Metropolitan areas rely on efficient urban logistics systems to ensure the smooth flow of daily necessities for everything from food to construction materials. Because urban areas require a wide range of goods on a daily basis, demand for transportation is high. This heightened demand has led to a concerning consequence: freight traffic within urban logistics systems is among the primary sources of pollution in city environments. Consequently, businesses and governments are actively seeking environmentally sustainable ways to transform their urban supply chains, enhancing their resilience and sustainability.
With this background, 4flow helped conduct a field study of an urban delivery system to unlock the full potential of decarbonizing urban freight traffic. The study was part of the recently completed project WAS-PAST (short for Warenströme in Städten – Paket und Stückgut, or Goods Flows in Cities – Parcels and Partial Loads) and was conducted together with our research partners, including the University of Applied Sciences in Berlin, ebay and BEHALA, the operator of the trimodal freight hub in Berlin.
Our findings? Emissions can be significantly reduced in B2B parcel delivery by shifting from a conventional delivery concept to a micro-macro-hub concept. This concept consists of a macro-hub close to multiple micro-hubs, and distribution is carried out with low-emission vehicles. This concept improved delivery flexibility for customers, who could choose a preferred timeframe for deliveries, and brought both economic and environmental benefits, especially when a large number of parcels are included in the scope.
Authors
Wendelin Gross
Head of
4flow research
Eric Breitbarth
Senior Expert
4flow research
A field study of urban goods flows
Our field study focused on B2B delivery in the urban center of Berlin, Germany, and considered goods flows running from the outskirts of Berlin into the city center. Unlike most studies on sustainable urban logistics systems, this study included both pre-last-mile (from macro-hub to micro-hub) and last-mile transportation (from micro-hub to customer).
One of Berlin’s main logistics hubs, Berlin-Westhafen, was chosen as a macro-hub due to its multimodal access via road, rail and river, as well as the nearby handling and storage facilities. An additional micro-hub at Tempelhofer Damm in southern Berlin was included in the study. Electric vans and electric cargo bikes were used for pre-last-mile and last-mile transportation to reduce reliance on fossil fuels.
By conducting a field study, the delivery concept was tested against practical challenges such as snow and ice, vehicle accidents and driver shortages, which are factors beyond what simulations and calculations can show. To get as much real-world insight as possible from the study, real commercial shippers participated by providing their actual shipment data.
![[Translate to US – English:] The field study included a macro-hub at Berlin-Westhafen and a micro-hub at Tempelhofer Damm. Isochrones show the number of inhabitants within 5, 10 and 15 minutes by e-bike from each hub.](/fileadmin/_processed_/4/6/csm_4flow-waspast-map_798e59b371.jpg)
![[Translate to US – English:] Carbon equivalent emissions of conventional and micro-macro-hub delivery concepts given different parcel quantities](/fileadmin/_processed_/0/e/csm_4flow-diagram-parcel-volume_6bc8fc9304.jpg)
Calculating environmental impact
Using a 4flow vehicle routing algorithm, we identified optimal delivery routes for two logistics concepts:
- Conventional delivery (from parcel distribution center to customers)
- Micro-macro-hub delivery (from parcel distribution center to macro-hub to micro-hubs to customers)
As a basis for the conventional concept, we used an average daily parcel volume of a B2B CEP (courier, express and parcel) carrier in Berlin. The real shipment data formed the basis for the micro-macro-hub routing.
For both concepts, the routing distances and associated CO2-equivalent emissions were calculated, assuming the same customer locations. This data formed the basis for a comparison of the environmental impact of both concepts.
More parcels means greater reductions of carbon emissions
On days with minimum demand (in our study, the baseline was 5 parcels per day), CO2e emissions per parcel were higher for the micro-macro-hub concept than the conventional DC-to-customer delivery system.
For days with an average number of parcels to be shipped, CO2e emissions of last- and pre-last-mile transportation could be reduced by 64 percent on average. When more parcels were delivered, the potential CO2e emissions savings in a micro-macro-hub concept grew compared to conventional DC-to-customer delivery.
Our findings show that integrating more parcels into the delivery concept would reduce emissions even further – for instance by consolidating more shippers or implementing more and optimized hub locations.
Low emissions delivery as a viable future option
The key objectives of this project were to maintain reliability in urban B2B delivery while reducing environmental impact and proving economic feasibility. We found that the low-emission delivery system comprised of a micro-macro-hub concept using e-bikes and electric vans worked reliably. Economic feasibility was not yet fully reached. The average costs per parcel are relatively high in comparison to current last mile costs. However, if the parcel quantity can be increased, the costs per parcel can decrease to a price comparable with other carriers, making the low emission system competitive. In this case, CO2e emissions can also be reduced further.
Overall, the project showed under real world conditions that low emission urban delivery systems could meet the requirements for sustainable, reliable and in some cases lower-cost urban deliveries.
4flow is continuing to research sustainability in urban logistics as a partner in the project TUrLo (Transfer Roadmap for Urban Logistics), which will develop a roadmap to implement the findings discussed here. TUrLo will expand on the field study by considering freight and parcel delivery and developing a software for urban delivery management.
This article is based on a paper published in the proceedings of the BVL International conference “2023 International Scientific Symposium on Logistics”.
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