An integrated logistics decision support model for city logistics

Today, more than 50% of the world's population lives in cities; the urban population is projected to reach 85% by 2100. Mainly due to urbanization and e-commerce, the demand for urban freight transport (both forward flows and reverse flows) is clearly growing. But, transport is also responsible for a large share of urban air pollution as well as noise nuisance. Thus, an integrated logistics system to optimize transport network and service design, as well as vehicles routing of a variety of modes has to be developed. The objective is to determine how to efficiently move freight by means of these services and vehicles, while reducing negative environmental impacts. The topic includes research questions related to the demand to be serviced, the type and number of facilities needed to store and consolidate freight, the better utilization of vehicle capacity (fill rate and fewer empty trips: on average, 25% of goods vehicles in Europe run empty) and the reduction of energy consumption.