Gabriela Barrera, Polis, describes SUGAR, an EU co-funded project intended to make urban freight management more sustainable
Urban freight policies are becoming more common in European cities and regions. However, it is still difficult to evaluate and transfer the knowledge gained from the different city logistics measures implemented by local authorities. The SUGAR project aims to tackle this by establishing a systematic approach towards best practices identification and assessment, and by developing urban freight plans and actions.SUGAR promotes the exchange, discussion and transfer of policy experience, knowledge and good practices, between and among good practice and transfer sites. The project approach is structured along three main strands: the refinement of policies of SUGAR good practice sites (Italy's Emilia Romagna region; London (through
The project activities are divided in three main pillars: good practices collection and analysis; transfer of experiences through good practice round tables, train-the-trainer sessions and joint planning workshops; development of action plans for all SUGAR sites through SWOT (Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analyses and local joint planning exercises.
So far, several round tables and training sessions have taken place. Moreover, Pozna?, Palma, Athens and Crete have already started to develop their action plans, and the first version of the report on Consolidated Good Practice Experiences is ready.
More particularly, the good practice analysis selected 44 urban freight measures from across Europe, both within and outside the SUGAR partnership. Selection criteria included that the measures be initiated or supported by the public administration, operational and with sustainable business models, transferrable, innovative and with a measurable impact.
Five major fields of action were identified, leading to successful local and regional policies: traffic and parking regulations, and access restrictions (these are the least costly measures any local authority can take with the exception of enforcement); Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS, these are not yet widely used for the management of freight transport in cities but the identified practices have proved extremely efficient); planning strategies (integrating freight into planning policies - urban and/or transport planning - and building codes); consultation processes and labelling schemes (these policies have proved crucial in raising awareness among freight transport companies); and consolidation schemes and measures targeted towards urban supply chains.
Smart urban freight
17 out of the 44 best practices identified and analysed are based on, or make extensive use of ITS technology. Different categories of ITS applications can be distinguished in an urban environment, the most common being: automatic road enforcement (Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR)); real-time information via Variable Message Signs (VMS); traffic light management; and electronic toll collection.Many other types of applications exist but are not widely used yet, such as vehicle-to-vehicle or vehicle-to-infrastructure communications (cooperative systems). Dedicated urban freight ITS applications are also potentially very numerous but so far have not been used in many cities. Indeed, very few ITS are specific to city logistics issues. Among the most eagerly anticipated solutions are: real-time traffic information focused on truck drivers; online reservation of loading/unloading areas; and systems for consolidating urban deliveries.
More common are technologies used by municipalities in support of policies on urban freight. The use of ANPR to enforce access rules is the best example of efficient support provided by ITS technology. Information presented to truck drivers through different channels such as websites represents another potentially important use of ITS in cities. This information can include incidents, works, maps, advice on safe driving, abnormal loads or regulations. On the other hand, VMS do not yet provide much information on freight issues, with some exceptions; in Barcelona, for example, VMS display real-time access regulations on multi-use lanes.
Few of the currently marketed software applications designed for the freight industry are connected to municipal information such as traffic conditions or access and parking regulations. Freight operators using some kind of ITS for pick-up and delivery services in cities are still a minority. This could change quite rapidly as the costs of these technologies decrease. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are very important for some sectors of the urban freight industry which are developing rapidly, such as B2C (Business to Consumer trade) and C2C (Consumer to Consumer) deliveries. Moreover, the increase of e-commerce requires new logistics arrangements in city centres, such as space for reception boxes and terminals concentrated on providing logistics operations tailored to the need of e-commerce as well as new traffic arrangements and information services. These new organisations are based
on ICT.
Somehow, most local traffic measures already include new technologies. In the future, these technologies will be better tailored to the different user needs of urban activities, and urban freight will become an important area of ITS applications. ITS are also very important for urban freight policies in that they could enable interesting data collection in spite of processing challenges and privacy issues.
Cities can contribute to a better management of urban goods transport and logistics. These activities are vital to the urban economies, and adequate actions can be implemented, provided they take advantage of lessons learnt (whether successful or failures) from other cities in Europe. This is what SUGAR is all about.
London's innovative approach
The City of London has taken different initiatives in relation to urban freight. Through Transport for London, a Freight Plan was launched in 2008. This included four key projects: the Freight Operator Recognition Scheme (FORS); Delivery & Servicing Plans (DSP); Construction Logistic Plans (CLP); and a Freight Information Portal (tfl.gov.uk/microsites/freight). Besides these, other measures have been implemented like the London lorry control scheme, which restricts the use of heavy vehicles (18 tonnes) in residential areas at night, or the Low Emission Zone, in force since 2008, covering most of Greater London and using fixed and mobile cameras for enforcement. Only trucks which meet or exceed Euro 3 emissions standards are now allowed to enter Greater London.Recently, the City of London participated in the European project CVIS (Cooperative Vehicle Infrastructure Systems/cvisproject.org), with a test site evaluating the contribution of infrastructure-to-vehicle communications to facilitation of freight operations. Eight freight companies were involved in a trial that ran from September to December 2009. The freight operators were able to make reservations via an Aeb interface for loading and unloading bay use and each participating vehicle was fitted with a CVIS onboard unit. A 'CVIS permit' was issued, road signs marked the loading bay area and enforcement officers received a notification by text if a 'non-CVIS' vehicle entered the bay. The trial was a successful deployment on mixed-use streets with multiple operators but it is not yet scalable.
The Emilia Romagna region
Urban freight transport is of a growing importance in the political agendas of the cities of The SUGAR Project
SUGAR is an INTERREG IVC project co-founded by the European Union. 17 partners from 10 countries participate in the consortium led by the Emilia Romagna region. The project started on 1 November 2008 and will last for 40 months.
Lead partner: Emilia Romagna Region, Paolo Ferrecchi (
Technical coordination: Institute of Transport and Logistics, Alberto Preti (
Dissemination manager: POLIS, Karen Vancluysen (
One of the measures widely implemented within the freight distribution projects is the automatic access control of vehicles to city centres according to Euro emissions standards. This implied investments in ICT technologies and other infrastructure and in several cases changing traffic circulation. Other measures include the introduction of consolidation centres and the use of clean vehicles for distribution. Currently, the region continues its work with all of the stakeholders involved to find common solutions and to harmonise the freight policies and evaluation methodologies used across the different cities.
The common objectives and measures have resulted in the rationalisation of the current distribution system, reducing the number of vehicles in inner city areas, preventing access for heavy trucks, and avoiding a unique and rigid solution to the delivery of goods to a city's historical centre. Since no common regulations have been defined and approved by local municipalities, an analysis of the results is now taking place in order to identify best practices and transferrable rules. From the technological point of view, a specific effort has been required in order to promote traceability systems for vehicles.
