ABSTRACT. The aim of this research is to propose an urban logistics distribution service which benefits from the already installed passenger transport network. This service is based upon the concept of integration of the existing passenger transport network with the urban freight process. The aim is to reduce the number of fossil combustion powered commercial vehicles traveling within city boundaries, solely for goods transportation, thus contributing to reduce negative effects of urban logistics activities, namely pollution, noise and traffic congestion. Also, integrating goods and passenger flows will promote higher efficiency rates for the passenger transport network and enhance living conditions within major urban centers. A mathematical model for the operational planning of the proposed urban logistics distribution service is proposed. This model consists of assigning origins loads (or requests) to inbound hubs (bus operator centers), transferring the inbound hubs loads to a bus service, and transferring the bus loads to bus stops, to be collected by micro-logistics operators operating environmentally friendly vehicle fleets. The objective is to minimize the total service time while assuring services synchronization along the network and balancing the loads with the system capacities.

ABSTRACT. In the urban freight transport framework, it becomes crucial to think about new solutions that could be able to improve the efficiency and the overall sustainability of the modern city logistics. This paper suggests an innovative and sustainable strategy of crowdsourced delivery. It proposed that part of the urban good deliveries within urban contexts could be undertaken voluntarily by some users of a Free-Floating Bike-Sharing System, opportunely designed in order to meet the needs both of the users of the system, and the post-office employees (looking at the small/light good deliveries). Our aim is to establish the optimal number of free-floating bicycles (with associated racks) to allocate on the urban territory with the objective of maximizing the satisfaction of all the actors involved. The first results obtained applying the proposed methodology to a test network seem to be promising.

ABSTRACT. For predicted growth of e-commerce, new business models for last-mile delivery (LMD) of parcels - the last stage of the supply chain, where the parcel is delivered to the final consumer's house - need to innovate and consider fast, cheap and reliable delivery to customers. One innovative proposal follows the socio-economical idea associated to "shared economy" - it puts its foundations in a new delivery model where a professional delivery fleet is supplemented partially or fully with crowdshipping. Main idea of crowdshipping is to involve ordinary people in the delivery of packages to other customers who live on their route. In return casual couriers are offered a small compensation. The aim of this work is to tackle the vehicle routing problem with casual carriers with a stochastic approach. We informally describe the model, propose a heuristic method, and delineate a prototype implementation for a dynamic compensation scheme in a LMD system with crowdshipping. The main contribution of the paper is an original and innovative dynamic compensation scheme methodology for LMD system with crowdshipping. The goal is to influence a potential CC to accept delivery tasks to particular locations because of the value of the offered compensation fee what, in turn, affected the total cost savings. Since the paper refers to pilot research on dynamic compensation fee scheme for a LMD system with crowdshipping, for simplification purposes the methodology considered that each available CC could be assigned at most one delivery task at one go. But this still represents a significant contribution to the state-of-the-art and dynamic compensation fee schemes have huge potential.

ABSTRACT. Aim of Paper The paper analyses both the willingness to get goods delivered by a crowd-shipping service (demand side) and to act as a crowd-shipper (supply side) in the case of a last mile B2C e-commerce for pick up/delivery. The paper focuses on crowd-shipping services deployed using the public transport network and considering passengers as crowd-shippers already moving for other reasons. In fact, this is the most environmental-friendly type of service one can develop given it avoids performing dedicated trips and the least polluting trip is the one that is not performed. The implementation case study refers to the city of Rome, Italy, and addresses its metro lines. Crowd-shipping allows moving small packages via the crowd, i.e. the crowd-shippers that, in our case, are metro passengers. Packages can be picked-up/dropped-off in Automated Parcel Lockers (APL) located either inside metro stations or in their surroundings. The paper uses stated preference surveys to identify the most important features associated with the choice of using a crowd-shipping service or to act as a crowd-shipper and discrete choice models to study the underlying demand/supply behaviour.

The paper aims at understanding and quantifying the effects of this freight transport strategy for e-commerce in an urban context thus providing local policy makers a good knowledge base for its implementation in Rome.

Methodological Aspects The paper uses SP methods. Data collection is performed using a purposely-developed questionnaire. Data acquired will allow estimating each respondent’s willingness to act as a crowd-shipper and/or buy goods that are shipped using a crowd-shipping service as a function of alternative service configurations/characteristics that will have an impact on utility. The greater the utility of an alternative, the greater the likelihood a respondent will choose it. The features we investigate for the potential crowd-shipping subscribers are: time and cost of the service, parcel tracking, possibility to schedule delivery date and time, while for the potential crowd-shippers study the role of delivery booking, location of delivery points (APL), remuneration and alternative bank crediting modes. The choice alternatives were constructed via a Bayesian D-Optimality efficient design developed using the JMP® (by SAS) statistical software. Bayesian designs use the results of a pilot survey as an input for the development of the actual questionnaire to be administered and D-optimality aims at minimizing the determinant of the covariance matrix of the model coefficients and maximize the expected value of the chosen alternatives [1]. We collected 240 interviews for crowd-shipping demand and 240 for supply interviews totalling 480 respondents. The benchmark model used is a multinomial logit estimated via maximum likelihood. To investigate user heterogeneity in preferences we also estimated a latent class model [2] providing a more accurate description of the role various attributes play in determining stakeholders’ utility.

Originality of Topic The paper innovates with respect to other contributions in the literature [3] by focusing on the use of public transportation to deploy crowd-shipping services. The paper explicitly does not consider private transport to foster sustainability goals in freight transportation. It investigates crowd-shipping both from the demand and from the supply side to obtain an overall picture of the relevant issues for its vive development. The case study refers to the city of Rome, Italy, with 2,875,447 inhabitants, more than 700,000 trips in the morning peak hour and about 135 million of hours lost in traffic. In the city centre, 32,700 freight vehicles operate on a daily basis with over 35,000 loading and unloading operations. Freight movements represent approximately 22% of the whole movements taking place in the entire metropolitan area [4].

Results Model results allowed estimating the weight different attributes have in the choice process and defining the best service characteristics for all the stakeholders involved to stimulate crowd-shipping development.

Respondents who are not interested in the service, both as users and crowd-shippers, typically are more than 50 years of age and characterized by a relatively small green attitude.

As it is for the demand side, 15% of the interviewees are not interested in the service, while, among the potential users, the probability of adopting the service can range from a minimum of 89.1% and a maximum of 99.5% when providing consumers’ most preferred service level. The most important factors for crowd-shipping potential users is the possibility to plan the delivery date and its time schedule together with the availability of parcel tracking. The respondents who preferred these features during the survey have been classified as “Prudent planners”. Lower costs and shipping times with respect to other existing delivery services are less important than the previous factors: respondents favouring these features have been classified as “Careful savers”.

Travellers who are not interested in acting as crowd-shippers are about 12%, while among the potential crowd-shippers the probability to perform a delivery can vary between 80.9% and 97.5% providing the levels favoured by potential crowd-shippers. The most important factors for the crowd-shippers are the proximity of the APLs with respect to the usual trip along the metro line, followed by the amount of remuneration and the method of crediting the compensation. The respondents who did not accept an increase of their usual trip length have been classified as “Static crowd-shippers”. On the other hand, respondents who guaranteed higher flexibility of the trip under a convenient remuneration have been classified as “Dynamic crowd-shippers”.

We identified three levels of probability among potential crowd-shipping users. Specifically, decreasing the level of the predominant factors, the likelihood of acceptance drops with a step pattern.

Concluding Remarks This study investigates the main characteristics one should consider when trying to develop a crowd-shipping service for e-commerce in the city of Rome representing a suitable area for deploying an innovative and sustainable delivery service. Results highlight good potential and relevant benefits, which are limited however by the insufficient coverage the metro network provides for the city. In fact, as a starting point, the study focused on metro lines only due to the higher service frequency they provide with respect to other public transportation services thus allowing for a higher probability of commuters making additional stops on their way to work-home. To extend the service potential one could, in principle, consider a wider territorial coverage including the urban rail network, thus catching both urban and extra-urban origin-destination trips for performing freight deliveries.   References 1. Kessels R., Jones B., Goos P. (2011), Bayesian optimal designs for discrete choice experiments with partial profiles, Journal of Choice Modelling, Volume 4, Issue 3, Pages 52-74. 2. Boxall, P. C. e W. L. Adamowicz (2002). Understanding heterogeneous preferences in random utility models: a latent class approach. Environmental and Resource Economics, 23, 421-446. 3. Marcucci, E., Gatta, V. (2017). Investigating the potential for off-hour deliveries in the city of Rome: Retailers’ perceptions and stated reactions. Transportation Research Part A 102 (2017) 142–156 4. Punel, A., Stathopoulos, A., (2017). Modeling the acceptability of crowdsourced goods deliveries: Role of context and experience effects. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Volume 105, 2017, Pages 18-38. 5. S. Curi, F. Dallari, “City logistics: la logistica a supporto della distribuzione in ambito urbano”, Logistica, ed. Tecniche Nuove, marzo 2002

ABSTRACT. The objective of this research is assessing the feasibility of a system integrating the production of green-energy and its consumption in and near the port areas. The system is composed by: a “sea-to-grid” technological component harvesting and producing electrical energy from sea waves; and a “green” logistic service based on the use of Fuelled Electric Vehicles (FEVs). The pilot study will be conducted in an Italian port area supporting passengers and freight mobility between a port and a backward (sub-)urban area. The proposed system pursues the environmental goals set by the EU (Europe 2020 Strategy) and the Italian Government (National Energy Masterplan). Indeed, the energy-producing technology reduces dependence from traditional energy sources (coal, gas, oil) and consequently reduces their negative effects (greenhouse gases, air pollution, etc.). From a holistic point of view, the research results will support administrations and authorities to propose local enhancements, improved services and accessibility to different areas, increased competitiveness, enhanced infrastructure, all based on technological innovation and economic, social and environmental sustainability.

ABSTRACT. Freight transport and logistics have a direct influence on the economy of a country. At the same time, however, control over capital investments has become more and more important, so that the actions for improving the existing freight transport and logistics services will overtake the realization of new infrastructures. Thus, it is essential to identify and design the most appropriate course of action in order to develop the whole logistics system: this is possible by adopting a well-structured evaluation methodology that permits to assess diverse potential alternatives, considering many features of the issue at hand and the perspective of various stakeholders. This paper introduces an integrated evaluation method, which combines an analysis by indicators and a multi-stakeholder multi-criteria decision analysis. The method was applied to evaluate the possible implementation of two activities aiming at enhancing the management of freight in the Port of Trieste. The explicit engagement of the most significant stakeholders in the appraisal procedure and the understanding of their influence over the main goal of the evaluation are specific features of the method.

ABSTRACT. Port Community Systems and Single-Window approaches are important for improving competitiveness and reducing costs associated with logistics activities, mainly in seaports. In Colombia, the ports on the Caribbean Sea have great potential for development and support the strategic plans of the country and the significant improvement in process management and port services, which tend by a logistics infrastructure that attracts investment and trade with global markets. This article illustrates the requirements to be met by the ports on the Caribbean Sea in Colombia, which own cargo terminals of different types, from the characteristics assessed in surveys of importers and exporters, who determined in measuring responses, the general conditions. These conditions are focused on efficiency, flexibility and customer satisfaction, according to the type of activity and cargo. The results were obtained from a Principal Component Analysis and Multivariate Factor Analysis, generating six important factors: physical load management; utilization and efficiency; investment; incoterm; administrative management and cost overruns that are significant in agility; flexibility and cost reduction of their logistics activities. Additionally, the identification of these factors allows for the design of a comprehensive service catering to the needs of customers; therefore, a port can be more attractive and efficient in negotiating trade agreements and thus enhance the competitiveness of the region and country. The results show that a single window platform for port communities should customize their services based on the type of user, in this case, were analyzed two types: importers and exporters. The efforts related to the services offer to the importers should focus on the operation part of foreign trade activities. In contrast, exporters have a high affinity for variables related to decision-making that are focused on administration and document management. Futures studies can be made considering all the members of a port community system to develop a port community tool that can improve the foreign trade activities in underdeveloped countries.

ABSTRACT. Introduction Over the last two decades, global freight transport has significantly changed as a result of several factors mainly attributable to the critical increase registered in global trade, the openness towards new distant markets and the rapid growth of demand for goods and services by new emerging countries. This has led to an increase in the level of competitiveness of transports and logistics services. In order to remain competitive, transport and logistics operators are required to carry out operations with maximum efficiency so as to satisfy the requirements of an increasing and diversified demand. In this scenario, the adoption of management models able to assist transport and logistics managers in their decision process becomes crucial for the efficiency of transport operations. Not surprisingly, Supply Chain Management (SCM) is one of the areas which has recently attracted much attention in logistics. Up to a few years ago, it mainly concerned the business management from the company perspective and as such it mainly focused on the aspects of direct interest for the specific company: organization of transport and delivery operations from the production site to the distribution area (or to the final customer), monitoring of delivery and arrival times, optimization of flows of goods, information exchange, etc. The shift of SCM from a company scale to a global scale has led to a significant change, of both structural and organizational nature, throughout the whole transport chain. Specific attention has to be devoted to the management of the various actors involved in the supply chain and to their relationships, as well as to the control and monitoring of the supply chain effects. This paper deals with the SCM applied on a wide territorial scale. The main purpose of the study is to evaluate the efficiency of supply chains by using one of the main decision support tools of the SCM, i.e. the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). KPIs allow evaluating the performance of logistics systems putting into light potential weaknesses or criticalities so as to support supply chain managers in identifying the best strategies for their enhancement. The adoption of these indicators becomes even more crucial in the analysis of transport chains based on intermodal logistic networks, for which the evaluation of the efficiency along interchange nodes (ports, intermodal terminals, logistic platforms, etc.) inevitably produce a direct impact on the efficiency of the whole transport system and on the demand fulfillment.

Problem description The application of SCM evaluation tools to the management and monitoring of a wider multimodal network implies a greater level of complexity with respect to its application to a simpler single-mode transport system. The main differences concern: • the territorial dimension, as we are not considering a short-medium haul network but a long-medium haul network (international or intercontinental); • the involvement of many actors (carriers, port operators, 3PL, 4PL, etc.) in the management of the various components of the chain; • the central role assumed by the nodes of the chain, which become strategic for the efficiency of the entire network. In particular, nodes represent the most critical elements of intermodal supply chains. Changes in transport mode, operator, system, but also delays, waiting times and time loss occur at the node, and may negatively impact on the total time and cost of the transport with notable repercussions on the logistics and opportunity costs of the goods transported. While on the one hand, from the perspective of a supply chain manager, the management of transport operations along the arcs composing the network seems to be quite simple as the activities are rather standardized, on the other hand, a large room for improvement can be realized at the nodes, where an optimal organization of logistics operations can positively affect the efficiency throughout the whole transport chain. It is clear that monitoring the performance of the nodes, i.e. measuring their impedance within the overall network, it is a key element in order to pursue efficiency of the entire supply chain. The crucial role played by performance measures for enhancing the efficiency of logistics and business systems is widely recognized in the literature (Beamon, 1999; Shepherd and Günter, 2006) and several methodologies are suggested for their evaluation (Gunasekaran et al., 2007) and their management (Friedrich et al., 2013, Maas et al., 2014). In this paper, the evaluation of supply chain performance, with a specific focus on the nodes, is performed through the use of measurement tools based on KPIs aiming at highlighting critical aspects of the analysed systems and providing managers with the cognitive elements necessary to implement the most appropriate strategies and actions for their improvement.

Data and Methodology KPIs can be defined as a set of indicators able to evaluate the performance of a supply chain by measuring the performance of the activities and processes occurring along its nodes and/or arcs. This study considers KPIs related to both the nodes and the arcs of a transport chain. More specifically, the analysed KPIs concern times (travel, waiting, handling, etc.), costs (tariffs) and operating aspects (punctuality, load optimization, etc.) of the various elements composing the chain. A sample consisting of over 40 supply chains currently used to exchange goods between Mediterranean countries has been collected and evaluated. Each analysed supply chain is characterized by the following cost-, time- and operational parameters: origin and destination nodes, intermodal unit used, route travelled and mode(s) of transport used, overall transport cost and duration, cost and time spent along each node and arc of the chain. The database has been built through a direct survey campaign involving a number of transport operators and companies that exchange goods within the Mediterranean area. Based on the available data, a new set of KPIs has been calibrated. The developed set includes both simple and mixed type indicators, both quantitative and qualitative, expressed in absolute terms and percentages, that are able to provide definite, punctual and measurable information on the individual elements composing the examined chains. For each identified indicator, a reference target value has been defined in order to evaluate the extent to which the analysed element is working against the set value of reference. Finally, through an integrated model including the various KPIs , the overall quality of the supply chain has been evaluated.

Conclusions This study has proposed the use of KPIs to assess the performance of a sample of over 40 Mediterranean intermodal supply chains. The proposed indicators are basically based on cost and time measures, although additional qualitative indicators have also been sought in the attempt to provide a measure of the quality of the transport service offered. The proposed methodology correlates different KPIs related to several aspects in order to obtain an overall evaluation of the goodness of the entire supply chain. First analysis confirm the usefulness of the proposed approach as an effective decision support tool to measure the performance of a specific process of the supply chain and highlight the critical elements that most affect overall performance. On the basis of the values of the specific indicators, the supply chain manager can decide which actions have to be taken to improve the performance of a specific area and of the chain as a whole.

References • Beamon, B.M. (1999). “Measuring supply chain performance”, International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 19 (3), pp. 275–292 • Gunasekaran, A. and Kobu, B., 2007. Performance measures and metrics in logistics and supply chain management: a review of recent literature (1995–2004) for research and applications. International journal of production research, 45(12), pp.2819-2840. • Shepherd, C. and Günter H. (2006). “Measuring supply chain performance: current research and future directions”, International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 55 (3/4), pp. 242–258 • Steffen Maas, Evi Hartmann, Stefan Herb, (2014) "Supply chain services from a service-dominant perspective: a content analysis", International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, Vol. 44 Issue: 1/2, pp.58-79, https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPDLM-11-2012-0332 • Hanno Friedrich , Andreas Balster (2013), Supply-Chain Risk Analysis with Extended Freight Transportation Models, in Moshe Ben-Akiva, Hilde Meersman, Eddy Van de Voorde (ed.) “Freight Transport Modelling”, pp.217 - 232

ABSTRACT. During the last decades, the worldwide globalization and process of rapid urbanization have been estimated as one of the key threats to sustainable development. Consequently, one of the major issues was sustainability in cities, concerning the fact that majority of the population lives in urban areas; for example, world’s urban population is estimated to reach 6.3 billion by 2050 (United Nations, 2014). Therefore, population growth and development of cities cause higher traffic and transportation volumes, which lead to negative impacts on road infrastructure such as traffic jam and congestion, air pollution, greenhouse effect emission, etc. (Ananda et al. 2012). In addition, freight carriers are more concerned with high market requirements and economy, reduction of costs and number of vehicles, improvement of delivery service, etc. Moreover, an increase of trade flows and fulfillment of customer service level had initiated the concept of Just In Time (JIT), which has the main influence on reducing costs, consolidation, minimizing inventory and waste. Some scientists pointed out that successful implementation of JIT concept needs consideration and management of all logistics processes and facilities, a collaboration of suppliers, as well as technological innovations in the long-time period (Bhusiri et al. 2014). Sustainable development of urban areas faces two emerging conflicting interests - public authorities, concerned with environmental issues, and private companies who seek to satisfy high market requirements (Schliwa et al. 2015). Urban freight management needs new challenges, strategies, and contribution for managing transportation within urban areas for satisfying customer service level and decreasing environmental impact. Therefore, the concept of city logistics has been introduced. City logistics has been defined as “the process for totally optimizing the logistics and transport activities by private companies with the support of advanced information systems in urban areas considering the traffic environment, its congestion, safety, and energy savings within the framework of a market economy” (Taniguchi and Thompson, 2002). The early concept of city logistics was introduced in literature through different Vehicle Routing approaches, while the recent researches are more dedicated to the concept of Green Vehicle Routing problem (Leggieri and Haouari, 2017; Koça et at. 2016). In this work, we proposed a new dynamic programming approach to solve the two-echelon capacitated vehicle routing (2E-CVRP) problem with environmental considerations. 2E-CVRP is quite common in city logistics, with different variations. The basic difference between these variations refers to the time dependence of 2E-CVRP (Perboli et al. 2011). Basically, the concept of 2E-CVRP is addressed to determining first and second level routes for fulfilling demand, starting from and ending at the depot, while visiting the set of satellites and customers assigned to satellites; therefore, the first level routes decisions determine the set of routes from the depot to satellites, while the decisions for second level routes refer to assigning customers to a specific satellite (Wanga et al. 2017). Homogenous vehicles are assigned to each satellite and depot. The frequency of assigned customers, load weights, travel time, distances and environmental considerations have the main influence on total route costs. Consequently, the main idea of our model is to find first and second level routes by minimizing transportation, handling, and total travel-time costs, considering also environmental impacts. The recent literature proposes 2E-CVRP models, considering environmental issues such as fuel consumption and CO2 emissions (Wanga et al. 2017; Erdogan and Miller-Hooks, 2012; Hammad et al. 2017). In this paper, we calculated emissions as a function of the number of vehicles, the average acceleration, and speed, as well as emission coefficients for classes of homogenous vehicles. Therefore, we developed, as an integer programming, the mathematical formulation of the 2E-CVRP model with environmental consideration. The proposed method uses the dynamic programming approach, dividing the main problem into several subproblems using the Fuzzy C-means (FCM) clustering. Through FCM, we assigned each customer, in the second level problem, to a specific satellite. Then, we used an exact algorithm to obtain a first solution for each subproblem, through the minimization of the considered objective function. Afterwards, to improve the quality of the initial solution, we proposed a combination of the k-opt exchange method and the roulette selection to obtain a new assignment of customers to satellites. The selection probability is related to the membership degree of each customer to satellites. We applied again the exact algorithm to each new subproblem to obtain the optimal routes at the second level. The first level problem is solved by an exact algorithm. We improve the solution applying iteratively the method described above. Preliminary results highlight the effectiveness of the proposed method in managing and optimizing urban freight transportation, considering environmental impact.

ABSTRACT. The NP-hard Traveling Salesperson Problem with Time Windows (TSPTW) is concerned with visiting a given set of customers within their assigned time windows such that a given objective function is minimized. In contrast to traditional problems, where each customer gets assigned its own time window, in modern web-based systems the supplying company defines a set of time windows, from which the customer can then choose one of them. Therefore, by design, typically several customers are assigned to the same time window. Motivated by this development and the fact that practitioners seek for formulations that can easily and quickly be implemented, we introduce two mixed-integer linear programs (MILPs) for the asymmetric TSPTW that allow to computationally exploit the structure of the time windows and are also applicable for asymmetric travel times, for which the triangle inequalities do not hold. In particular we analyze and exploit the relations between time windows in order to reduce the number of binary variables in our MILPs. For the special case of non-overlapping time windows we can further simplify the constraint set and also reduce the number of continuous variables needed. Finally, we demonstrate the efficiency of our MILPs on benchmark instances related to an online shopping application.

ABSTRACT. Recent developments in the logistic setting, such as Amazon Prime and Uber Eats, are pushing the traditional schemes of deliveries and new forms of distribution have appeared in the past few years. This paper deals with the problem of delivering a set of customers that may have roaming delivery locations. That is to say, that an order could be delivered, when the customer is present, to his house, to his job or to any other possible location. This paper aims at proposing a non-deterministic model for solving the VRPRDL. More precisely, the objective is to integrate the notion of time variability by using a matrix of probability distributions instead of deterministic travel times. The optimization method is based on a Monte-Carlo method and a greedy randomized adaptive search procedure (GRASP).

ABSTRACT. In B2C e-commerce sales, customers expect a fast and low-cost delivery. To be able to fulfil these expectations, both warehouse and distribution operations have to be performed carefully. Ideally, these two supply chain functions should be considered simultaneously in an integrated problem. In this paper, a record-to-record travel algorithm using local search operators is developed to solve this integrated order picking-vehicle routing problem (I-OP-VRP). Experiments reveal that high-quality solutions can be found in small computational time.

ABSTRACT. Movement of material flow in the supply chain is impossible without transport involvement. It confirms the importance of this element in the entire system functioning. However, an efficiency of supply chain based only on transport efficiency indicators is not appropriate. The main purpose of it functioning is to satisfy consumers’ demand on physical inventory with minimum logistical costs. At the same time, it is important to organize work of all the elements in a way to give maximum synergetic effect. The issues of efficiency increase of supply chain functioning have been studied by many scientists; however, regularities of performance changes of its functioning including parameters of transportation process have not been discovered to full extent. In the article the influence of technological process parameters of freight transportation to the total transport costs has been identified; simulation of the goods delivery process to distribution points has been conducted; transport efficiency regularities on distribution city routes depending on its functioning parameters has been estimated; regularities of storage costs change depending on its parameters have been identified; regularities of change of the supply chain operation efficiency, depending on the parameters of the transport process have been identified.

ABSTRACT. Aim of paper. The objective of the research is to develop methodological provisions for evaluating excessive carrying capacities of motor transport systems, in view of the irregular cargo flow distribution and the integration of inter-terminal connections in a transit terminal. Methodological aspects. We analyzed the data on the irregularity of the transit cargo flow volumes in different directions and destination regions passing through the transport system of Chelyabinsk region [Tsevtkov et al. (2016)]. Based on the analysis of the transit cars loading, it is established that, as a part of the entry flow, the share of empty cars for all the cargo dispatch regions exceeds 80%. As part of the exit flow, the share of empty cars averages 15%. The main share of the empty transport goes to the border regions - over 30%, while in the composition of the international transit flow, the share of empty transport is about 5%. The analysis results give evidence of the presence of inter-terminal carriage volumes that are mismatched by the directions and destination regions, and a high share of empty transit transport as part of the flow going in the direction with the least cargo flow volume [Chen et al. (2016), Almetova et al. (2016), Dejax et al. (1987),]. The transportation efficiency evaluation is based on the loaded mileage proportion of the transit transport in inter-terminal connections. We obtained analytical expressions for its calculation, which characterize the dependence of the loaded mileage proportion on the irregularity of the transit cargo flow on adjacent inter-terminal routes. To evaluate the expediency of integrating inter-terminal transit connections within the transport system of the transit region, we developed the multidirectionality indicator by the maximum cargo flow capacity of the i-th terminal with a plurality of the j-th terminals connected with it by the mutual cargo exchange. Originality of topic. All the directions of transit cargo flows passing through the territory of Chelyabinsk region are characterized by a high level of irregularity in the directions and destination regions. This leads to an objective decrease in the level of using the carrying capacities of the regional transport system, an increase in the unproductive loaded mileage of the transit transport and affects the efficiency of transit carriages [Caggiani et al. (2017), Idri et al. (2017), Du et al. (2017)]. However, modern studies do not pay enough attention to improving the efficiency of transit carriages in view of the irregularity of cargo flows [Khassenova-Kaliyeva et al. (2017)]. An insufficient scientific study of these problems and the importance of their solution for the domestic transport system in the economic globalization context determine the relevance of the research [Roso et al. (2015), Yin et al. (2002), Zuenko (2016), Hesse et al. (2004)]. Results. The average indicator value for all the terminal complexes was found to be 0.83, which confirms the expediency of their creation. For the considered transit route variants, the average value of the cargo flow irregularity coefficient in all the directions will be 0.59; the load factor will increase from 0.5 to 0.8, which indicates to a decrease in the empty mileage of the transit transport in inter-terminal connections. The integration of the inter-terminal cargo flows, which are multidirectional by the maximum capacity, in the considered transit terminal ensures a reduction in the excessive carrying capacities by 565.1 tons/year and aggregate costs for the transit transport operation by over 420 million rubles per year. Concluding remarks. The research results are universal and can be used in the activities of transport and expedition organizations to improve the efficiency of transit carriages and to optimize the operation of transport and warehouse complexes. The developed methodological framework for the integration of inter-terminal transit connections is oriented to the practical application, which enables to talk about the possibility of a broad practical application of the research results.

References Almetova, Z., Shepelev, V., Shepelev, S., 2016. Cargo Transit Terminal Locations According to the Existing Transport Network Configuration. Procedia Engineering 150, 1396–1402. Caggiani, L., Camporeale, R., Binetti, M., Ottomanelli, M., 2017. A Road Network Design Model Considering Horizontal and Vertical Equity: Evidences from an Empirical Study. Case Studies on Transport Policy 5 (2), 392–399. Chen, R., Nozick, L., 2016. Integrating Congestion Pricing and Transit Investment Planning. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice 89, 124–139. Dejax, P. J., Crainic, T. G., 1987. Review of Empty Flows and Fleet Management Models in Freight Transportation. Transportation Science 21(4), 227–247. Du, M., Jiang, X., Cheng, L., Zheng, C., 2017. Robust Evaluation for Transportation Network Capacity under Demand Uncertainty. Journal of Advanced Transportation. Hesse, M., Rodrigue, J. 2004. The Transport Geography of Logistics and Freight Distribution. Journal of Transport Geography 12(3), 171–184. Idri, A., Oukarfi, M., Boulmakoul, A., Zeitouni, K., 2017. Design and Implementation Issues of a Time-Dependent Shortest Path Algorithm for Multimodal Transportation Network. CEUR Workshop Proceedings 1929, 32–43. Khassenova-Kaliyeva, A., Nurlanova, N. K., Myrzakhmetova, A. M., 2017. Assessment of the Potential for the Development of Kazakhstan's Transport and Logistics System in the Context of the Eurasian Transcontinental Bridge Formation. Espacios 38(34). Roso, V., Brnjac, N., Abramovic, B., 2015. Inland Intermodal Terminals Location Criteria Evaluation: the Case of Croatia. Transportation Journal 54(4), 496–515. Tsevtkov, V. A., Zoidov, K. K., Medkov, A. A., 2016. The Implementation of Transportation and Transit Projects on the Basis of Public-Private Partnership in Russia. Economy of Region 12(4), 977–988. Yin, Y., Ieda, H., 2002. Optimal Improvement Scheme for Network Reliability. Transportation Research Record 1783, 1–6. Zuenko, I. Y. 2016. Transcontinental Transit Asia-Europe. World Economy and International Relations 60(7), 70–76.

ABSTRACT. Aim of paper. The objective of the research is to optimize the performance of transport and warehouse complexes based on the development of a methodology for calculating the optimal number of loading and unloading mechanisms and bays ensuring the minimum aggregate costs. Methodological aspects. We have developed a procedure for determining the operating optimal parameters of the complexes, including the methods for calculating the optimal number of loading and unloading mechanisms and bays [Naumov et al. (2015), Chao et al. (2017), Almetova et al. (2016)]. To determine the optimal number of loading and unloading mechanisms and bays in warehouse complexes, we offered the cost criterion in the form of minimum aggregate costs of transport and warehouse complexes for performing loading and unloading operations and transport organizations in connection with the idle time of the rolling stock used for the loading and unloading operations. The developed procedure for determining the optimal operating parameters of terminal complexes takes into account the ratio of the intervals of the rolling stock’s arrival for loading, unloading and the duration of the standard operating time of one unloading mechanism [Selinka et al. (2016), Guan et al. (2009)]. Depending on the ratio of the intervals of the vehicles movement and the scheduled time of their unloading, we developed three ways to find the optimal number of loading and unloading means: a balanced situation - when the scheduled duration of the vehicles unloading is equal to the intervals of their movement; the situation with the unloading time reserve - when the scheduled duration of the vehicles unloading is less than the intervals of their movement; the situation with the vehicles waiting for unloading - when the scheduled duration of the vehicles unloading is more than the intervals of their movement. Originality of topic. When determining the operating parameters of loading and unloading complexes, it becomes necessary to select the optimization criterion [Assadipour et al. (2015), Huynh et al. (2008), Tsiulin et al. (2017)]. As a rule, cost optimization criteria are used [Zabara et al. (2015), Sharamenko (2015), Yaxiong et al. (2010)]. However, they do not take into account the aggregate costs of terminal complexes for performing loading and unloading operations and losses of carriers due to the idle time of the vehicles used for these operations or waiting for performing them [Javadi et al. (2014), Hofmann et al. (2010), Marko et al. (2012), Sierpiński (2018), Pypno et al. (2017)]. Therefore, it is necessary to develop methodological provisions to optimize the parameters of loading and unloading complexes that ensure a high performance of the loading and unloading operations with the minimal aggregate costs for process operations and unproductive losses [Litomin et al. (2016), Luna et al. (2017), Ližbetin et al. (2015), Cao et al. (2008), Maknoon et al. (2016)]. Results. Based on the theoretical studies, we developed the functions of aggregate costs for the abovementioned three cases, from which we determined the optimum quantities of loading and unloading means. Taking into account the potential limitation of the maximum number of loading and unloading mechanisms in one bay and the maximum number of bays in the terminal complex, we determined their rational number. Using the developed methodology, we offered an optimal variant of organizing the loading and unloading operations in terminal complexes. When organizing the unloading of vehicles by two loading machines at one unloading bay as compared to the base variant, the savings in the aggregate costs and the losses of carriers and the terminal will comprise 23%. Concluding remarks. We developed a procedure to optimize the number of loading and unloading mechanisms and bays of terminal bays, which ensure the minimum aggregate terminal costs for performing loading and unloading operations and losses of carriers due to the idle time of the rolling stock used for the relevant appropriate operations. The research results have an applied nature and can be used in the activities of transport and expeditionary organizations to improve the efficiency of transit cargo transportation. The developed methodology is universal, focused on the practical application and can be used to optimize the operation of transport nodes and warehouse complexes, as well as when organizing loading and unloading operations. References Almetova, Z., Shepelev, V., Shepelev, S., 2016. Cargo Transit Terminal Locations According to the Existing Transport Network Configuration. Procedia Engineering 150, 1396–1402. Assadipour, G., Ke, G. Y., Verma, M., 2015. Planning and Managing Intermodal Transportation of Hazardous Materials with Capacity Selection and Congestion. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review 76, 45–57. Cao, J., Shi, Q., Lee, D., 2008. A Decision Support Method for Truck Scheduling and Storage Allocation Problem at Container. Tsinghua Science and Technology 13(SUPPL. 1), 211–216. Chao, C., Li, R., 2017. Effects of Cargo Types and Load Efficiency on Airline Cargo Revenues. Journal of Air Transport Management 61, 26–33. Guan, C., Liu, R., 2009. Container Terminal Gate Appointment System Optimization. Maritime Economics and Logistics 11(4), 378–398. Hofmann, F., Bode, M., Berkhahn, V., 2010. Logistic Cargo Loading Optimisation. EWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and Construction - Proceedings of the European Conference on Product and Process Modelling, 383–387. Huynh, N., Walton, C. M., 2008. Robust Scheduling of Truck Arrivals at Marine Container Terminals. Journal of Transportation Engineering 134(8), 347–353. Javadi, A., Tarokh, M. J., Piroozfar, S., 2014. Solving a Multi-Objective Vehicle Scheduling- Routing of Interurban Transportation Fleet with the Purpose of Minimizing Delays by Using the Differential Evolutionary Algorithm. Uncertain Supply Chain Management 2(3), 125–136. Litomin, I., Tolmachov, I., Galkin, A., 2016. Use of the Distribution Center in the Ukrainian Distribution System. Transportation Research Procedia 16, 313–322. Ližbetin, J., Caha, Z., 2015. The Optimization of the Intermodal Terminals. Nase More 62, 97–100. Luna, J. H., Mar-Ortiz, J., Gracia, M. D., Morales-Ramírez, D., 2017. An Efficiency Analysis of Cargo-Handling Operations at Container Terminals. Maritime Economics and Logistics, 1–21. Maknoon, M. Y., Soumis, F., Baptiste, P., 2016. Optimizing Transshipment Workloads in Less-Than-Truckload Cross-Docks. International Journal of Production Economics 179, 90–100. Marco, B., Pasquale, C., Giuseppe, R., 2012. Dynamic Simulation of a Flexible Transport System. IFAC Proceedings Volumes (IFAC-PapersOnline) 14 (PART 1), 315–320. Naumov, V., Nagornyi, I., Litvinova, Y., 2015. Model of Multimodal Transport Node Functioning. Archives of Transport 36(4), 43–54. Pypno, C., Sierpiński, G., 2017. Automated Large Capacity Multi-Story Garage–Concept And Modeling of Client Service Processes. Automation in Construction 81, 422–433. Selinka, G., Franz, A., Stolletz, R., 2016. Time-Dependent Performance Approximation of Truck Handling Operations at an Air Cargo Terminal. Computers and Operations Research 65, 164–173. Shramenko, N., 2015. Effect of Process-Dependent Parameters of the Handling-and-Storage Facility Operation on the Cargo Handling Cost. EasternEuropean Journal of Enterprise Technologies 5(3), 43–47. Sierpiński, G. 2018 Open Street Map as a Source of Information for a Freight Transport Planning System. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing 631, 193–202. Tsiulin, S., Hilmola, O. Goryaev, N., 2017. Barriers Towards Development of Urban Consolidation Centres and Their Implementation: Literature Review. World Review of Intermodal Transportation Research 6(3), 251–272. Yaxiong, L., Lefei, P., Xinxue, L., 2010. Modeling and Simulation of Full Logistics Process of the Port Based on Petri Nets. ICIME 2010 - 2010 2nd IEEE International Conference on Information Management and Engineering 4, 24–27. Zabara, S., Dekhtyaruk, M., 2015. Development of an Automated Optimization System of the Transshipment Complex. EasternEuropean Journal of Enterprise Technologies 1(3), 8–14.

ABSTRACT. Globalization and e-commerce facilities have yielded in the recent years an incredibly huge increment of freight movements. Consequently, the underlying supply chains have become more and more complex to manage for the shipping companies, in terms of costs, distances, times, and environmental sustainability. SYNCHRO-NET, a H2020 European research project, aims to de-stress the international supply chains by fostering cost-effective and greener transportation alternatives. Besides other important actions, the SYNCHRO-NET framework provides an optimization and simulation toolset to support decision-making in freight logistics planning at a strategic level. The synchronized use of different transportation modes and the exploitation of smart steaming strategies for ship movements are the two main aspects considered in this innovative optimization system. In this paper, we present the optimization toolset developed, its contribution with respect to the existing platforms, and the experimental set-up implemented to evaluate its performance, usability, and effectiveness. The system is, in fact, currently under evaluation by several world-wide leading companies in freight logistics and transportation. However, the toolset potentialities go beyond the SYNCHRO-NET context, being the system an open-source project that makes use of open data formats and technologies.

ABSTRACT. Many are the actors involved in the urban freight delivery system. They hold different visions, perceptions, goals. However, the city logistics affects a well-defined cluster of subjects: their acceptance of (and even positive contribution to) policy can be enhanced by continuing consultation. This evidence stresses the relevance of the stakeholder engagement as a strategic factor of any decision-making process. The paper presents the guidelines of the EU funded project SULPiTER (Interreg Central Europe Programme) for the stakeholders' involvement (both public and private) in the definition of city logistics policies. In particular, the FQP (Freight Quality Partnership) tool has been analyzed. After an overview of the institutional references and the implemented experiences, a methodological approach is presented, describing the steps for a fruitful FQP implementation. The case of the Metropolitan city of Bologna is commented as the local application of the SULPiTER methodology, under two aspects. The way of defining the governance for combining horizontally different public authorities, and the tool for engaging the private stakeholders in the definition of Sustainable Urban Logistics Plans (SULPs).

ABSTRACT. 1 Aim of the paper The aim of this paper is to verify how freight activity analysis can support a city’s transport planning agenda with regard to data availability and how freight issues are introduced into the decision processes of various stakeholders. It has been assumed that the methods of analysis under consideration should reflect a city’s current urban freight planning experience whilst providing a possibility to cope with a growing complexity of data when more advanced policy measures are to be introduced. This is why analytical requirements for different categories of measures should be taken into consideration. Another assumption is that a well-designed analytical methodology can be deployed in different cities with an adequate level of utility, reflecting the current level of planning expertise. 2 Methodological aspects The research is based on the results of delivery surveys conducted in Parma (Italy) and Gdynia (Poland) under URBACT’s Freight TAILS project. Both cities surveyed commercial entities on their delivery profile in selected downtown streets. Although they were designed independently and for a different purpose, the surveys proved to be a practical tool for improving the current understanding of freight characteristics. This led to the question whether this type of analysis can be applied to different categories of practical measures potentially used to manage urban freight movements. To answer this, the available freight measures were categorised according to their analytical requirements. This involves the identification of data required to evaluate their expected results in order to choose the best solution. Additionally, interdependence between different measures has been verified to find how information demand changes with a growing complexity of such solutions and how it can be met with freight analysis methods. 3 Originality of topic By analysing the methodology and research results it is possible to evaluate the challenges which local authorities will face when planning to acquire information about freight activity. Because the study included the results from two cities, each with a different spatial structure and experience in freight management, this helped to increase the cognitive value of the presented study and include a wider scope of potential factors which condition the efficiency of this type of research. 4 Results The scope of the freight activity analysis in both cities depended on its intended application. In Gdynia, it was to devise a concept of dedicated delivery spaces, which may be treated as the first activity to manage freight under the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (Kaszubowski, 2016) adopted in 2016. The primary objective is to improve the efficiency of the delivery system and pedestrian safety. Also included is the application of the collected data in a three-tier transport model designed under the CIVITAS Dynamo project (Oskarbski & Kaszubowski, 2016). This is why questions about the sources of freight vehicle movements have been included. In Parma, in turn, the aim of the study was to expand the existing knowledge about freight activity in the downtown limited traffic zone. The average declared weekly number of deliveries in Parma was 7.2 per one recipient, compared to 10 deliveries in Gdynia. The daily distribution of deliveries in both cities indicates the peak hours of 9 to 10 in Parma and 10 to 12 in Gdynia. In Parma, due to the limited traffic zone, there is a marked curb in the number of deliveries after the morning peak, whereas in Gdynia this number decreases gradually until 4 to 5 p.m. In both cities, ca. 75% of deliveries are made by external suppliers. Due to the intended purpose of the analysis in Gdynia, the goal was to determine the exact parameters of delivery vehicles and the ways deliveries were made. Vehicles up to 3.5 t performed 75% of deliveries, out of which 22% were made with illegal stopping on the pavement (sidewalk), 30% on the roadway, with the remainder in a parking space or the internal courtyard of a building. Direct recipient surveys proved to be a fairly cost-effective method of data provision. It was possible to obtain a good response level (66% in Gdynia – 337 out of 506, and 53% in Parma – 182 out of 342) due to the well-structured survey sheets which still provided a good level of detail. When a survey area is geographically restricted to selected streets or a limited downtown area, it is possible to conduct research with the city’s department staff, without tendering out to external contractor. Besides standard information about the quantity, time and duration of deliveries, in Gdynia it was possible to obtain information about the predominant origin of deliveries, such as the main supplier or wholesaler. It was an important step towards determining the surveyed area’s potential to generate freight movements. However, direct surveys in both cities gave evidence of some limitations which had been identified previously (Holguín-Veras & Jaller, 2014), (Ambrosini, Patier, & Routhier, 2010), (Allen & Browne, 2008). Recipients may find it difficult to precisely identify the number of deliveries over a longer period of time (i.e. a week) or the duration of an average delivery. This was confirmed by the results of parallel delivery site control observation carried out in Gdynia. On average, recipients declared 20% deliveries more than observed directly on-street. Moreover, the median time of each delivery was estimated at 10 minutes in surveys, while observation demonstrated it to be 5 minutes (median value). As control observation was carried out only for one day due to budget constraints, it cannot be considered fully statistically relevant, but it still provides a valuable insight into the feasibility of freight analysis methods. The possibility to acquire such information needs to be related to the analytical requirements of the tools which can be used to manage freight activity in cities. They can be evaluated including: the input data required to evaluate each solution, the evaluation method for the expected results and the primary source (owner) of data. Many classifications of the available tools have been produced (Muñuzuri, Larrañeta, Onieva, & Cortés, 2005), (Russo & Comi, 2010a) but, for the purposes of identifying their requirements on data availability, a classification has been used which divides solutions into those which optimise freight vehicle traffic, reduce the demand for transport services and involve new technologies. The data collected in both cities may be used directly to evaluate the situation prior to the implementation of optimising solutions which are mainly organisational and regulatory in nature. These include, for example: time windows for deliveries or dedicated delivery spaces. In the case of demand-reducing solutions, additional research is required into how deliveries are organised on the side of transport services supply and how susceptible recipients are to changes in the delivery system, also including the nature of the delivered goods. The use of new technologies (such as low-emission vehicles) usually supplements the activities included in the previous categories, which is why any potential utility of the analysed methods for data capture should be considered from their perspective. Because a large number of entities are engaged in freight activity in cities, no user group has comprehensive information about the quantitative characteristics of this process (Holguín-Veras & Jaller, 2014). Four main areas of data capture can be indicated, to be accompanied by the relevant research methods: distributor/logistics operator, freight vehicle, place of delivery and the recipient of goods. Surveys are the most frequently used research method, while observation is applied to places of delivery. These areas ensure access to data with diverse structure and level of detail. However, comprehensive studies of recipients, supplemented with the necessary data from an analysis of freight vehicle movements, should be recognised as having the greatest potential to represent the characteristics of freight activity in cities. This is evidenced by their application in transport models designed in Italy (Russo & Comi, 2010b) and France (Routhier & Toilier, 2007). 5 Conclusion The results of the Parma and Gdynia research suggest that recipient surveys may be a cost-effective and functional tool to support freight management. Their structure may be adapted to specific user needs, while maintaining a rational number of questions to enable an efficient interview. In both cities, there was no up-to-date database of economic entities, which was a problem because it made it impossible to produce a stratified sample based on the type of business activity. This made it necessary to carry out extra field trials in order to determine their distribution. Further activities to use the obtained results will cover interviews with delivery vehicle drivers on the boundary of the limited traffic zone in Parma, in collaboration with the municipal police, and the application of the collected data in the urban transport model in Gdynia 6 References Allen, J., & Browne, M. (2008). Review of survey techniques used in urban freight studies. Transport Studies Group, University of Westminster. Green Logistics. London. Ambrosini, C., Patier, D., & Routhier, J. L. (2010). Urban freight establishment and tour based surveys for policy oriented modelling. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2(3), 6013–6026. Holguín-Veras, J., & Jaller, M. (2014). Comprehensive Freight Demand Data Collection Framework for Large Urban Areas. In J. Gonzalez-Feliu, F. Semet, & J.-L. Routhier (Eds.), Sustainable Urban Logistics: Concepts, Methods and Information Systems (pp. 91–112). Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg. Kaszubowski, D. (2016). Recommendations for Urban Freight Policy Development in Gdynia. Transportation Research Procedia, 12, 886–899. Muñuzuri, J., Larrañeta, J., Onieva, L., & Cortés, P. (2005). Solutions applicable by local administrations for urban logistics improvement. Cities, 22(1), 15–28. Oskarbski, J., & Kaszubowski, D. (2016). Potential for ITS/ICT Solutions in Urban Freight Management. Transportation Research Procedia, 16(March), 433–448. Routhier, J., & Toilier, F. (2007). FRETURB V3, A Policy Oriented Software of Modelling Urban Goods Movement. 11th WCTR, 23. Russo, F., & Comi, A. (2010a). A classification of city logistics measures and connected impacts. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2(3), 6355–6365. Russo, F., & Comi, A. (2010b). A modelling system to simulate goods movements at an urban scale. Transportation, 37(6),

ABSTRACT. The city logistics measures most suited to a specific urban area should be decided and monitored through ex-ante and ex-post assessments. This process requires data on freight movements and freight demand characteristics, albeit for different purposes: to provide an understanding of delivery operations, to set up urban freight models for forecasting and monitoring the effects of policy measures. Data are essential in helping public and private sector decision makers ensure that urban freight transport is efficient and sustainable. The overall objective is to guarantee that transport systems meet society’s environmental, economic and social needs, at the same time minimizing negative repercussions on the environment, economy and society (Taniguchi et al., 2013; Russo and Comi, 2016). The rapid growth of urban freight transportation, due to changes in the supply chain (e.g. just-in-time and home deliveries) produces smaller deliveries and more frequent freight vans movements in residential areas. There are some concerns about the growing number of freight vehicles in these areas, since they contribute to congestion, air pollution and noise (environmental), and involve an increase in logistics costs, with a consequent increase of product prices (economic). In addition, a combination of different types of vehicles on the road increases the risk of accidents (social). Importantly, sustainable development objectives can be pursued by means of measures that are sometimes conflicting, and generate impacts that are influenced by the acceptance of stakeholders and external factors (Gatta and Marcucci, 2014). The new challenge urban planners have to face is thus to find solutions that can reduce the impacts of urban goods mobility without penalising the life of the city (sustainable city logistics solutions/measures). In this context, since urban freight systems are complex and cities differ in size and other characteristics, site-specific data could be required for the development of assessment methodologies (including models). It might thus be useful to have an outline of city similarities or dissimilarities in relation to freight transport that can be considered in the project/scenario in relation to the goals to be pursued. Since city logistics measures have to be specifically designed and assessed in order to implement the most effective, this type of framework could be a useful guideline for ex-ante assessment in order to identify, for each sustainability goal, the different classes of factors to be noted. It should also allow planners to verify whether the experimented results in a city match the results obtained in other cities in the way of defined goals. As noted by Ogden (1992), it is not possible to make definitive comments about data requirements when studying urban freight transport. These will vary depending on the issues studied, the planning and policy framework in which the issue arises, established practice in data collection, and the availability of previous collected data. In the recent literature, the methods used for collecting data have been extensively investigated (Allen and Browne, 2008; Holguín-Veras and Jaller, 2012; Campagna et al., 2017), though few of the above contributions have investigated the transferability of their results in line with sustainability goals (Dablanc, 2007; Browne et al., 2007; Nuzzolo et al., 2016). Some researches (Ambrosini and Routhier, 2004; Bestufs, 2008; Nuzzolo et al., 2016) found much less availability of freight data at urban level than at national level, as well as less data availability for freight than for passengers. Data at the national scale are often collected on a continuous basis, while urban data are collected within one-off projects, which are not repeated over time. This circumstance can be viewed as reflecting the somewhat limited interest of policy makers in this mobility segment. That said, data collection presents several difficulties related to costs and to the fact that information is often held by private organizations and is not made available to the public. It is therefore important to investigate the transferability of survey results in order to improve their use and to assess whether the results obtained are dependent on any particular conditions, and whether the lessons learnt in one city can be transferred to others. In this context, Bologna, Brescia, Budapest, Maribor, Rijeka, Stuttgart are exceptions because, within the Interreg project Sustainable Urban Logistics PlannIng To Enhance Regional freight transport (SULPiTER), the local administrators with city logistics researchers and planners focused on freight transport aiming at design Sustainable Urban Logistics Plans and some surveys were carried out. Besides, as the same method was used for data collection a comparison among the six cities can be made. The method allows us to collect and analyse data taking into account if shops are independent stores or belong to retail chains. A web-based tool was hence implemented. The interviews with retailers allow to collect data of restocking processes for each goods type sold, e.g. type of restocking origin (i.e. from warehouse, distribution centre, producer), shipment size and frequency, type of transport service used (i.e. own account or third party). Thus, the different supply-chains can be identified according to characteristics of goods moved and characteristics of delivering process. Therefore, the paper, comparing the characteristics of urban freight transport in such cities and the logistics measures being implemented in them, evaluates the similarities and differences in terms of spatial patterns and current regulations, socio-economic characteristics and commercial structures, freight demand characteristics and current distribution patterns followed by different transport and logistics operators. It thus provides the basis for classifying cities according to most suitable measures for reaching sustainability goals, too. Besides, the study shows that there are some different patterns of urban distribution that need to be taken into account when implementing city logistics measures in order to meet desired sustainability goals. References Allen, J., Browne, M. (2008). Review of Survey Techniques Used in Urban Freight Studies. Report produced as part of the Green Logistics Project: Work Module 9 (Urban Freight Transport), London, UK, http://www.greenlogistics.org. Ambrosini, C, and Routhier, J.L. (2004). Objectives, Methods and Results of Surveys Carried out in the Field of Urban Freight Transport: An International Comparison. In Transport Reviews 24 (1), Taylor & Francis, pp. 57-77. BESTUFS (2008). D3.2 BESTUFS Best practice in data collection, modeling approaches, and application fields for urban commercial transport models. BESTUFS II Project (Best Urban Freight Solutions), Sixth Framework Programme, www.bestufs.net. Browne M., Allen J., Woodburn A., Patier D., Routhier J.L., Ambrosini C. (2007). Comparison of urban freight data collection in European countries. In Proceedings of the 11th WCTR, Berkeley, 24-28 June. Campagna, A., Stathacopoulos, A., Persia, L., Xenou, E. (2017). Data collection framework for understanding UFT within city logistics solutions. In Transportation Research Procedia 24,Elsevier, pp. 354-361. Dablanc, L. (2007) Goods transport in large European cities: Difficult to organize, difficult to modernize. In Transportation Research Part A 41 (3), Elsevier, 280 – 285. Gatta, V. and Marcucci, E. (2014). Urban freight transport and policy changes: Improving decision makers' awareness via an agent-specific approach. In Transport Policy 36, pp. 248-252. Holguín-Veras, J. and Jaller, M. (2012). Comprehensive freight demand data collection framework for large urban areas. In Proceedings of 91st Annual Meeting of Transportation Research Board (TRB), Washington DC, USA. Nuzzolo, A., Comi, A., Ibeas, A. and Moura, J. L. (2016). Urban Freight Transport and City Logistics Policies: Indications from Rome, Barcelona and Santander. In International Journal of Sustainable Transportation 10 (6), DOI: 10.1080/15568318.2015.1014778, Francis & Taylor, pp. 552-566. Ogden, K. W. (1992). Urban Goods Movement. Ashgate, Hants, England. Russo, F. and Comi, A. (2016). Urban Freight Transport Planning towards Green Goals: Synthetic Environmental Evidence from Tested Results. In Sustainability 2016, 8 (4), 381, DOI: 10.3390/su8040381. Taniguchi, E., Fwa, T. F. and Thompson, R. G. (2013). Urban transportation and logistics: health, safety, and security concerns. Baca Raton: CRC Press, 2013.

ABSTRACT. City is the place of the largest concentration of economic and social activities, and the delivery of goods is a prerequisite for maintaining the urban life and business activities that encourage the growth and development of the city. Logistics systems and processes that enable the realization of goods flows also support employment and generate income, but on the other hand they can have negative impacts on all important functions of the city. From the aspect of sustainable development, i.e. social, ecological and economic efficiency, logistics processes, primarily urban freight transport, are far from optimal. The growth of road freight transport and traffic congestion, air pollution and other negative environmental impact, inefficient land use and growth of the goods delivery costs influence the definition and research of various City Logistics (CL) initiatives. Their sustainability depends on the degree of acceptability and interest by the key stakeholders. For this reason, it is very important to identify problems and assess the impacts of the solution on all stakeholders. Such analyzes require a certain level of knowledge of the logistics activities nature, which is rarely the case (Tadić & Zečević, 2015). The lack of analysis can result in an inaccurate impact assessments and the choice of an unsustainable solution. Accordingly, the main goal of this paper is to analyze the sustainability of political CL initiatives and their ranking in relation to the goals and requirements of different stakeholders, as well as to develop and implement a new, original methodology for solving this problem. The new model of multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) which combines Delphi, ANP and SWARA methods in the fuzzy environment is developed.

ABSTRACT. Please see the attached file