This paper discusses the current developments, as well as the barriers and opportunities for using electric freight vehicles in daily city logistics operations based on the experiences from a number of running demonstrations. This paper discusses results from other studies and demonstrations that were published on electro mobility in city logistics in the last three years, as an update of an earlier state of the art review. Next, we present recent narratives based on the more than 100 electric freight vehicles (EFVs) deployed in the European project FREVUE and the experiences of TransMission in using four battery electric Cargohoppers to perform their urban deliveries in Amsterdam. Over the years the attention shifted from a focus on the limitations of EFVs in comparison to conventional vehicles, such as the limited range, towards the question how to better adapt the operations to deal with the EFV characteristics. Although, the business case for using EFVs, in comparison to conventional vehicles, is still suffering from high vehicle purchase price and uncertainty about its residual value, the use of EFVs in daily operations shows that in the majority of cases the current generation of EFVs have a good technical performance. Companies using EFVs are generally satisfied with these vehicles. Obviously still a number of barriers has to be levelled, but large scale EFV usage seems more feasible than before

Time-access regulations and vehicle restrictions are increasingly used, especially in western Europe, to improve social sustainability in urban areas. These regulations considerably affect the distribution process of retail chain organizations as well as the environmental burden. This paper studies the impact of governmental time windows, vehicle restrictions, and different retailers' logistical concepts on the financial and environmental performance of retailers. We use a case study with two cases that differ in their drop sizes as input for an experiment. The retailers provided all organizational, flow, and cost data of the distribution process between their distribution centers and their stores. We use these data to calculate the impacts of different scenarios on the retailers' financial and environmental performances based on a fractional factorial design in which urban policies and the retailers' logistical concepts are varied, using vehicle routing software. We test the propositions with a third case. We show that the cost impact of time windows is the largest for retailers who combine many deliveries in one vehicle round-trip. The cost increase due to vehicle restrictions is the largest for retailers whose round-trip lengths are restricted by vehicle capacity. Vehicle restrictions and time windows together do not increase a retailer's cost more than individually. Variations in delivery volume and store dispersion hardly influence the impact of urban policy and the retailer's logistical concept decisions.

A new urban consolidation centre, called Binnenstadservice.nl (‘Inner city service’), started business in April 2008 in the Dutch city of Nijmegen. The consolidation centre in Nijmegen differs from initiatives in the past, distinguishing itself from other UCC initiatives by its focus on receivers rather than on carriers. After one year already 98 stores joined Binnenstadservice.nl and this number is still growing. Due to Binnenstadservice.nl, fewer trucks enter the city centre and fewer kilometres are driven. In this paper we provide insights into the local effects of the Binnenstadservice pilot after one year, such as air quality, inconvenience for residents and noise nuisance. The effects on local air quality and noise nuisance are limited, due to the amount of passenger and bus traffic remaining. Plans exist to start Binnenstadservice.nl franchises in other Dutch cities, which could result in making Binnenstadservice.nl a more serious partner for carriers to handle the transport of last mile distribution in cities

The paper discusses the growing importance of urban freight research given the increasing urban population trends. The complexity of urban freight systems means that it is essential for the public and private sectors to work together - one way to achieve this has been through freight partnerships. A short review of freight partnerships highlights the way in which they have fostered mutual understanding among urban freight stakeholders. The literature on shared situational awareness (SSA) and joint knowledge production (JKP) has been adapted to position freight partnerships and to further develop and link these partnerships to the concept of a living laboratory concerned with urban freight transport. This novel application of the living lab concept is introduced. Next, the first phases of a city logistics living lab brought in practice in Rotterdam are shortly mentioned. The living lab concept fits the complexities of the urban freight system well and has been a cornerstone of a recently started major freight project in the EU (CITYLAB)

The objective of this research is to advice the Municipality of The Hague whether, if and under which conditions, the implementation of an Urban Consolidation Centre (UCC) is possible and desirable. To determine factors that caused the success or failure of UCCs in practice, a survey of 6 cases in Europe is conducted. The cases were selected because of the similarity of the service area of the UCC and the city centre of The Hague or because of the uniqueness of the UCC. To determine the possible success for a UCC in The Hague four scenarios are evaluated. Two major difficulties with implementing the UCC are the allocation of the costs and benefits and the willingness to cooperate of the transportation companies. Both consignees and transportation companies can benefit financially from using the UCC. The UCC operator, however, incurs the costs. The municipality should play a role in bringing the costs and benefits together