Microsimulation-Based Collaboration Model for Urban Freight Transport

Abstract

The different stakeholders involved in urban freight distribution, their behaviours, and interactions are attracting the attention of researchers and practitioners in logistics and freight transport, pushed by the need to develop methods and models for assessing ex ante actions/measures to improve the logistics process performance. Besides, the large amounts of data currently available open up new opportunities, as well as the possibility of using them to review past operations and provide suggestions and guidelines for future decision-making. In this context, to improve city sustainability and liveability, the cooperation and coordination among transport and logistics operators have been some of the measures for optimizing freight operations, with a subsequent reduction in vehicles and traffic impacts. Therefore, opportunities arise to point out the stakeholders' decentralised collaboration and the dynamic information driving urban logistics operations. In this context, this paper presents a microsimulation model framework to support the operational decision-making of an urban supply chain that makes the most of such cooperation and coordination and appropriately responds to the dynamic changes of demand and supply. The model was first tested using data collected in the urban area of Medellin, Colombia and we obtained satisfactory results that show the benefits of implementing such modelling framework to support decision making policies.

Sustainable Urban Delivery: The Learning Process of Path Costs Enhanced by Information and Communication Technologies

“…The optimization process of assigning customers (pick-up and delivery locations) to trucks and determining the visiting order of customers and routes refers to vehicle routing and scheduling problems (Taniguchi et al [19], Ghiani et al [20]; Russo et al [21]; Erdogan [22]; Thompson and Zhang [23]). Vehicle routing and scheduling have attracted considerable attention (see, for example, Eksioglu, [24]; Erdo ĝan et al [25]; Dullaerta et al [26]; Musolino et al [27]; Kim et al [28]; Cattaruzza et al [1]; and references quoted therein), but only recently has the research moved forward to include, in the definition of the problem, information on real-time network status (Sánchez-Díaz et al [29]; Gomez-Marin et al [30]; Zhang and Thompson [31]), or even a large amount of information on the previous states of all the arcs/links of the network, both used and not used by the user in his/her past delivery tours. However, at the authors' knowledge, no works integrate the learning process of path/travel costs enhanced by emerging technologies.…”

Emerging Information and Communication Technologies: the Challenges for the Dynamic Freight Management in City Logistics

“…In addition, nowadays, collaboration in city logistics operations can play a key role for every actor's process because it can contribute to improve the sustainable development of the city (Gómez-Marín et al, 2020). Therefore, another objective of the research is to study the opportunity for city logistics to integrate the different actors through the definition of new functionalities supplied by new technologies, while fostering collaboration among practitioners and scholars.…”

A methodology for assessing the urban supply of on-street delivery bays

“…Various measures have been implemented around the world to alleviate the problems generated by the freight distribution (Ezquerro et al [31]; Russo and Comi [44]; Comi [11]; G omez-Marín et al [32]; Comi and Savchenko [14]; Battaglia et al [6]). Some of these strategies aim to regulate freight vehicle access through restrictions on vehicle surface, gross vehicle weight or pollutant emissions, or through time restrictions that establish time windows during which they are allowed access to the city (Anderson et al [4]; Comi et al [18]; Russo and Comi [46]).…”