travel time

(1,2,5,15)

f3 : CO2

emissions

(1,5,7,10,15)

Quak and Hendriks, 2012

Binnenstadservice

• Deliberately focuses on small & independent

retailers

• Goods delivered when retailer wishes

• Additional services: Storage, Home deliveries &

reverse logistics (waste)

• Uses clean vehicles: electronic bicycles & natural

gas trucks, electric vehicles

Quak & Hendriks (2012)

Public Logistics Terminals

• Planning Decisions (Number, Size & Location)

have significant impact on inventory-related costs

& customer service levels

• Queuing Theory & Non-linear programming,

accounting for traffic conditions on road network

• Multi-objective optimisation model considering

transport & facility costs, travel time & CO2

emissions

Taniguchi et al, (2001)

Modelling

For determining viability for co-operative freight

organization

• Size & Location of UCCs

• Demand

• Transhipment costs

• Rates for use

• Routes of JDS

• Costs for UCCs & JDS

• Benefits (noise, fuel consumption & emissions)

Structure of logistics systems

Expressway

Pickup/delivery

trucks

Line-haul trucks

Centroid for pickup/

delivery trucks Interchange

Logistics

terminal

Urban

area

Urban street

Centroid

for line-

haul trucks

Centroid

for line-

haul trucksLogistics

terminal

Taniguchi et al, (2001)

14

109

15

4

2

1

16

1112

13

8

76

5

3

(150)

(193)

(326)

(269)

(191)

(67)

(62)

(158)

(19)

(335)

(199)

(75) (6)

(91) (195)

(140)

Land price (thousand

yen/m2)

Centroid

Node

Node outside the area

Candidate node for

logistics terminal

West

Japan

East

Japan

Kyoto

Osaka

Expressway

Urban streets

(Ordinary roads)

Link to nodes

outside the area

( )

Study area

(Kyoto-Osaka

area in

Japan)Taniguchi et al, (2001)

Multiple UCCs

Optimal locations of terminals

Optimal size of terminals

Location pattern

of terminals

Number of trucks that

use each terminal

Traffic condition

at each link

Upper level problem : Behaviour of planner

Lower level problem :

Behaviour of each company

and each truck

・Terminal choice・Route choice

Optimal location model with co-operative freight transport systems (Taniguchi et al, 2001)

Ongoing Research

• Planning

– Integration with other policy measures (eg. Road

Pricing & AFVs)

– Incentives for participating carriers & receivers

• Modelling

– Estimating supply chain impacts

– Interactions between stakeholders (Agent Based

Modelling, see Duin et al, 2012)

References

Browne, M., Sweet, M., Woodburn, A., & Allen, J. (2005). Urban freight consolidation centers, final report.

London: University of Westminster.

Crainic T. G., Ricciardi, N. and Storchi, G. (2009). Models for evaluating and planning city logistic

transportation systems. Transportation Science 43(4): 432-454.

Duin, J.H.R. van, Quak, H., Muñuzuri Sanz, J., (2010). New challenges for urban consolidation centers: A

case study in The Hague. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 2:6177-6188.

Duin, J.H.R. van, Kolck, A. van, Anand, N., Tavasszy, L.A. & Taniguchi, E., (2012). Towards an agent-

based modelling approach for the evaluation of dynamic usage of urban distribution centres.

Procedia Social and Behavorial Sciences 39:333-348.

Kohler, U. (2001). City Logistics in Germany, Proc. 2nd Int. Conference on City Logistics, Okinawa,

Institute for City Logistics, Kyoto.

Kohler, U. and O. Groke (2004). New ideas for the city logistics project in Kassel, in Logistics Systems for

Sustainable Cities, E. Taniguchi and R.G. Thompson (Eds.), Elsevier, 321-332.

OECD (2003). Delivering the Goods: 21st Century Challenges to Urban Goods Transport, Paris.

PIARC, (2012). Public Sector Governance of Urban Freight Transport, PIARC Technical Committee B.4,

Freight Transport and Inter-Modality, World Road Association.

Quak, H. and B. Hendriks (2012). Local retailers as key actors for sharing the urban space Towards a

network of urban consolidation centers: lessons from Binnenstadservice, VREF Future Urban

Transport (FUT) Forum, Gothenburg, October.

Rooijen T. van and Quak H. (2010). Local impacts of a new urban consolidation centre – the case of

Binnenstadservice.nl. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 2:5967–5979.

Taniguchi, E., R.G. Thompson, T. Yamada and R. Van Duin, (2001). City Logistics – Network Modelling

and Intelligent Transport Systems, Elsevier, Pergamon, Oxford.

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