The traditional patterns of urban freight operations have been changing throughout the world over the last two decades. Operational changes with wide reaching impact adopted by urban freight service companies and their customers include e-commerce and just-in-time inventory control practices to increase stock turns, reduce working capital and increase delivered customer service levels. Broader changes to the Australian and New Zealand economies, including reduced local manufacturing and increased importation and distribution of a wider variety of consumer goods have also changed urban freight patterns, reducing inwards goods flows and establishing a larger distribution task from seaports to major nearby population centres. Many companies have consolidated warehouses to create fewer, larger, highly automated distribution centres located on the outskirts of metropolitan centres close to major freight routes. These changes have led to an increase in the use of light freight vehicles to carry out increasing numbers of high frequency, shorter distance freight movements on Australasian urban road networks, as well as larger and heavier vehicles in the urban fringe. Online ordering with direct delivery to homes and commercial premises has converted some goods deliveries from private incidental trips to commercial freight tasks. Specialist freight and integrated logistics companies now dominate the road freight market, with greater efficiencies achieved from better integration of various supply chain activities from many customers, which increases equipment utilisation, reducing costs. These companies have achieved scale economies and benefits from competition and specialisation, most which have been passed to customers through lower unit rates. The land use patterns of our cities are changing, with greater population density to accommodate the increasing proportion of people choosing to live in urban areas, particularly in inner areas and distributed activity centres. Our cities are increasingly active over longer parts of the day and week, with longer opening hours for retail and recreational premises, extended public transport service provision and greater variety in when people work and undertake most activities in their lives. Peak hours when roads are congested are spreading, and there are fewer really quiet times. Weekend road congestion is increasing, exceeding weekday levels in some places. These changes, are leading to increased congestion, complaints from community groups, adverse environmental and amenity impacts and stagnating productivity growth in the freight and logistics sector. Provision of freight and logistics services in urban areas is commonly constrained by many factors which increase costs and impose risks to consistent delivery of high quality services levels, such as restrictions on time of day for local access, on the types of vehicles which can be used and permissible emissions. Increasing congestion and amenity impacts have become an emerging and growing issue for Australasia’s regulators and policy makers — to anticipate and identify potential policy interventions to encourage improvements in efficiency, productivity and safety while minimising adverse environmental outcomes and protect the amenity of urban areas. There is a need to preserve network capacity and availability for urban freight task, including ‘last kilometre’ issues, while also considering residents and other land occupiers’ desires for peace and quiet. Policymakers are now seeking to encourage the most appropriate urban freight distribution models for various operational requirements to improve efficiency and minimise adverse impacts. This covers both physical configuration such as vehicle type, hub and spoke operational patterns, multimodal services, and operational practices including off peak operations and greater two way loading that may generate the greatest efficiency benefits but also incur the least negative impacts. Austroads commissioned a comprehensive scoping study to define the boundaries and impact of urban freight (Project FS1550 ‘Impact of Light Commercial Vehicles and Rigid Trucks in Urban Networks’), released in May 2011 as an initial investigation into these issues. This study assessed data requirements, policy frameworks, industry drivers and stakeholder issues of the use of these smaller freight vehicles in urban areas. It became clear that knowledge of urban freight, Light Commercial Vehicle (LCV) and Light Rigid Truck (LRT) operational patterns and impacts was quite limited, unlike long distance movements, heavy freight vehicle operations and port container related movements. LCV and LRT activity patterns in urban areas are market and commodity specific, and as a result may require a variety of policy responses to suit specific needs. A subsequent Austroads project FS1703 examined LCV and LRT operations to understand the various functions these vehicles perform, and how many carry freight rather than perform other functions. This showed that freight operations of these vehicles was substantially less significant than previously assumed, with functions including mobile parts storage and workshops for tradespeople, and personnel movements dominating. This led to the scope of the current project focussing on all urban freight operations undertaken in vehicles over 4.5 t (3.5 t in NZ) and other transport modes where relevant. Nevertheless, many of the findings have applicability to all freight movements and are not restricted to vehicles in excess of 4.5 tonnes, 3.5 tonnes in New Zealand. This Study Report summarises the approach, findings, outcomes and recommendations from Austroads project FS1806, investigating opportunities to improve the productivity, efficiency, safety and environmental impact of freight operations in urban areas. It is structured in line with the main phases undertaken in the project: - Phase 1: Literature and case study review to examine practices, initiatives and case studies to provide guidance on strategies which could be useful in Australasia, and conversely less successful initiatives and trials which should be approached with greater caution. - Phase 2: An industry and stakeholder engagement phase, with workshops and one on one market research with transport and logistics companies and their customers seeking their views on opportunities, frustrations and identified initiatives. - Phase 3: The main analysis phase of the project, with assessment and prioritisation of identified initiatives and actions by the project steering group, and development of an implementation action plan. This presents who is likely to be best positioned to lead programs of work to implement recommended initiatives, what approaches are likely to be useful, and other groups which need to be, or could be, involved. (Author/publisher)
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