In logistics and freight distribution, scheduling and cost efficiency are two crucial issues for transportation companies that look with favour at the innovation introduced by Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). Moreover, an infrastructure level of service, safety and environmental defence are important for planners and public administrations. In this sense, terminal capacity and landside operations at the maritime infrastructure represent an interesting task for the community. Thus, this paper contributes to the research by: (i) proposing a generic framework for the integration of autonomous and connected vehicles with physical infrastructures; (ii) evaluating the opportunity to manage traffic arrivals according to vehicles’ priority and testing the effects of the introduction of a buffer zone outside the maritime port; (iii) improving efficiency and security within the terminal area by reducing waiting time and avoiding interference between flows. Moreover, the proposal for a discrete-event simulation model to assess terminal capacity in a ro-ro terminal is presented. Therefore, the paper contributes to some critical aspects towards sustainable development. First, regarding policy measures and actions, it proposes a valuable tool to assess what-if scenarios. Secondly, it represents a step forward in the process of smart corridor design for freight vehicles; in fact, it proposes a tool for managing landside operations at maritime ports and focuses on intervention in solving specific barriers and bottlenecks for freight who cross a ro-ro terminal daily. Furthermore, it offers a viable solution for managing connected vehicles in a context where full automation still needs to be achieved. The results evidenced the framework’s capability to deal with the traffic demand, thus improving the efficiency of the terminal landside operations.

Freight transportation in urban areas represents an essential activity from the standpoint of economic development; in recent years, the spread of e-commerce (also accelerated by COVID-19) has contributed to increasing the demand for freight distribution over short distances. In most cities, the approaches and measures are often based on new technologies. Nevertheless, today there are contexts wherein delivery operations represent critical tasks to be solved. Furthermore, low accessibility areas, such as small islands, present further problems due to their exclusive dependence on maritime links (and often low-reliability services). This paper tackles this topic, formulating and solving a distribution problem by linking shipping services with last-mile distribution operated by means of an automatic delivery service (parcel lockers). A test application is proposed by considering the small island of Lipari in the archipelago of the Aeolian islands (Sicily, Southern Italy). The results show that such a type of service could reduce the user’s waiting time when compared to traditional home deliveries.

This paper proposes the assessment of the impacts of using electric vehicles for urban service trips. In particular, the focus is on trips performed for delivering and installing products, as well as for reverse logistics. Such components of commercial traffic in urban areas have not received the level of attention it deserves. In fact, recent research on commercial traffic mainly deals with shop restocking, service visits to establishments and e-commerce deliveries, and limited attention has been paid to the service sector (e.g., installation, maintenance, repairs) which can have a high impact on city sustainability in terms of pollution emissions, congestion as well as land use for parking. Furthermore, pushed by the current trend towards the promotion of electric vehicles, an assessment is developed comparing potential service patterns using real data from the inner area of Rome (Italy) when the electric fleet replaces the traditional one. Results show the opportunity to decouple the delivery operation from the installation one, and to integrate service with reverse logistics. These significant results could address the adoption of suitable integrated urban policies to make the most of the opportunities arising from the use of electric vehicles.