Exploitable results
Bestufs II has further expanded and strengthened the network of urban freight stakeholders (urban freight experts, policy-makers, researchers, traffic planners, etc.). Moreover it has also carried out a number of activities to address the opportunities and identify the barriers to effective and efficient distribution of goods in cities. Furthermore, it has identified and analysed the advantages and disadvantages, strengths and weaknesses of a large number of possible solutions, producing surveys and reports, and organising conferences and workshops.
Important outcomes of the project include the Bestufs Good Practice Guide (in 17 languages), a consolidated handbook containing information, figures, knowledge and best practice for all urban freight transport stakeholders. The 'Best practice handbooks' (BPH) focused on waste transport and logistics in urban areas, experiments and incentives for environment-friendly vehicles, control and enforcement in urban freight transport, and city access restriction schemes. An updating of the BPH produced in Bestufs (the predecessor project) focused on road pricing and urban freight transport, urban freight platforms, intelligent transport systems, e-commerce and urban freight distribution and public-private partnerships in urban freight transport. Policy and research recommendations were produced in relation to urban consolidation centres, last mile solutions, urban freight in small- and medium-sized cities, urban waste logistics, port cities and innovative urban freight solutions, urban freight transport management, environmental zones in European cities, accommodating the needs of passenger and freight transport in cities. The project also conducted a quantification of urban freight transport effects, a collection of best practice on data collection, modelling approaches and application fields for urban commercial transport models, and11 country reports on urban freight data collection.
(all these documents are available for download from the project website: www.bestufs.net)
Control and Enforcement in Urban Freight Transport
The greater an area or system is, the more it makes sense to carry out checks and controls with support of electronic equipment. Often national regulations limit the use of video enforcement to control urban freight transport. States regulate this use in different ways. When observations and detections are allowed, the data must be deleted after a certain time period.
The lack of availability of human resources for regularly monitoring and enforcement, and failure factors associated with manual control and enforcement systems can be overcome by using electronic control technologies like camera detection. However, revenue from the fines and penalties imposed as part of the enforcement process can be used to pay for the electronic enforcement equipment.
City access restriction schemes
The legal framework for city access charges is still not regulated in some countries. Furthermore, the introduction of any road user charge in some cases requires a revision of the constitution and/or other legislation. Access restrictions for freight vehicles are currently strongly linked with time windows and limitation of weight and size. This approach is very pragmatic and its success is due to the fact that it is easy to implement it (it only needs road signs and an appropriate enforcement).
In recent years, innovations, new concepts and trials have been introduced in the field of environment related schemes and access charging schemes. More specifically, 'low emission zones' (LEZ) or 'environmental zones' have been successfully implemented in Swedish cities (Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö and Lund). Unlike other schemes LEZ are mainly driven with the intent to reduce air pollution and noise, and can be based on a geographical area, a time period, vehicle emission standards, vehicle types, or loading factor / utilisation rate. Low-emission vehicles are fostered by discounts in road pricing schemes and tax reductions.
The London congestion charging concept is an example of very successful scheme (minus 18 % of overall traffic and minus 30 % of delays without any shift of congested roads, a broadly neutral impact on overall business performance in the zone). Operators may profit from increased reliability of deliveries due to less delays, more efficient vehicle and driver usage, more reliable tour planning, faster, more flexible deliveries. Such a scheme is not for freight traffic only and has a much broader impact on economy, society and environment than other, freight specific restrictions. However, today's legislation does not allow such schemes everywhere.
Regulations on vehicle size and weight have further found adoption even in smaller cities, leading to an enhanced use of small delivery vehicles. Time windows were adapted to businesses' needs, whereas night deliveries still are very controversial (some cities ban trucks at night because of noise emissions, others take advantage of the decrease in traffic load at daytime and an increase in transport efficiency followed with night deliveries). In terms of improved cooperation between operators and authorities, in the Netherlands, a national committee for an increased cooperation of urban freight parties was set up. First results of this initiative are a harmonisation of time-windows among a number of cities and the consideration of businesses needs in urban freight concepts.
Besides the restrictive schemes, there are also other successful initiatives like the advisory schemes, such as the lorry guiding network in Bremen (Germany) or the information given to road users via signs and map.
Waste management has become an important issue in European policies, and Member States have transferred EU regulations and standards into national legislation, and most European countries have developed waste management plans based on the principle of sustainability.
The future importance of waste transport logistics is estimated to be average in the older Member States (although in Germany is considered high), as well as in the Switzerland and Norway, while in the newer Member States waste transport and logistics is estimated to become more important in future, mainly as a result of the current lack of standards in the newly-associated countries.
The most advanced and innovative waste management measures have been implemented in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. In Austria the government financially encourages research projects on waste transport and logistics, focusing on ITS usage, modal shift towards rail transport and trans-shipment technologies.
In Germany research projects have been implemented proposing new vehicle and equipment technologies, intermodal transport, tour optimisation and integration of IT-systems. France has focused on a sustainable waste policy, including alternative waste transport solutions (e.g., inland navigation), the combination of store deliveries and transport of packaging waste, as well as the usage of pneumatic networks and tramways. Switzerland has tested waste disposal by tram. In the Netherlands new container systems have been introduced, which improve the capacity usage, as well as a reduction in the number of trips and vehicle-kilometres. The UK has focused on environment-friendly waste transport and logistics by using natural gas-powered vehicles, as well as on ITS usage.
Waste transport concepts using inland waterways and railway transport can be very successful. Case studies have shown that modal shift solutions can produce economical results in term of enhanced efficiency and cost and environmental impact reduction.
The optimisation of collection tours by using ITS, tour planning software or collection time planning has also shown positive effects. The environmental effects of waste collection measures in case of tour optimisation are relatively low.
Here, we report the recommendations resulting from the analyses of best practices:
1) Waste transport and logistics in urban areas
- It is recommendable to integrate and combine different measures approach rather than implement single solutions (e.g. combination of intermodal transport concepts (ITS) - usage and environment-friendly vehicles for the waste collection)
- It is recommendable to find a common approach between spatial planning and transport activities planning, especially waste transport (the integration of spatial planning has to consider the optimal location for landfills and incinerator).
- Often city authorities outsource their waste activities to private operators. It is recommendable that, in the tendering process, city authorities take the opportunity to define standards for collection processes and technologies that can be used in waste management and waste transport, considering not only the operation costs of waste disposal but also environmental aspects.
- Best practices from Germany and Austria show that national governments can influence the development of sustainable and future oriented waste management systems and waste logistics approaches. Countries should encourage national and regional research activities in this field, developing sustainable solutions in cooperation with private operators.
2) Experiments and incentives in favour of environment-friendly vehicles and equipment
- It is recommendable that national and municipal authorities take over a leading role in supporting environment-friendly vehicles (EFVs) and the use of alternative fuels, acting as 'kick-off', while private industry should not only be pushed by financial support but should invest on its own.
- Only deploying restriction measures to encourage the use of EFVs can lead to higher costs for customers. A good combination of restrictions and incentives is the solution that can lead to actually successful results.
- Even though smaller projects with few vehicles can also be successful in promoting the use of EFVs, it is sensible to focus on operators with large vehicle fleets, which produce a high number of vehicle-kilometres, because the reduction of negative impact is quite more significant.
- Best practices have shown that the most significant results have been reached by using compressed natural gas (CNG). The use of electric vehicles creates various problems, although the reduction in negative impacts is more significant. Therefore it is recommendable to analyse the conditions under which the EFV vehicles will operate in order to select the better EFV solution to support through funded projects (e.g. electric vehicles can be supported if they operate in a small area like historical city centres).
3) Control and enforcement in urban freight transport
- It is recommendable to choose an enforcement and control scheme according to the function of a regulative measure and the area size. High technology control systems are suitable for large city areas, while in small ones the more cost-effective solution is manual control and enforcement.
- It is recommendable for its success that local authorities, when introducing a control and enforcement scheme, inform all stakeholders about the enforcement and control mechanism behind, because it helps to provide a common sense understanding of the necessity of such measure.
4) City access restriction schemes
L%- Technology-driven concepts for city access restriction schemes that do not appropriately consider the needs of the stakeholders are likely to fail. Furthermore, an access restriction scheme can be introduced successfully if stakeholders are heard in an early stage of the planning process.
- An information campaign is crucial to the success of a scheme.
- Besides common access regulations (time, weight, size), innovative schemes with environmental zones or charging approaches can also improve transport efficiency and the quality of life in cities.
- Cooperation between cities for certain schemes (same environmental standards, weight and size restrictions, etc) enhances acceptance and overall transport efficiency.
- Enforcement concepts have to be considered since the planning phase of a scheme, especially for what concern costs.
Here, we report the recommendations resulting from the analyses of best practices:
1) Waste transport and logistics in urban areas
- It is recommendable to integrate and combine different measures approach rather than implement single solutions (e.g. combination of intermodal transport concepts (ITS) - usage and environment-friendly vehicles for the waste collection)
- It is recommendable to find a common approach between spatial planning and transport activities planning, especially waste transport (the integration of spatial planning has to consider the optimal location for landfills and incinerator).
- Often city authorities outsource their waste activities to private operators. It is recommendable that, in the tendering process, city authorities take the opportunity to define standards for collection processes and technologies that can be used in waste management and waste transport, considering not only the operation costs of waste disposal but also environmental aspects.
- Best practices from Germany and Austria show that national governments can influence the development of sustainable and future oriented waste management systems and waste logistics approaches. Countries should encourage national and regional research activities in this field, developing sustainable solutions in cooperation with private operators.
2) Experiments and incentives in favour of environment-friendly vehicles and equipment
- It is recommendable that national and municipal authorities take over a leading role in supporting environment-friendly vehicles (EFVs) and the use of alternative fuels, acting as 'kick-off', while private industry should not only be pushed by financial support but should invest on its own.
- Only deploying restriction measures to encourage the use of EFVs can lead to higher costs for customers. A good combination of restrictions and incentives is the solution that can lead to actually successful results.
- Even though smaller projects with few vehicles can also be successful in promoting the use of EFVs, it is sensible to focus on operators with large vehicle fleets, which produce a high number of vehicle-kilometres, because the reduction of negative impact is quite more significant.
- Best practices have shown that the most significant results have been reached by using compressed natural gas (CNG). The use of electric vehicles creates various problems, although the reduction in negative impacts is more significant. Therefore it is recommendable to analyse the conditions under which the EFV vehicles will operate in order to select the better EFV solution to support through funded projects (e.g. electric vehicles can be supported if they operate in a small area like historical city centres).
3) Control and enforcement in urban freight transport
- It is recommendable to choose an enforcement and control scheme according to the function of a regulative measure and the area size. High technology control systems are suitable for large city areas, while in small ones the more cost-effective solution is manual control and enforcement.
- It is recommendable for its success that local authorities, when introducing a control and enforcement scheme, inform all stakeholders about the enforcement and control mechanism behind, because it helps to provide a common sense understanding of the necessity of such measure.
4) City access restriction schemes
- Technology-driven concepts for city access restriction schemes that do not appropriately consider the needs of the stakeholders are likely to fail. Furthermore, an access restriction scheme can be introduced successfully if stakeholders are heard in an early stage of the planning process.
- An information campaign is crucial to the success of a scheme.
- Besides common access regulations (time, weight, size), innovative schemes with environmental zones or charging approaches can also improve transport efficiency and the quality of life in cities.
- Cooperation between cities for certain schemes (same environmental standards, weight and size restrictions, etc) enhances acceptance and overall transport efficiency.
- Enforcement concepts have to be considered since the planning phase of a scheme, especially for what concern costs.
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