URBAN CONSOLIDATION/OFF-HOUR DELIVERY

Team: Andre Alho, Takanori Sakai; Rakhi Manohar; Lynette Cheah, Christopher Zegras

With rapid ongoing urbanization, cities across the world face a multitude of challenges in urban logistics. Goods deliveries to retail districts are particularly challenging as these are typically located in congested urban centers. In response, policy makers have explored various freight management initiatives, including Urban Consolidation Centers (UCC) and Off-Hour Deliveries (OHD). This research track examines the impact of these initiatives on freight flows by pairing empirical behavioral models and an agent-based simulation to help evaluate the potential of these urban logistics initiatives. First, using results from a stated preference survey we analyze the choice behavior among two relevant actors - establishments that ship goods to and establishments that receive goods within a retail district - and their likelihood of participating in UCC or OHD. Then, the resulting behavioral models are incorporated into a city-scale agent-based simulator to evaluate impact of these initiatives on freight flows, tracking multiple logistics-related performance indicators.