Urban Logistics – Urban logistics, also called city logistics or metropolitan area logistics

Urban logistics deals with the organization and optimization of freight transport in urban areas to address the logistical challenges associated with urbanization and smart city concepts. It encompasses various aspects, including the transport, storage, distribution, and management of goods in urban environments. In the context of urbanization and smart city concepts, urban logistics plays a crucial role in creating sustainable, efficient, and environmentally friendly logistics solutions. Here are some key areas that urban logistics addresses in this context:

Last mile and micro-distribution

The last mile refers to the transport of goods from the distribution center to the end consumer. Urban areas face challenges such as traffic restrictions, limited space, and environmental impacts. Urban logistics solutions aim to improve the efficiency and sustainability of the last mile through alternative delivery methods such as bicycle couriers, electric vehicles, or drones.

Related to this:

• Last Mile Logistics – Facts You Should Know

Smart supply chains

By using technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), telematics, real-time data, and predictive analytics, smart city concepts can be integrated into logistics to optimize the flow of goods. Intelligent supply chains enable effective inventory management, route optimization, and real-time shipment tracking.

Environmentally friendly solutions

Urban logistics solutions in the context of smart cities aim to reduce the environmental impact of freight transport. This includes the use of electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles, alternative fuels, and low-emission delivery methods to reduce carbon emissions and air pollution.

City Consolidation Centers

These centers serve as transshipment points for goods transport in urban areas. By consolidating deliveries from various suppliers, empty runs can be avoided and the efficiency of goods transport increased.

Integration of transport modes

Urban logistics involves integrating different modes of transport, such as road, rail, water, and air, to make freight transport more efficient. This can include the use of multimodal solutions, such as combining truck transport with rail or using river shipping.

Reverse Logistics

Urban logistics also deals with handling returns, recycling and reusing packaging materials, and waste disposal in urban areas. Reverse logistics systems aim to reduce resource consumption and ensure the efficient disposal and recycling of materials.

Reverse logistics deals with the management and processing of the return flow of goods, packaging, and materials along the supply chain. In contrast to traditional logistics, which focuses on the forward flow of products from the manufacturer to the end consumer, reverse logistics deals with the reverse flow, encompassing the return, repair, reuse, resale, or disposal of products and materials.

New solution and logistics concepts

New solution and logistical optimization concepts for increasing the possibilities and expanding functionality that exist in urban spaces – such as cemeteries (Smart Columbarium).

Smart Park: New green parks thanks to the Smart Columbarium - Image: Xpert.Digital

The Smart Columbarium concept describes the possibility of reducing the space required for cemeteries by an impressive 90%. This innovative solution creates valuable space that can be used to develop green leisure and recreational parks. This measure aims to enhance the sense of well-being in the community and provide residents with an attractive environment for their leisure activities.

More information here:

• Smart Park: New green parks thanks to the Smart Columbarium.
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City Consolidation Centers, also known as urban consolidation centers, are logistics infrastructures specifically designed for urban areas. Their main goal is to improve the efficiency of urban supply chains and reduce the negative impacts of urban freight traffic.

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• Local decentralized hubs – logistics centers

Here are some important aspects of City Consolidation Centers:

Collection and consolidation of goods

City Consolidation Centers serve as central hubs for receiving goods deliveries. They enable the collection of goods from various suppliers and the consolidation of these goods into larger shipments, which are then delivered together into the city. This reduces the number of trips and delivery vehicles.

Efficient route planning

Consolidating deliveries at a central hub allows for the planning of efficient routes for inner-city deliveries. This reduces congestion, traffic congestion, and environmental impact, as fewer delivery vehicles are on the road.

Handling and sorting

City Consolidation Centers offer facilities for handling and sorting goods. Here, incoming deliveries are unloaded, inspected, sorted, and distributed to the appropriate delivery vehicles. This ensures that the deliveries are properly prepared for distribution.

Multimodal transport

City Consolidation Centers offer the opportunity to utilize various modes of transportation to handle the last mile in urban areas. This can include the use of delivery vehicles, bicycles, e-cargo bikes, or other environmentally friendly means of transport. By integrating different modes of transport, CO2 emissions and the environmental impact of freight transport in the city are reduced.

Collaboration with suppliers and retailers

City Consolidation Centers work closely with suppliers, retailers, and other supply chain stakeholders. This includes coordinating delivery times, agreeing on collection points for goods, and efficiently managing logistics processes. By collaborating with these stakeholders, City Consolidation Centers can continuously optimize logistics processes. This involves, for example, improving route plans, adjusting delivery times, and utilizing capacities more efficiently. The goal is to increase logistical efficiency and reduce environmental impact.

Close cooperation between city consolidation centers, suppliers and retailers is therefore crucial to fully exploit the benefits of these logistics infrastructures and to ensure an efficient, sustainable and transparent supply chain.

City logistics or metropolitan logistics refers to a range of concepts that aim to make urban freight transport more efficient, reduce traffic congestion and minimize negative environmental impacts.

City logistics is an important concept in the context of urbanization and sustainable city management:

Consolidation of freight transport

A key approach in city logistics is the consolidation of freight transport. This means combining deliveries from different suppliers and retailers to reduce the number of vehicles on the roads. Consolidation helps avoid empty runs and achieve efficiency gains.

Use of transshipment points

City logistics concepts rely on the use of transshipment points where goods are transferred from larger vehicles to smaller transport vehicles. These transshipment points act as interfaces between long-distance deliveries and distribution within urban areas. This relieves congestion in city centers and allows deliveries to be made with more environmentally friendly vehicles such as electric vehicles or bicycles.

Multimodal transport

City logistics often involves the use of various transport modes to manage freight traffic within the city. In addition to road vehicles, alternative means of transport such as rail, waterways, or cargo bikes are also used. This helps to relieve road traffic congestion and reduces noise and environmental pollution.

Efficient route planning

Another important aspect of city logistics is efficient route planning. By using technologies such as GPS, traffic data analysis, and intelligent logistics systems, deliveries can be planned in such a way as to avoid congestion and unnecessary mileage. This saves time, energy, and resources.

Use of sustainable transport: City logistics increasingly focuses on the use of sustainable transport to reduce environmental impact. Electric vehicles, hydrogen vehicles, bicycles, and other environmentally friendly options are preferred to reduce CO2 emissions and air pollution in urban areas.

Cooperation between actors

City logistics requires close collaboration between various stakeholders such as suppliers, transport companies, retailers, and public institutions. Cooperation and coordination enable the creation of synergies, the sharing of resources, and the development of joint solutions.

Metropolitan logistics, or urban logistics and similar concepts, aim to relieve the burden on urban infrastructure, increase the efficiency of urban freight transport, and simultaneously ensure a consistent quality of supply. The focus is on the receiving point of goods, where logistics are organized and consolidated. Instead of the previous practice of delivering different goods to separate receiving points, metropolitan logistics strives to bring various goods to common receiving points.

Metropolitan logistics can be viewed as the business organization of freight transport, with the goal of optimizing capacity utilization and minimizing the number of journeys in metropolitan areas. It encompasses all operational and planning activities related to the efficient delivery or disposal of goods within a city. This includes coordinating the type, quantity, timing, location, and environmental factors to meet specific needs.

While the first definition primarily emphasizes the economic aspect of metropolitan logistics, the second definition also considers the ecological aspect. However, a clear distinction between the two is not made, as both aspects are closely intertwined and metropolitan logistics pursues both economic and ecological goals. The aim is to ensure the sustainable and efficient supply of goods within the city in order to reduce traffic congestion, lower emissions, and improve the quality of life for the urban population.

Metropolitan logistics thus represents a holistic approach that considers both economic and ecological aspects and aims to increase the efficiency and sustainability of urban freight transport. By consolidating goods flows and optimizing logistics processes in metropolitan areas, resources can be used efficiently and environmental impacts minimized.

Freight Village

Freight villages (GVZ) are transport industrial parks with independent transport companies/branches and system interchange points for different modes of transport (ideally: road, rail, water, air). They enable cooperation among all stakeholders to achieve synergy effects. GVZs are connection points between local and long-distance transport and interfaces between different modes of transport.

It should be noted that this is one of several definitions that express essentially the same thing.

One goal of developing freight villages is to relieve the burden of freight traffic on the roads and promote the use of more environmentally friendly modes of transport, such as rail and waterways. In this context, a key component of a freight village is a combined transport terminal. This enables the efficient transfer of containers, swap bodies, and semi-trailers between different modes of transport.

The aim of developing a nationwide freight village network with regard to the establishment of intermodal terminals is to operate between the individual locations in a "night jump" in order to be competitive in terms of time compared to road freight transport.

The construction of freight transport centers at the interface of local and long-distance transport achieves both positive economic and ecological goals. Examples include the ecological benefits of preventing urban sprawl in metropolitan areas and relieving inner cities of heavy goods traffic.

Economic benefits include, for example, the savings in high pre- and post-carriage costs due to the close proximity of the different modes of transport. This also enables local companies to optimize the transitions between modes of transport, as well as between local and long-distance transport, in an environmentally friendly and cost-effective manner through cooperation under a single organizational umbrella (local company) (keyword: city logistics).

transshipment terminals

Terminals for combined transport, acting as interfaces between at least two modes of transport (usually rail/road), can be located both within cities and on the outskirts of metropolitan areas. They represent the interface between local and long-distance transport. The most common configuration is integration into freight villages. Transshipment can be carried out using mobile equipment, known as reach stackers, as well as gantry cranes with a capacity of approximately 50,000 loading units per year. An optimal track length is around 700 meters for loading and unloading block trains. Combined transport in Germany is currently experiencing growth. So-called seaport hinterland transport is becoming increasingly important. Containers from overseas are transported directly to domestic terminals by rail.

Cooperations between freight transport companies

Freight transport companies that have decided to cooperate can use subcontractors who collect the shipments for the individual recipients from the participating partners and then deliver them in consolidated shipments. It is not absolutely necessary for the subcontractors to handle the unloading, re-sorting, and reloading of the shipments in their own transshipment warehouses. It is sufficient if, for example, the last freight transport company visited has sufficient sorting space available.

Waste disposal logistics (reverse logistics)

In addition to supply, apart from receiving returned goods, logistics for collecting recyclables and waste are also necessary.