Analysis and trends of city logistics projects in Europe

Last mile urban freight distribution systems generate negative externalities such as pollution, traffic congestion and other nuisances. To minimize such negative impacts, City Logistics (CL) projects are being implemented in many cities around Europe. CL aims at optimizing the logistics and transport activities by private companies in urban areas while considering traffic congestion and energy consumption. However, most CL initiatives do not consider all these aspects together, but they address them separately. In this context, there is a lack of studies on the state of the art and international diffusion of CL systems. In order to bridge the research gap, this paper proposes an exploratory study of a sample made of 70 European cities that have been piloting CL projects and a set of City Logistics Indices (CLI) is defined and used as indicators of the breath and number of CL measures implemented in a city. In particular, three different domains of application have been defined, namely Infrastructure, Regulation and Technology, together with and Aggregated City Logistics Index (ACLI) encompassing all of them. Results highlight that Southern European cities show higher CLIs. This is due to the fact that these cities have been undertaking fewer measures to reduce traffic congestion and pollution in the past compared to other regions and are now trying to filling the gap. This work illustrates how the CL issue has been applied in different European geographical areas so that it lays foundations for exploring the socio-cultural implications of various CL implementations.