Sustainable urban logistics plans

As part of broader sustainable urban mobility plans (SUMPs), governments are increasingly developing sustainable urban logistics plans (SULPs) that focus on efficiently distributing goods in cities. In European cities, SUMPs have been the leading framework guiding the transition towards sustainable mobility of people and goods (ELTIS, 2019). There is a growing need for distinct logistics-focused plans due to the excessive congestion and environmental impacts of goods movement in cities and the increasing importance of freight to urban economies (Aifandopoulou and Xenou, 2019).

Developing SULPs requires considerations unique to the logistics sector (Aifandopoulou and Xenou, 2019). Plans must evaluate the existing characteristics of an urban area and its freight activity. SULPs should outline a long-term vision for freight transport activities that aligns with the city's vision for related sectors such as passenger mobility and land use. This vision allows SULPs to establish realistic goals to benchmark current and future performance. Along with setting targets come methods and metrics to monitor progress. Collecting data from logistics service providers is central to developing representative and realistic targets (and evaluation methods) for the sector. 

SULPs should promote the use of the most appropriate transport mode – both traditional and emerging – to meet a trip's freight characteristics while balancing the service provider's profit objectives and overall sustainability goals. The creation of SULPs should involve all levels of authority with a stake in transport activities in a metropolitan area. Moreover, citizens and logistics stakeholders should be included in the planning process. Lastly, actors involved in creating SULPs should ensure the plan reflects the distinct characteristics of a city's freight landscape. An inclusive, collaborative, data-driven planning process sets the ground for a plan's legitimacy and facilitates future co-operation between stakeholders to meet a plan's objectives.

Impact on CO2 emissions

Sustainable urban logistics planning can co-ordinate complex activities in the freight sector to achieve carbon emissions mitigation targets, as well as other social and environmental outcomes. The direct impact of SULPs on carbon emissions is unclear, but the planning process helps align economic and regulatory forces towards emission reduction goals. Plans also help stakeholders identify diverse technological and behavioural pathways to meet emissions reductions while assessing tradeoffs.

Through a sustainable urban logistics planning process, city officials in Turin, Italy identified several measures to improve freight operations, including a pilot programme to share bus lanes with low-emitting light commercial vehicles, an online booking system for un(loading) docks and a system of on-board units to collect data on freight vehicle movements (Aifandopoulou and Xenou, 2019). These measures enable more efficient deliveries while working with logistics providers to collaborate on developing new solutions.

Costs

Developing SULPs requires administrative, technical and planning capabilities that can have high costs, especially for smaller local governments. The costs associated with sustainable logistics planning depend on the local officials' expertise with freight operations, as well as their capacity to work on plans. The costs of creating SULPs also depend on the extent of existing networks with logistics stakeholders.

City officials can partner with metropolitan or national authorities to co-ordinate the costs of engaging private actors, data collection and analysis (Australian Government, 2021).

Co-benefits

SULPs can identify other negative social and environmental impacts of the freight sector that stakeholders want to mitigate. These include reducing local air pollution, congestion, noise and road safety incidents. Plans may also identify and promote ways to achieve social and environmental goals while supporting logistics service providers' bottom lines.

Other considerations

The development of SULPs is complicated by the fact that public officials typically have less expertise on urban freight than on passenger mobility and less capacity for urban freight planning.

Urban logistics services are operated by a fragmented set of private actors with different and often conflicting needs and objectives. Engaging logistics service providers is thus challenging but central to identifying private stakeholders' operational and business needs.

Adding to the complexity of developing SULPs is that freight system data is generated by many actors in different and sometimes incompatible formats, and actors are often reluctant to share data (ICLEI, 2021). Service providers' reluctance to share data stems from a lack of perceived value in sharing data with public authorities and a lack of trust over data privacy concerns. Public officials can seek partnerships with private shippers, carriers and receivers to facilitate data sharing. In 2021, Australian authorities created the National Freight Data hub to establish standards and collect, process and share freight data – crucially building trust over data privacy with private actors and increasing co-operation over freight policy and planning efforts (Australian Government, 2021).

Cite this measure as

ITF (2022) Transport Climate Action Directory – Sustainable urban logistics plans, [https://www.itf-oecd.org/policy/sustainable-urban-logistics-plans](https://www.itf-oecd.org/policy/sustainable-urban-logistics-plans).

Sources

Aifandopoulou, G. and Xenou, E. (2019) Sustainable Urban Logistics Planning. Brussels.

Australian Government (2021) National Freight Data Hub | Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications.

ELTIS and Rupprecht Consult (2019) Guidelines for Developing and Implementing a Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan, Second Edition.

ICLEI (2021) The future of urban freight transport: Enabling data sharing to support decision-making - ICLEI Sustainable Mobility.