Newsletter No.1

Contents

1. Introduction (by Eiichi Taniguchi, Kyoto University)
2. Report on The First International Conference on City Logistics, Cairns, Australia 12-14 July 1999
3. European COST 321 Action on Urban Goods Transport (by Johan Visser, Delft University of Technology)

1.Introduction (by Eiichi Taniguchi, Kyoto University)

I am pleased to issue the newsletter No.1 of the Institute for City Logistics. This newsletter will be a platform for exchanging information on City Logistics. It includes news, perspectives, research projects, report on the meeting, events and city planning relating to City Logistics. I plan to issue the newsletter quarterly on this web site. I hope this newsletter will be beneficial to many researchers and city planners who are interested in City Logistics. If you have any interesting news on City Logistics and urban freight transport, please send me by E-mail.

2.Report on The First International Conference on City Logistics, Cairns, Australia 12-14 July 1999

The conference was held in Cairns. The Institute for City Logistics published the report on the conference. The newsletter No.1 includes the preface and the contests of the report. For more information, please contact ICL.

The First International Conference on City Logistics was held on 12-14 July 1999 in the beautiful city of Cairns, Australia and was organised by The Institute for City Logistics. Twenty-two researchers and city planners participated the conference from six countries including Australia, France, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain and the United States. This conference was the first international meeting aimed at providing the opportunity for researchers to present papers focusing solely on the field of City Logistics. We were very pleased to have excellent presentations and fruitful discussions on this subject.

Urban freight transport has become an important issue in urban planning. There are many challenges and problems relating to increasing levels of traffic congestion, negative environmental impacts and energy conservation. In addition, freight carriers are expected to provide higher levels of service with lower costs. To address these complicated and difficult problems, numerous City Logistics initiatives have been proposed and implemented in several cities, including: advanced information systems, co-operative freight transport systems, public logistics terminals (city distribution centres), load factor controls and under ground freight transport systems. City Logistics initiatives are relatively new concepts that are aimed increasing the efficiency of urban freight transport systems as well reducing traffic congestion and impacts on the environment. However, new modelling, evaluation and planning techniques are required to conduct in-depth investigations before City Logistics initiatives can be effectively deployed.

This conference focused on modelling, evaluation and planning City Logistics. Recent developments in the modelling, evaluation and planning of City Logistics initiatives were presented at the conference. An overview of the development and application of several mathematical models was given in the review paper. Since City Logistics initiatives have already been implemented in several cities, a review of the performance of these initiatives was also presented.

Recent developments in ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems) indicate the good potential of advanced technology to implement many of the concepts of City Logistics. ITS applications may integrate the components for more efficient urban freight transport by private companies with the transport policies orientated towards better urban environments promoted by the public sector. In the past these components have been inconsistent with each other. However, in the ITS age of 21st century, these could be incorporated within the framework of City Logistics.

Studies of City Logistics have only started recently. We need further in-depth investigations in this area for effectively deploying City Logistics initiatives towards solving the many difficult problems related to urban freight transport. We sincerely hope that this conference and the proceedings will inspire many researchers, urban planners, and logistics managers to enthusiastically tackle urban freight problems.

We plan to organise the Second International Conference on City Logistics in Okinawa, Japan in 2001. We hope that many researchers, city planners and logistics managers will be able to take part in the next conference.

We would like to express our heartiest appreciation to all the participants of the conference for their excellent contribution in the presentations and discussions. Special thanks is extended to Mr. Kazuhiko Asai and Mr. Shinji Nakagawa of Institute of Systems Science Research, Japan for their assistance and support for the conference.

Eiichi Taniguchi
Russell G. Thompson
September 1999

Preface

1. Conference Overview
2. Programme
3. Participants
4. Welcome Address
5. Presentations and Discussions
6. Concluding Remarks

Appendix: The Institute for City Logistics

3.European COST 321 Action on Urban Goods Transport (by Johan Visser, Delft University of Technology)

In 1998 the final report of the action COST 321 Urban Goods Transport was published. In Europe, research was carried out for the European Commission in the period 1994-1998, in close co-operation with research in some member-states, such as France and Germany in a so-called COST-action 321 Urban Goods Transport.

Twelve European countries (Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, The Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom) signed the COST 321 international co-operation action. Its aim was to study the design and operation of innovative measures to improve the efficiency of urban freight traffic.

The action involved the use of pilot studies and simulation tools for scale-demonstration purposes. The implementation of the programme was put into the hands of two separate working groups:

• Group A reviewed the current and potential measures already tried or planned by all public authorities and private parties.
• Group B simulated the effectiveness of various measures by appropriate models methods.

Also the participating countries wrote national reports. The final report describes the results from these working groups and also contains the country reports.

The final report is mainly based on the results of a survey in the participating countries. In the survey information was collected about the effectiveness of measures related to urban freight transport. Although the information was mainly based on simulation and modelling work, some conclusions can be drawn. Based on this evaluation recommendations were formulated with reference to three main areas of possible action, namely transport efficiency, infrastructure and technology. In the area of transport efficiency the numerous experiments with city-logistics was considered as an interesting option that need more attention. In relation to infrastructure the internalisation of costs in urban areas was considered an important issue. Finally, in terms of technology a new generation of vehicles should be developed. The final report stresses the numerous differences between the participating countries and the role they play in the acceptance and effectiveness of certain measures.

The COST 321-report contains a lot of information about urban freight transport in Europe.

The report can be ordered at:

The Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, L-2985 Luxembourg. (ISBN 92-828-4572-9)

Price (excluding VAT) in Luxembourg: ECU 22.50.

Information on COST Transport is available on the World Wide Web. It can be accessed through the CORDIS server (http://www.cordis.lu/cost-transport/home.html).