Sustainable and Smart Urban Freight TransportSustainable and Smart Urban Freight Transport
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José Holguín-Veras, William H. Hart Professor
Director of the Volvo Research and Educational Foundations’ Center of Excellence for Sustainable Urban Freight Transport
Transportation is important because of…
Positive impacts: 10% of GDP is transportation1/4 of USA workers are on either transportation or logisticsThe most common profession among males is Truck Driver
Negative impacts:Consumes: 28.5% of energy and 67.9% of petroleumProduces: 54% of carbon monoxide, 36% of nitrogen oxide,
22% of volatile organic compounds, 1.4% sulfure dioxide
Overcoming global warming, achieving a sustainable economy, and enhancing economic competitiveness requires efficient transportation systems
Ironically, we have overlooked the important role that freight transportation could play…Why??
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PSM_V11_D660_William_Stanley_Jevons.jpg#file
The Efficiency Paradox
William S. Jevons’ “The Coal Question” (1865) concluded:If demand is (long-term)
elastic, lower prices increase consumption
We need a holistic approach to energy efficiency…
Technology is part of the solution, not the solution
Key components of a holistic approach
Behavior modificationWe (users, consumers, businesses, etc.) have to
change the way in which we do thingsResearch helps understand how best to accomplish
this
Technologies:Needed to reduce the consumption rates, mitigate/
remediate the damage produced by economic activity, manage the use of resources, etc.
Redesign the economy and urban environmentsSustainability (or lack of) is a design problem
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Our work touches these three key components
What Could the Public Sector and Academia Do?
The Short Answer is: A Lot…
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Range of interventions (from NCFRP 38)
Infrastructure Related InterventionsTraffic ManagementLogistical ManagementVehicle Related InterventionsPricing, Incentives, TaxationDemand Management Land Use ManagementGovernance
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Supply
Demand
Operations
Policy
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Logistical Management
Pick-up/Delivery to Alternate Destinations
Joint Delivery Service / Urban Consolidation Centers
Intelligent Transport Systems, Improve last leg
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Downtown
Carriers
Downtown
Carriers JDS
a) Current condition b) With JDS doing the last leg of deliveries
La Petite Reine
Source of local employment, engages in labor re-training & socially responsible practices
Ally of companies interested in sustainabilityVehicles equipped with batteries to assist
pedalingCould use bicycle lanes, able to enter narrow
streets and pedestrian areas, and to park in front receivers
Muni Meters in NYC10
The Off-Hours Delivery Project
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Part of a project that has been, at times…
A science mysteryA political thrillerA melodramaA comedyA Greek tragedyA good drama with a happy ending…
The experience with time of day pricing
Theory and empirical evidence agree that cordon time of day pricing are of limited effectiveness in moving urban delivery traffic to the off hours
2001 Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Time of Day Pricing Initiative20.2% of carriers changed behavior, though mostly by
increasing productivity (not by reducing facility usage) Only 9.0% of the sample increased rates, increases
were relatively small, about 15%69.8% of the carriers that did not change behavior
indicated it was due to “customer requirements” Almost no change in facility use
The same was found in London
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The decision about delivery time
Is made jointly between receivers and carriers40% receivers, 38% receivers+carriers, 22% carriers
Let’s take a look at the payoff matrix The first sign represents the impact on carrier and
the second the impact on receiver
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Strategy Regular hours Off-hours
Regular hours (-,+) (I) (-,-) (II)
Off-hours (-,-) (III) (+,-) (IV)
Receiver
Carrier
(These are non-feasible solutions)
(This is the solution preferred by most carriers)
(This is the solution preferred by most receivers)
The fact that more than 90% of deliveries are made in the day hours clearly show who has the power…
There is a market failure
Markets typically find the most efficient outcome When they do not, there is a market failure
rationale for public sector intervention Off-hour deliveries are beneficial to Society
(+)Huge environmental impacts due to less pollution(+)Carriers / Regular hour travelers (cars, buses, trucks) benefit(-)Increased noise at night could be easily mitigated (-)However, receivers accrue additional costs
The market failure: carrier savings are not large enough to compensate for the receiver costs
The solution is to either: Compensate the receivers for additional costs, or Develop technologies/systems to allow receivers to do OHD at
lower costs (so that compensation could work)
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Project Concept
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Interlocking components
Demand modeling/behavioral/economic componentsAnalyses of most promising industry segmentsFreight trip generation analyses
Technology componentGPS to assess performance (cell phones, own systems)
Network modeling componentMesoscale traffic model to assess local impactsRegional model to assess networkwide impacts
Industry/Agency outreach componentTo get feedback from all involved
Small scale pilot test componentTo assess real life impacts…
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JHV aged twenty years
Pilot Test Results
Pilot Test
Initial efforts delayed by Wall Street collapse, skepticism on the part of the industry…initially a huge challenge because of lack of precedents
Original plan: Sysco and Whole FoodsFoot Locker/New Deal Logistics asked to join testThree separate stages to accommodate them:
Foot Locker (10 stores)/NDL (Oct. 2 -Nov.14, 2009)Whole Foods (four stores) (Dec. 28, 2009-Jan. 31, 2010)Sysco (twenty one stores) (Dec. 21, 2009-Jan. 23, 2010)
About 35 receivers, 20 trucks/vendorsHalf doing staffed OHDHalf doing unassisted OHD
Participants in Pilot Test
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Regular vs. Off-Hour Deliveries21
Typical results from satisfaction surveys
Whole Food Vendors: 1.55Participating drivers:
Travel speeds = 1.33Congestion = 1.11Parking = 1.11 Stress levels = 1.11 Time to deliver goods = 1.38 Time to complete the route = 1.44Driver’s feeling of safety = 1.86
Sysco’s customers:Impression of off-hour deliveries = 1.50How likely are you to accept off-hour deliveries=
1.42
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Scale: 1= Very favorable, 5= Very unfavorable
Average space mean speeds23
More than twice as fast
Average service times24
More than three times as fast
After the end of the pilot
All of the receivers doing staffed OHD reverted back to the regular hours
Almost all the receivers doing unassisted OHD remained in the off-hoursThe reason: reliability of OHD“Our locations will continue to receive ‘night drops’
even though this program has ended as our managers now favor the dependability of night drops vs. late day time deliveries. Thanks again for the program.” Nick Kenner, Managing Partner, Just Salad LLC
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The Economic Bottom Line
Economic Impacts
Implementing various forms of off-hour delivery policies in Manhattan leads to:Travel time savings to all highway users of about 3-5
minutes per tripTravel time savings to carriers that switch to the off-
hours of about 48 minutes per delivery tourSavings in service times (per tour) could be in the
range of 1-3 hours
Depending on the extent of the policies, economic savings are between $100 and $200 million/year in travel time savings and pollution reduction
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Environmental Pollution Reductions28
Incentive % OHD
$5,000 6.49% 101.196 24.047 3.004 20.29$10,000 14.10% 169.582 28.535 8.223 48.81$15,000 20.90% 202.749 39.972 11.824 69.99$20,000 25.34% 253.141 56.559 15.044 90.09$25,000 29.07% 383.813 55.764 26.333 149.86
PM10 Reduction (kilograms)
Scenario CO Reduction
(metric tons)
HC Reduction
(metric tons)
NOx Reduction
(metric tons)
How the Adventure Ended…
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A Huge Success…Widely Reported in the Press
The Impacts of the Project…
NYC adopted off-hour deliveries as part of its sustainability strategy!
The Impacts of the Project…
In June 2012 the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued $450,000 in grants for small to medium size cities to implement off-hours goods movement /delivery programs based on the NYC pilot
Numerous cities are considering off-hour delivery programs: Boston, Washington, Atlanta, etc.
Awards
ITS-NY (Intelligent Transportation Society) 2011 Project of the Year in Freight Management
Numerous research awards:Robert E. Kerker Award Milton Pikarsky MS Award to Ms. Brenda CruzBest Paper Award for UTC Region IIStudent of the Year Award to Mike Silasetc
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Ongoing Work
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Ongoing work
USDOT/RITA provided funds for a larger implemen-tation project focusing on:Unassisted deliveries:
Technologies/systems that enable OHD without the need for staff of the receiving business would produce the same benefits as regular OHD, at minimal cost
To address the liability concerns of receiversLarge Traffic Generators:
Large buildings/establishments generate hundreds of truck trips per day
About 80 such buildings 4% of the truck traffic Adding large establishments 8% of truck traffic
They could implement OHD very cost effectively and without inconveniencing the receivers
Chief conclusions
Removing the constraints imposed by receivers (either by providing financial incentives, or using un-assisted OHDs) works as it isMore effective than freight road pricingA truly win-win-win-win-win policy:
Benefits regular hours travelersBenefits the environment, improves quality of lifeBenefits the business community, enhances economyNoise impacts could be easily mitigated electric
trucks, low-noise truck technologies/practicesBenefits participants in OHD
Political appeal, implementable as a voluntary program
Some references
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References, project websiteOff-hour delivery project final report: http://transp.rpi.edu/~usdotp/OHD_FINAL_REPORT.pdf
Project related papers:Silas, M. and J. Holguín-Veras (2009). "Behavioral Microsimulation Formulation for Analysis and Design of Off-Hour
Delivery Policies in Urban Areas." Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board 2097: 43-50.
Brom, M., J. Holguín-Veras and S. Hodge (2011). "Off-Hour Deliveries In Manhattan: Experiences Of Pilot Test Participants." Transportation Research Record (in press).
Holguín-Veras, J., K. Ozbay, A. L. Kornhauser, S. Ukkusuri, M. Brom, S. Iyer, W. Yushimito, B. Allen and M. Silas (2011). "Overall Impacts of Off-Hour Delivery Programs in the New York City Metropolitan Area." Transportation Research Record (in press).
Behavior:Holguín-Veras, J., N. Pérez, B. Cruz and J. Polimeni (2006a). "On the Effectiveness of Financial Incentives to Off Peak
Deliveries to Manhattan Restaurants." Transportation Research Record 1966: 51-59.
Holguín-Veras, J., M. A. Silas, J. Polimeni and B. Cruz (2007). "An Investigation on the Effectiveness of Joint Receiver-Carrier Policies to Increase Truck Traffic in the Off-Peak Hours: Part I: The Behaviors of Receivers." Networks and Spatial Economics 7(3): 277-295. 10.1007/s11067-006-9002-7
Holguín-Veras, J., M. A. Silas, J. Polimeni and B. Cruz (2008). "An Investigation on the Effectiveness of Joint Receiver-Carrier Policies to Increase Truck Traffic in the Off-Peak Hours: Part II: The Behaviors of Carriers." Networks and Spatial Economics 8(4): 327-354. 10.1007/s11067-006-9011-6
Holguín-Veras, J., Q. Wang, N. Xu, K. Ozbay, M. Cetin and J. Polimeni (2006b). "Impacts of Time of Day Pricing on the Behavior of Freight Carriers in a Congested Urban Area: Implications to Road Pricing." Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice 40 (9): 744-766.
Theory:Holguín-Veras, J. (2011). "Urban Delivery Industry Response to Cordon Pricing, Time-Distance Pricing, and Carrier-
Receiver Policies " Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice 45: 802-824.
Holguín-Veras, J. (2008). "Necessary Conditions for Off-Hour Deliveries and the Effectiveness of Urban Freight Road Pricing and Alternative Financial Policies." Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice 42A(2): 392-413.
Holguín-Veras, J. (2010). Approximation model to estimate joint market share in off-hour deliveries. Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board.
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Thanks!
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José Holguín-Veras, William H. Hart Professor
Director of the Volvo Research and Educational Foundations’ Center of Excellence for Sustainable Urban Freight Transport
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