CC BY
88Russian Journal of Logistics and Transport Management, Vol.1, No.1, 2014
©Stanislaw Iwan
West Pomeranian University of Technology
SUSTAINABLE URBAN FREIGHT TRANSPORT MANAGEMENT -THE CHALLENGE FOR MUNICIPALITIES
Abstract
The increasing growth of urban freight traffic has substantially affected the quality of life of urban residents. The negative impact on the environment resulting from rising traffic volume includes noise, pollution, congestion, accidents, use of non-renewable fossil fuels, loss of greenfield sites and open spaces as a result of transport infrastructure development and increasing amounts of waste products, such as tyres, oil and other materials. According to the expectations of the European Commission, it’s important to reduce European greenhouse gas emissions by 20% till 2020. Due to this reason municipalities have to implement the solutions, which will help to achieve that. The key problem is the diverse, often conflicting, expectations and needs of stakeholders and users of urban freight transport. The paper is focused on the rule of the city as the stakeholder that could bear the responsibility for seeking common objectives and with a means to encourage other stakeholders to seek consensus and compromise solutions is the city.
Keywords: city logistics, urban freight transport, stakeholders needs, the rule of the municipality.
1 The background
At the beginning of the 21st century, more than 46 % of the European population lived in the cities. It is estimated that until 2025, more than 75% of European population will be living in the cities (fig. 1). Probably, until 2050 this number will increase to 84%. The increasing number of the cities’ inhabitants influences on the increase of the needs for the freight movement (delivering of the goods, movement of the materials, removal of the city waste, etc.). In view of the fast growth of cities combined with the growing needs of city dwellers, the problem of efficient functioning of goods transport and distribution in urban areas is gaining more importance. Moreover, due to the increasing popularity of e-commerce, a considerable portion of goods delivery is made directly to individual customers.
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Fig. 1 The increasing of the cities’ population. Source: World Bank
The total cost of freight transport and logistics is significant and has a direct bearing on the efficiency of the economy. The role it plays in servicing and retaining industrial and trading activities, which are essential for major wealth generating activities. It is a major employer in its own right. The contribution that an efficient freight transport sector makes to the competitiveness of industry in the region concerned. It is fundamental to sustaining our existing life styles.
In the Action Plan on Urban Mobility (Commission of the European Communities, 2009), the Commission explains that it intends to provide help on how to optimize urban logistics efficiency, including improving the links between long-distance, inter-urban and urban freight transport, aiming to ensure efficient „last mile’ delivery (Action 19). Another focus in the Action Plan is how to better incorporate freight transport in local policies and plans, and how to better manage and monitor transport flows.
According to the EU White Paper: European transport policy for 2010: time to decide, the increase in the demand for goods transport by 2010 was forecasted to be 38% (European Commission, 2001). These trends have been confirmed (with little discrepancies derived from the current economic crisis). The number of vehicles used for freight deliveries in European urban areas represents 10% of all the vehicles, circulating in the cities. Also the energy consumption related to transporting will increase by about 30% by 2030. The increasing growth of urban freight traffic has substantially affected the quality of life of urban residents. The negative impact on the environment, resulting from rising traffic volume includes noise, pollution, congestion, accidents, use of nonrenewable fossil fuels, loss of greenfield sites and open spaces as a result of
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transport infrastructure development and increasing amounts of waste products, such as tyres, oil and other materials. The external costs (including the environmental impact) caused by urban freight transport in European cities are estimated to several tens of billions of euros.
2 The negative impact of the urban freight transport on the city environment
Greenhouse emissions are mostly produced in urban conurbations being a half of overall road transport fuel combusted in urban areas. Within one hour, one car uses 6000 litres of oxygen. For comparison, an average deciduous tree produces 1200 litres of oxygen per hour, and a person consumes about 30 litres of oxygen (Taniguchi et al., 2001). During a ten kilometers travel, the car emits into the atmosphere about 2 kg CO2 (Commission of the European Communities, 2009). In addition to carbon dioxide emission, an increase in the number of cars leads to an increase in emissions of nitrogen oxides and fine particulate air pollutants as a result of wear of the brake pads, tires and road surface.
As a result, the European Council has set the target to reduce European greenhouse gas emissions by 20% until 2020. The negative impacts of urban goods distribution are mainly caused by used vehicles (e.g. diesel-powered) and low system efficiency (e.g. low loading factor, low cooperation). So it seems to be most important to implement the local policies based on reduction of energy consumption in freight transport, decreasing the number of transported kilometers in urban areas by freight transport vehicles as well as using the environmentally friendly engines for the last mile freight delivering, reduction of pollutants (e.g. CO, CO2, NOx, particulate emissions) emitted by goods vehicles, increasing the number of low and/or zero emission freight vehicles circulating in urban areas (expected to be electrically powered), reduction of the number of freight vehicles in the urban areas (especially in city centers) by implementing restrictive measures for the most polluting and heavy freight vehicles, improving the cooperation at the local level among the relevant stakeholders, as well as removing non-technological barriers, promoting public-private initiatives, etc.
The most effective activities of a sustainable transport policy in urban areas are considered the ones which reconcile the three dimensions of sustainability (economic, environmental and socio-cultural), whilst minimizing the costs associated with achieving the desired goals. The environmental aspect includes the pollution, especially greenhouse gases and carbon dioxide emissions (consumption of non-renewable fossil fuels contributes to the generation of waste such as tires, oil, etc.). The goals of sustainable mobility policies in the environment area mainly include (Rogall, 2010):
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• combating climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions to the extent determined by the general reduction targets: by 2020 - 40%, 2030 - 50%, 80% by 2050 (145 million tons) compared to 1990, or alternatively: by 2020 - 20%, 2030 - 30%, 50% by 2050 with respect to 2005;
• taking into account the nature of the tolerance limits - limit the use of land for housing and transportation goals from the current 129 ha to 30 ha per day in 2020 and to 0 in 2050 (at that time recycling of land will only be possible);
• the use of renewable resources - by 2020 the use of non-renewable resources, not produced in accordance with the principles of sustainable development, should be reduced to zero;
• reducing the use of non-renewable virgin materials by 40% by 2020 and to 80% by 2050 compared to 1990-1994;
• reducing the health risks by maintaining the limit values adopted by the EU for fine dust nuisance and NO2 and reducing road traffic noise in residential areas.
3 Measures for the sustainable development of the urban freight transport
Measures supporting the development of sustainable urban freight undergo multiple classifications, based on different criteria. The most general, widely used division is the one connected with the nature of the implementation. This division includes two categories corresponding to the complexity and technical determinants of implementation:
• soft measures, aimed mainly at organizational and promotional activities and those related to the collection of information;
• hard measures, which usually include activities of infrastructural nature, based primarily on the implementation of new technologies, technical systems and projects of high implementation complexity (such as urban consolidation centers, transshipment hubs, etc.).
From the practical side, a very important division of initiatives in terms of organization of supply and transport of goods in urban areas is the division into a push (non-restrictive) and pull (incentive-based) measures, and measures that combine features of both groups. Their specificity can be summarized as follows (Bourn and MacDonald, 2012):
• a “Push” measure is one that is imposed on operators with a view to influencing delivery or operational practices. These can be divided into financial instruments (e.g. higher parking charges and road tolls) and technical and regulatory constraints (e.g. access restrictions). “Push” measures are closely related to more efficient and equitable transport pricing, which seeks to require transport users (including freight
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operators) to bear a greater proportion of the real costs of their journeys, including costs of pollution, accidents and infrastructure.
• a “Pull” measure is designed to encourage more sustainable and energy-efficient freight traffic by offering various additional services (e.g., improved mapping), facilities (e.g., preferential access to loading bays for “clean” vehicles) or incentives (e.g., access to priority lanes) to operators or shippers. In many cases, the measures are combined with information and publicity campaigns designed to further reinforce the good practice measures.
• “Push-and-Pull” measures involve a combination of the two, aimed at providing incentives for good practice whilst simultaneously using fiscal or technical tools to deter practices we wish to discourage.
In the case of the first group, projects are based on the use of various forms of orders, restrictions, guidelines, etc. Decision makers (e.g. city administrators) leave no choice for road users who have a duty to conform to the restrictions introduced. On the other hand, pull-type initiatives leave the decision to use the measure at the discretion of stakeholders. Table 1 provides examples of initiatives divided into three groups mentioned above.
Table 1
Examples of the push, pull, and push&pull measures
Push measures Pul measuresl Push-and-Pull measures
• Access restrictions • Low Emission/Enviro nmental Zone • Promotion campaigns for sustainable freight traffic • Utilization of the time windows for the delivering • Access fee systems • Noise reduction systems • Special urban planning conditions’ • Telematics logistics tools • Unboard computer systems in commercial vehicles • Intelligent Transport Systems • Incentive systems • Carpooling • Advance booking of (un)loading slots • Alternative delivering systems • Transport exchange systems • Freight Quality Partnership • Freight Operators Recognition Scheme (FORS) • Driver training for sustainable freight traffic (eco-driving) • Intelligent freight traffic routing (including navigation systems) • Utilization of environmentally friendly vehicles • Urban hubs and Urban Consolidation Centres • Urban delivering microplatform • Utilization of rail transport (rail, metro, trams) and inland shipping water ways for delivering realization • Distribution plan-schemes • Vehicle financing schemes’ • Mobility credits schemes/congestion charging • Local Freight Development Plans
Source: Iwan (2013).
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4 European activities for the sustainable urban freight transport management
The issue of urban freight transport functioning and its impact on the urban environment has been more and more taken into account in recent years. There were a lot of international projects aimed directly at reducing the negative impact of the supply of goods in cities on the environment - Table 2.
Table 2
Chosen European projects focused on sustainable development of the urban freight transport
Project name Project description
START Project funded through the Intelligent Energy - Europe programme, which aims to develop short term initiatives such as access restrictions, consolidation centers and incentives. The cities of Goteborg, Bristol, Ravenna, Riga and Ljubljana have worked together to develop efficient access restrictions, consolidation of deliveries, and incentives to change the distribution of goods into more efficient and environmentally friendly ways. The approach of the project is based on the close collaboration between city governments, transport companies and local businesses formalized in local freight networks, which have been established in every START city.
INTERACTION Project funded through the Intelligent Energy - Europe programme, which aims to enhance logistics and freight transport performance by shippers to reduce energy consumption, CO2 emissions and transport costs. It is set up and carried out by a group of energy agencies and specialized consultancies that are actively involved in projects and programmes concerning energy use reduction in freight transport. Examples of feasible measures are: clean vehicles, efficient packaging, collaboration (e.g. consolidating freight), improvements in the internal logistics organization, modal shift, standardization of loading units, ecodriving, etc.
CITY-MOVE Project funded through the Framework Programme 7, which aims to use the latest state of the art technology in freight vehicle design. It is a cooperative venture between the leading freight vehicle companies in Europe and other key stakeholders. The aim is to develop an innovative freight vehicle solution that is adaptable to the diverse needs of European cities. The solution will provide freight transport vehicles that are secure, flexible, reliable, clean, CO2 energy efficient and safe.
CITY-LOG Project funded through the Framework Programme 7. The main objective of the CityLog project is to increase the sustainability and the efficiency of urban delivery of goods through adaptive and integrated mission management and innovative vehicle and transport solutions. The CityLog and the CityMove projects together were conceived together and they are both working towards an integrated innovative approach for urban freight distribution. Both CityLog and CityMove are coordinated by FIAT Research Centre.
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BESTUFS I, II (Best Urban Freight Solutions) It’s probably the most famous city logistics project. It was funded through the Framework Programme 5, which aims to maintain and expand an open European network between urban freight transport experts, user groups/associations, ongoing projects, the relevant European Commission Directorates and representatives of national, regional and local transport administrations and transport operators in order to identify, describe and disseminate best practices, success criteria and bottlenecks with respect to City Logistics Solutions. BESTUFS II was a follow-up project to project BESTUFS I. It was the intention of BESTUFS II to produce a series of City Logistics Solutions best practice guides based on information documented in the handbooks of BESTUFS and BESTUFS II.
CITY FREIGHT Project on inter and intra-urban freight distribution networks carried out an analysis of selected freight transport systems already functioning in Europe and evaluated their socio-economic and environmental impacts in an urban context, with a common assessment methodology. One of the main relevant activities to be considered is the analysis of operative freight transport systems in Europe and their socio-economic and environmental impacts’ evaluation which will contribute to feed the knowledge base of the existing practices in freight logistics in the EU 27, including the identification of specific gaps and bottlenecks.
SUGAR (Sustainable Urban Goods logistics Achieved by Regional and local policies) Project funded through the INTERREG IVC. It was focused on addressing the problem of inefficient and ineffective management of urban freight distribution, a critical component of the overall urban transport system and a primary source of vehicle pollutant emissions. To accomplish this goal, the projects promote the exchange, discussion and transfer of policy experience, knowledge and good practices through policy and planning levels in the field of urban freight management, between and among Good Practice and Transfer sites.
STRAIGHTSOL (Strategies and measures for smarter urban freight solutions) Project funded through EU’s Green Cars Initiative. It aims to develop a new impact assessment framework for measures applied to urban-interurban freight transport interfaces, support a set of innovative field demonstrations showcasing improved urban-interurban freight operations in Europe and apply the impact assessment framework to the live demonstrations and develop specific recommendations for future freight policies and measures. The demonstrations represent cutting-edge initiatives from leading stakeholders like DHL Supply Chain, Kuehne+Nagel and TNT, and cover Brussels, Barcelona, Thessaloniki, Utrecht, Lisbon, Oslo and the south of England.
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C-LIEGE (Clean Last mile transport and logistics management for smart and efficient local Governments in Europe) Project funded through the Intelligent Energy - Europe programme. It was conceived as a leading initiative to support energy efficiency in urban freight transport and to promote the use of new and renewable energy sources when delivering goods. This project aims to develop, test and transfer successful measures and tools to achieve energy saving and reduction of CO2 and GHG emissions and reaching the following four measurable specific objectives, like: define a shared framework for an energy-efficient urban freight transport demand management and planning strategy through a cooperative approach between public-private stakeholders, contribute to the reduction of the negative energy, environmental and socio-economic impacts of freight transport in urban environments, effective transfer of good practices addressed to achieve a better match of supply & demand for goods transport in European urban areas, according to energy saving principles, promoting knowledge sharing of relevant lessons learned at the international level, provide policy recommendations to EC on energy saving transport strategies with an ultimate goal to support the EU Commission in achieving the 2020 targets. An important aim of this project is the establishment of background for future implementations and initiatives, like other projects and activities. The Maritime University of Szczecin was the consortium partner of this project.
GRASS The new initiative of Maritime university of Szczecin and the Institute of Transport Economics (Transport0konomisk institutt) of Oslo. Project is funded through the Polish-Norwegian Scientific Programme, and its main objective is to determine the conditions for the implementation and development of energy efficient urban freight transport in the Polish and Norwegian cities and regions, taking into account the conflicting expectations of key stakeholders of the transport market.
In the course of the work carried out within the European projects, it’s possible to notice a lot of difficulties in the implementation of the distribution of goods using sustainable transport solutions. The key problem is the diverse, often conflicting, expectations and needs of stakeholders and users of urban freight transport. On the one hand, suppliers and logistics operators are mostly oriented to maximize profit without regard to environmental costs, on the other hand, local authorities lack the knowledge and experience in the field of energy-efficient, environmentally friendly transport of goods. Additional obstacles are economic considerations, gaining particular importance in times of economic crisis.
For this reason, it is necessary to initiate cooperation and partnership to enable, firstly, the proper dissemination of knowledge and experience, including best practices, and secondly to allow the common objectives identification and preparing the development strategies, while maintaining the expectations of each party and the use of an approach based on the search for a compromise.
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5 The role of the city in the urban freight transport management
Heterogeneity of urban freight transport manifests itself primarily in the diversity of stakeholders and their expectations. Various interest groups have different priorities and objectives, which translate into a different perception of the effectiveness of transportation and distribution of goods in urban areas. Expectations of providers (mostly traders) are primarily focused on minimizing costs, which in turn affects the search for measures to on the one hand reduce the time, and on the other to maximize the volume of the supply. For customers ’ time and volume of supplies also are important, but it is necessary to draw attention to the fact that they split into two main subgroups - businesses (mainly the retail and service) and individual customers, who are mostly residents of the city at the same time (that is, the direct users ). Preferences of customers are often contrary to the interests of suppliers. In particular, this applies to residents who undoubtedly would like their order (e.g. placed in online stores) reach them as soon as possible, but on the other hand, they require the highest standards of quality of life in the city, expressed above all in the ability to quickly move on foot or by individual or collective public transport, while ensuring the reduction of pollution and noise within the urban structure. These expectations often stand in opposition to the business expectations that require fast supplies of goods.
When classifying these stakeholders, firstly, it is necessary to extract the individuals, institutions and organizations representing the private sector (chambers of commerce, wholesalers, retailers, manufacturers, logistics service providers, as well as residents and users of the cities, shop owners, developers, etc.) and institutions and public sector organizations (especially local, regional and national governments, road administrators, police, etc.). In this context, it is possible to identify five main groups of stakeholders (see Taniguchi et al., 2001; Lepori, Banzi, and Konstantinopoulou, 2010; Roissac, 2010):
• shippers - this is a group that includes both senders and recipients of goods, usually retailers (small shops independent of large chains), wholesalers and manufacturers; these are customers, who use the services of carriers, who both send goods to other companies or private customers as well as receive from these items and are interested in maximizing the level of services offered to them, including cost, time of loading and transportation, reliable of transportation, as well as receiving information;
• freight carriers - this group includes external professional transport operators, logistics service providers, courier services, private providers (e.g. retailers who independently organize deliveries to their stores using their own transport), urban managers of supply centers and dispatchers; usually representatives of this group are interested in minimizing costs associated with the collection and delivery of goods to customers, which allows them to maximize their profits; it is expected that their services will be of high quality and at a relatively low total cost, which is
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particularly important in cases where the expected delivery is dependent on the specific time windows;
• residents - this group should include both city residents as well as its other users (for example, commuters and visitors to the city, but not living in it), people who come to the city to do shopping, and any other road traffic participants such as store owners, developers, associations and organizations of citizens and consumers; this group is not favorable to big commercial vehicles entering the city, even when these vehicles provide them with necessary products, due to the fact that it prefers the minimum level of congestion, low noise and pollution, and it expects the reduction in the number of accidents;
• city administrators - this group can be divided into administrators of urban system for goods distribution (regional authorities, municipalities, municipal managers of supply centers), other administrators, providing inputs to the system (planners, policy makers, infrastructure managers) and supporting institutions (such as chambers of commerce, associations of cities, etc.); this group of stakeholders is focused primarily on the development of the city and increase of employment opportunities, and is also interested in limiting congestion, the impact of transport on the environment and increase of road safety in the city; its members should be neutral and play a key role in resolving conflicts between other interest groups involved in the execution of supply in urban areas.
• manufacturers of commercial vehicles - it is an important element, because it includes mainly companies that provide a transport system with components necessary for its operation: commercial vehicles (hardware) and software that support or even determine their use. In light of the emerging new concepts and technologies for distribution of goods in the cities (packstations, freight trams, and in the future underground freight transport, etc.) it is worth to expand this group with manufacturers of nonconventional technologies.
Between these groups of stakeholders, there are direct interactions and all to a greater or lesser extent influence each other. The main effector of the sustainable development of urban freight transport is seeking a compromise on the problems and needs, and developing adaptability of the city as a place of implementation.
The only stakeholder that could bear the responsibility for seeking common objectives and with a means to encourage other stakeholders to seek consensus and compromise solutions is the city. Active policy of the city in the organization of delivery of goods on its territory is a contribution to the activation of different groups of stakeholders that enables dynamic collaboration, while allowing achieving consensus.
In the subjective dimension and in the original meaning the adjective “urban” in the term “urban freight transport” means “carried out in the city”.
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However, this view should be changed. It is important to highlight the role of the city as an inducer of measures to improve the functioning of the transport of goods within it, which consequently leads to a change of context of the adjective “urban” to meaning “organized by the city”.
Achieving success in the implementation of urban freight transport measures is based in large part on the participation and involvement of relevant stakeholders, both during the implementation process and its subsequent use. This is particularly important with regard to the pull measure, the use of which is of voluntary nature. Without the interest of the key members, it loses its meaning and it is not valuable for the quality of life in the city. This in turn requires increased awareness of existing problems, and their significance for all groups involved in the functioning of the urban system. Individual groups of stakeholder should feel the need to engage in efforts to improve the friendliness of the commercial transport to the environment. Entrepreneurs need to be aware that the perception of its effectiveness only through the prism of current selfinterest and without taking into account the social costs could adversely affect their market position in the future. On the other hand, urban residents need to be aware that compliance with their demands on the speed of delivery and getting expected goods as close to their place of residence as it is possible, is often subject to substantial limitations resulting from the morphological structure of the city. However, the administration and managers should direct the planning processes and strategic plans for the development of their agglomeration in a way that takes into account, on the one hand, the current needs of their users, but on the other to the needs of future generations, in other words, to implement measures to reduce the degradation of the urban environment. This is reflected in the triangle of balance in the center of which is located a postulated state of sustainable operation of freight transport in the city - Figure 2.
Fig. 2. Triangle of balance for urban freight transport system
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The way to reconcile diverse and often conflicting expectations of the stakeholders of urban freight transport and also an effective tool for their involvement in the development process can be Public - Private Partnership -PPP, which involves a large representative group of the participants and users, and sets common, reached by consensus objectives, and takes the responsibility for their implementation.
A specific type of this type of partnership is Freight Quality Partnership (FQP), the main task of which is to ensure the sustainable development of urban freight transport, while maintaining the expectations of the various stakeholders and reconcile them with the overall strategic objectives of the city or region. This form of partnership usually involves local government, representatives of business, logistics operators, transport companies, organizations dealing with the environmental protection, local communities and other stakeholders involved directly or indirectly in the operation of freight transport in cities. The overall objective of the cooperation between the partners is to develop knowledge and understanding of the problems of this sector, the promotion of best practices and effective solutions that meet the needs of individual stakeholders in terms of the availability of goods and services and the environmental and social conditions, as well as initiating projects aimed at eliminating the difficulties and problems of transportation and improving the overall quality of the executed transport.
An interesting example of an efficient partnership is Tyne and Wear Freight Quality Partnership, which was created due to the growing traffic problems in the area of the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear. The most important city of the partnership is Newcastle-upon- Tyne, which is also the seat of its management institutions. It was created in 2005, and its main members are local authorities (Newcastle City Council, Gateshead Council, Sunderland City Council, North Tyneside Council and South Tyneside Council), association of carriers, logistics service providers, road administrator, two local universities and NECTAR organization. Mainly, the partnership focuses on organizing regular working meetings (usually every quarter), conducting specialized portal, initiating the implementation of practical solutions and searching for sources of funding for their projects .
The proper functioning of FQP is subject to the appropriate planning and preparation of process for its implementation and ensuring at a later stage the proper way of controlling executed tasks. It is difficult, however, to identify a unified and adequate for all cities’ methodology for establishing the partnership. Much depends on local conditions, diagnosis of problems in the transportation and distribution of goods, as well as opportunities to engage local stakeholders, and even local policy directions and strategies. However, it is possible to highlight several key factors determining the success of the implementation process (Lindner, Luckenkotter 2012):
• identification, attraction and engagement of the right partners;
• determination of the overall mission of the partnership;
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• determination of the rights and obligations of the partners;
• determination of the organizational structure of the partnership;
• appointment of leaders/management board;
• identification and protection of the necessary resources;
• official inauguration of the activities of the partnership;
• development of short and medium term action plans;
• identification of specific projects and their implementation.
As indicated above, the operation of Freight Quality Partnership depends to a large extent on the appropriate determination of its objectives and tasks. This translates itself, inter alia, into the subsequent selection of relevant stakeholders, who will be able to provide a significant contribution to their implementation. Concrete, formulated for the needs of the community objectives of FQP should reflect its vision, while taking into account local conditions. It should be noted that the activities of the partnership should be beneficial to all parties involved, which may be a sort of incentive for further, more dynamic collaboration. In order to achieve adequate benefits from the Freight Quality Partnership, it is possible to apply a wide range of activities, including, among others (Romosan and Romosan, 2012):
• implementing preferred routes for commercial vehicles and networks with of revisions of the marking from key routes to place of destination;
• increasing the number of deliveries outside normal working hours and during the night ( if it is acceptable by local communities ) , using the significant improvements in the design of commercial vehicles to reduce noise and emissions ;
• analyzing access restrictions for commercial vehicles in order to check whether the companies have adequate access opportunities , especially in urban locations ;
• analyzing priorities for commercial vehicles on congested urban routes and considering the benefits of allowing commercial vehicles to use bus lanes ;
• introducing low- cost improvements at intersections in locations where it will make it easier to maneuver a commercial vehicle;
• effectively enforcing parking restrictions in order to avoid delays of commercial vehicles, in places, which they need to access;
• introducing parking facilities , enabling to leave the vehicle for the night, for example, in industrial areas or areas not covered by the traffic restrictions;
• producing maps for drivers that include key information on restrictions for the load, height, length, capacity, access and preferred routes;
• implementing zoning policy, separating residential areas from freight transport operators aimed at increasing efficiency and reducing the nuisance of transport;
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• at an early stage of action taking process, consultations with freight transport operators in the development of traffic management schemes;
• promoting industry best practices designed to reduce exhaust emissions, noise and nuisance of transport through appropriate planning of loading areas and trainings for drivers in minimizing the noise.
So far, in Poland there have been no practical implementations of FQP concepts. Szczecin is one of the first cities where measures were taken to bring into being this type of structure. In November 2012, as part of C-LIEGE project was signed appropriate letter of intent, the institutional signatories of which were Marshal Office of the West Pomerania Voivodeship, the Mayor of Szczecin and Maritime University of Szczecin.
6 Conclusions
Implementation of modern measures that support the functioning of urban freight transport is complex and depends on a number of factors that affect the final results. However, a key role in its functioning is active participation of stakeholders in the implementation of delivery within the urban space. Their involvement in the evaluation of the implementation processes and their cooperation make it visible how these processes are carried out and how the current results are consistent with the expectations of stakeholders. This is important because without their subsequent involvement in the development and maintenance of the adapted measures, the action taken may over time prove to be ineffective and quickly lose their socio-economic value. Therefore, it is necessary to understand that the effector of the quality of the implementation processes is first and foremost the appropriate involvement of stakeholders at all stages of the implementation process.
Through its active policy in the organization of the freight transport system, the city must aim to develop consensus by various interest groups. It should also be the initiator and the main patron of the implemented measures, and provide ongoing supervision of the implementation of these processes. It is reasonable to extract from the urban structures dedicated organizational unit (the so-called urban logistics manager), whose main task is to control the operation of freight transport in the city, identify emerging issues and initiate actions to improve the quality of the transport processes.
References
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