Sustainable and Smart Urban Freight Transport

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Sustainable and Smart Urban Freight Transport
José Holguín-Veras, William H. Hart
Professor Director of the Volvo Research and
Educational Foundations Center of Excellence
for Sustainable Urban Freight Transport jhv_at_rpi.ed
u
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Transportation is important because of

• Positive impacts
• 10 of GDP is transportation
• 1/4 of USA workers are on either transportation
  or logistics
• The most common profession among males is Truck
  Driver
• Negative impacts
• Consumes 28.5 of energy and 67.9 of petroleum
• Produces 54 of carbon monoxide, 36 of nitrogen
  oxide, 22 of volatile organic compounds, 1.4
  sulfure dioxide
• Overcoming global warming, achieving a
  sustainable economy, and enhancing economic
  competitiveness requires efficient
  transportation systems
• Ironically, we have overlooked the important role
  that freight transportation could playWhy??

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The Efficiency Paradox

• William S. Jevons The Coal Question (1865)
  concluded
• If demand is (long-term) elastic, lower prices
  increase consumption
• We need a holistic approach to energy
  efficiency
• Technology is part of the solution, not the
  solution

http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FilePSM_V11_D660_Wil
liam_Stanley_Jevons.jpgfile
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Key components of a holistic approach

• Behavior modification
• We (users, consumers, businesses, etc.) have to
  change the way in which we do things
• Research helps understand how best to accomplish
  this
• Technologies
• Needed to reduce the consumption rates, mitigate/
  remediate the damage produced by economic
  activity, manage the use of resources, etc.
• Redesign the economy and urban environments
• Sustainability (or lack of) is a design problem

Our work touches these three key components
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What Could the Public Sector and Academia Do?
The Short Answer is A Lot
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Range of interventions (from NCFRP 38)

• Infrastructure Related Interventions
• Traffic Management
• Logistical Management
• Vehicle Related Interventions
• Pricing, Incentives, Taxation
• Demand Management
• Land Use Management
• Governance

Supply
Operations
Demand
Policy
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Logistical Management

• Pick-up/Delivery to Alternate Destinations
• Joint Delivery Service / Urban Consolidation
  Centers
• Intelligent Transport Systems, Improve last leg

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La Petite Reine

• Source of local employment, engages in labor
  re-training socially responsible practices
• Ally of companies interested in sustainability
• Vehicles equipped with batteries to assist
  pedaling
• Could use bicycle lanes, able to enter narrow
  streets and pedestrian areas, and to park in
  front receivers

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Muni Meters in NYC
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The Off-Hours Delivery Project
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Part of a project that has been, at times

• A science mystery
• A political thriller
• A melodrama
• A comedy
• A Greek tragedy
• A good drama with a happy ending

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The experience with time of day pricing

• Theory and empirical evidence agree that cordon
  time of day pricing are of limited effectiveness
  in moving urban delivery traffic to the off hours
• 2001 Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
  Time of Day Pricing Initiative
• 20.2 of carriers changed behavior, though mostly
  by increasing productivity (not by reducing
  facility usage)
• Only 9.0 of the sample increased rates,
  increases were relatively small, about 15
• 69.8 of the carriers that did not change
  behavior indicated it was due to customer
  requirements
• Almost no change in facility use
• The same was found in London

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The decision about delivery time

• Is made jointly between receivers and carriers
• 40 receivers, 38 receiverscarriers, 22
  carriers
• Lets take a look at the payoff matrix
• The first sign represents the impact on carrier
  and the second the impact on receiver

The fact that more than 90 of deliveries are
made in the day hours clearly show who has the
power
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There is a market failure

• Markets typically find the most efficient outcome
• When they do not, there is a market failure?
  rationale for public sector intervention
• Off-hour deliveries are beneficial to Society
• ()Huge environmental impacts due to less
  pollution
• ()Carriers / Regular hour travelers (cars,
  buses, trucks) benefit
• (-)Increased noise at night could be easily
  mitigated
• (-)However, receivers accrue additional costs
• The market failure carrier savings are not large
  enough to compensate for the receiver costs
• The solution is to either
• Compensate the receivers for additional costs, or
• Develop technologies/systems to allow receivers
  to do OHD at lower costs (so that compensation
  could work)

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Project Concept
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Interlocking components

• Demand modeling/behavioral/economic components
• Analyses of most promising industry segments
• Freight trip generation analyses
• Technology component
• GPS to assess performance (cell phones, own
  systems)
• Network modeling component
• Mesoscale traffic model to assess local impacts
• Regional model to assess networkwide impacts
• Industry/Agency outreach component
• To get feedback from all involved
• Small scale pilot test component
• To assess real life impacts

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Pilot Test Results
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Pilot Test

• Initial efforts delayed by Wall Street collapse,
  skepticism on the part of the industryinitially
  a huge challenge because of lack of precedents
• Original plan Sysco and Whole Foods
• Foot Locker/New Deal Logistics asked to join test
• Three separate stages to accommodate them
• Foot Locker (10 stores)/NDL (Oct. 2 -Nov.14,
  2009)
• Whole Foods (four stores) (Dec. 28, 2009-Jan. 31,
  2010)
• Sysco (twenty one stores) (Dec. 21, 2009-Jan. 23,
  2010)
• About 35 receivers, 20 trucks/vendors
• Half doing staffed OHD
• Half doing unassisted OHD

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Participants in Pilot Test
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Regular vs. Off-Hour Deliveries
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Typical results from satisfaction surveys

• Whole Food Vendors 1.55
• Participating drivers
• Travel speeds 1.33
• Congestion 1.11
• Parking 1.11
• Stress levels 1.11
• Time to deliver goods 1.38
• Time to complete the route 1.44
• Drivers feeling of safety 1.86
• Syscos customers
• Impression of off-hour deliveries 1.50
• How likely are you to accept off-hour deliveries
  1.42

Scale 1 Very favorable, 5 Very unfavorable
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Average space mean speeds
More than twice as fast
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Average service times
More than three times as fast
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After the end of the pilot

• All of the receivers doing staffed OHD reverted
  back to the regular hours
• Almost all the receivers doing unassisted OHD
  remained in the off-hours
• The reason reliability of OHD
• Our locations will continue to receive night
  drops even though this program has ended as our
  managers now favor the dependability of night
  drops vs. late day time deliveries. Thanks again
  for the program. Nick Kenner, Managing Partner,
  Just Salad LLC

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The Economic Bottom Line
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Economic Impacts

• Implementing various forms of off-hour delivery
  policies in Manhattan leads to
• Travel time savings to all highway users of about
  3-5 minutes per trip
• Travel time savings to carriers that switch to
  the off-hours of about 48 minutes per delivery
  tour
• Savings in service times (per tour) could be in
  the range of 1-3 hours
• Depending on the extent of the policies, economic
  savings are between 100 and 200 million/year in
  travel time savings and pollution reduction

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Environmental Pollution Reductions
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How the Adventure Ended
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A Huge SuccessWidely Reported in the Press
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The Impacts of the Project

• NYC adopted off-hour deliveries as part of its
  sustainability strategy!

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The Impacts of the Project

• In June 2012 the Federal Highway Administration
  (FHWA) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
  issued 450,000 in grants for small to medium
  size cities to implement off-hours goods movement
  /delivery programs based on the NYC pilot
• Numerous cities are considering off-hour delivery
  programs Boston, Washington, Atlanta, etc.

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Awards

• ITS-NY (Intelligent Transportation Society) 2011
  Project of the Year in Freight Management
• Numerous research awards
• Robert E. Kerker Award
• Milton Pikarsky MS Award to Ms. Brenda Cruz
• Best Paper Award for UTC Region II
• Student of the Year Award to Mike Silas
• etc

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Ongoing Work
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Ongoing work

• USDOT/RITA provided funds for a larger
  implemen-tation project focusing on
• Unassisted deliveries
• Technologies/systems that enable OHD without the
  need for staff of the receiving business would
  produce the same benefits as regular OHD, at
  minimal cost
• To address the liability concerns of receivers
• Large Traffic Generators
• Large buildings/establishments generate hundreds
  of truck trips per day
• About 80 such buildings ?4 of the truck traffic
• Adding large establishments ? 8 of truck traffic
• They could implement OHD very cost effectively
  and without inconveniencing the receivers

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Chief conclusions

• Removing the constraints imposed by receivers
  (either by providing financial incentives, or
  using un-assisted OHDs) works as it is
• More effective than freight road pricing
• A truly win-win-win-win-win policy
• Benefits regular hours travelers
• Benefits the environment, improves quality of
  life
• Benefits the business community, enhances economy
• Noise impacts could be easily mitigated? electric
  trucks, low-noise truck technologies/practices
• Benefits participants in OHD
• Political appeal, implementable as a voluntary
  program

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Some references
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References, project website

• Off-hour delivery project final report
  http//transp.rpi.edu/usdotp/OHD_FINAL_REPORT.pdf
  
• Project related papers
• Silas, M. and J. Holguín-Veras (2009).
  "Behavioral Microsimulation Formulation for
  Analysis and Design of Off-Hour Delivery Policies
  in Urban Areas." Transportation Research Record
  Journal of the Transportation Research Board
  2097 43-50.
• Brom, M., J. Holguín-Veras and S. Hodge (2011).
  "Off-Hour Deliveries In Manhattan Experiences Of
  Pilot Test Participants." Transportation Research
  Record (in press).
• Holguín-Veras, J., K. Ozbay, A. L. Kornhauser, S.
  Ukkusuri, M. Brom, S. Iyer, W. Yushimito, B.
  Allen and M. Silas (2011). "Overall Impacts of
  Off-Hour Delivery Programs in the New York City
  Metropolitan Area." Transportation Research
  Record (in press).
• Behavior
• Holguín-Veras, J., N. Pérez, B. Cruz and J.
  Polimeni (2006a). "On the Effectiveness of
  Financial Incentives to Off Peak Deliveries to
  Manhattan Restaurants." Transportation Research
  Record 1966 51-59.
• Holguín-Veras, J., M. A. Silas, J. Polimeni and
  B. Cruz (2007). "An Investigation on the
  Effectiveness of Joint Receiver-Carrier Policies
  to Increase Truck Traffic in the Off-Peak Hours
  Part I The Behaviors of Receivers." Networks and
  Spatial Economics 7(3) 277-295.
  10.1007/s11067-006-9002-7
• Holguín-Veras, J., M. A. Silas, J. Polimeni and
  B. Cruz (2008). "An Investigation on the
  Effectiveness of Joint Receiver-Carrier Policies
  to Increase Truck Traffic in the Off-Peak Hours
  Part II The Behaviors of Carriers." Networks and
  Spatial Economics 8(4) 327-354.
  10.1007/s11067-006-9011-6
• Holguín-Veras, J., Q. Wang, N. Xu, K. Ozbay, M.
  Cetin and J. Polimeni (2006b). "Impacts of Time
  of Day Pricing on the Behavior of Freight
  Carriers in a Congested Urban Area Implications
  to Road Pricing." Transportation Research Part A
  Policy and Practice 40 (9) 744-766.
• Theory
• Holguín-Veras, J. (2011). "Urban Delivery
  Industry Response to Cordon Pricing,
  Time-Distance Pricing, and Carrier-Receiver
  Policies " Transportation Research Part A Policy
  and Practice 45 802-824.
• Holguín-Veras, J. (2008). "Necessary Conditions
  for Off-Hour Deliveries and the Effectiveness of
  Urban Freight Road Pricing and Alternative
  Financial Policies." Transportation Research Part
  A Policy and Practice 42A(2) 392-413.
• Holguín-Veras, J. (2010). Approximation model to
  estimate joint market share in off-hour
  deliveries. Annual Meeting of the Transportation
  Research Board.

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Thanks!
José Holguín-Veras, William H. Hart
Professor Director of the Volvo Research and
Educational Foundations Center of Excellence
for Sustainable Urban Freight Transport jhv_at_rpi.ed
u