This paper uses data from a major logistics service provider in Gothenburg (Sweden) to (i) identify the different activities in a typical urban distribution tour, (ii) quantify the time required by drivers to perform each of these activities, and (iii) identify potential initiatives to improve time efficiency. To do so, the authors collected GPS data, conducted a time-study of the activities performed by the drivers for a week, conducted a focus group with the drivers, and a set of interviews with managers. The results show that driving represents only 30% of the time, another 15% is spent on breaks, and the remaining 55% is used to perform activities related to customer service, freight handling, and planning. The latter are subdivided into multiple activities, each taking a small amount of time. A focus group with the drivers and some interviews revealed several initiatives to improve time efficiency. Most initiatives can bring small gains, but when aggregating all potential time savings there is a big potential to improve overall time efficiency. Initiatives with highest potential and low cost are: providing better pre-advice on upcoming customers, improving route planning, having hand-free cell phone use, and enhancing handling equipment.
Purpose: Urban logistics is a subject that interests both city planners and researchers. Although many works are found in non-food distribution, food-based logistics is less studied in an urban context, and sustainability issues of urban food systems remain little analysed, but it is a crucial element for local public authorities. This paper proposes a methodology for assessing scenarios of advanced urban food logistics; more precisely to answer the question of how school canteen distribution scenarios can be assessed in an economic and environmental viewpoint. Methods: To deal with those issues, the paper proposes to develop a scenario assessment framework combining a demand estimation model, a transport supply estimation method and a set of evaluation indicators (for both economic and environmental impacts). The demand estimation model generates first a number of meals per canteen then transforms it into a food quantity, based on carrier's information and other practice's feedbacks; the transport estimation is made with a combination of route construction algorithms that reproduce the logic of current Transportation Management System (TMS). The economic evaluation is made via direct operational costs estimation (both fixed and variable) and the environmental evaluation using COPERT V for direct emission's assessment. Results: Three scenarios are assessed: the current situation with the operational warehouse, the use of an alternative platform in another location and the combination of both. To address the application issues, the proposed framework is compared to the use of disconnected commercial tools on the three scenarios. We observe that the first two scenarios are close in terms of travelled distances, times and costs. The third scenario, which involves two platforms, results on higher distances and times, and consequently on higher costs and higher for some of the environmental emissions. That scenario does not allow, with the considered demand, economies of scale (i.e. using less vehicles or in a more consolidated way). When comparing the two assessment methods, the proposed framework results on slightly higher travelled distances and times, but the same number of vehicles. However, results can be considered equivalent since the gap between the two assessment methods is in general around 5% for most indicators.
The purpose of this paper is to identify which environmental criteria can influence the product demand in a context of business-to-business. These criteria can be related to the product's environmental characteristics, to the organization strategies or green practices developed by the firms and to the supplier selection process. Building the conceptual framework from the literature review, a set of environmental criteria were extracted, selected and validated. These criteria were used as a basis for the definition of a questionnaire survey that was sent to 5820 professionals from the food industry in France. The analysis of the 248 complete answers shows that the environmental characteristics of the product can influence product's demand. The most influential attribute to improve the product's environmental quality that increases the product's demand is the introduction of organic labelled raw materials. Besides, the practices that influence mostly the product demand are related to the geographical proximity with the stakeholders. Moreover, the results show that the most important selection criterion when choosing a supplier is the importance given to the quality and environmental performance of components offered. Hence, we show that in the French food market, as opposite to what is usually assumed in many research works, the carbon emissions yield during the production process and transportation process have still no significant impact on products' demand. Lastly, in this work, we quantify the demand increase that company can achieve when enhancing the environmental quality of its products. We show that the impact of the enhancement of those criteria on the demand can have different aspects. 55.6% of respondents advocate for a demand increase and most of them (33.6%) estimate this increase between 5 and 10% of the initial demand. Finally, some respondents (4.8%) indicate that the enhancement of environmental quality does not necessarily increase the demand. However, without efforts to enhance the environmental quality of their products, the demand can decrease. These findings allowed concluding that the business-customers are becoming more and more exigent by privileging organic labelled and local products and making that the companies analyse the geographical proximity with the stakeholders as a key factor during the selection process. We provide companies managers in food industry with better understanding about the environmental criteria that increase the products demand helping them to target the right decisions and to be efficient in their process of environmental quality enhancement. We also assess and try to quantify and give an estimation about the demand evolution regarding the enhancement of product's environmental quality. Our findings are also helpful for Operational Research community.
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