Estimated Data Production for Urban Goods Transport Diagnosis - Sustainable Urban Logistics: Concepts, Methods and Information Systems - page 113

Holguín-Veras and Patil 2008 ; Muñuzuri et al. 2010 , 2011a , b ). Whatever the case,
these works have generally met with criticism since they failed to satisfy stake-
holders' needs (Nuzzolo et al. 2011 ).
Last but not least, in France a specific tool for urban goods diagnosis was
developed under the French National Urban Goods Movement Program (Dufour
2001 ): the FRETURB model. This framework is the first to consider the goods
movement (i.e. the pickup and/or delivery operation) as a statistical unit (Aubert
and Routhier 1999 ) and takes a wider view of what an urban goods movement is,
as it includes shopping trips, already taken into account by Russo and Comi ( 2006 ,
2010 ), Crocco et al. ( 2010 ) and Gonzalez-Feliu et al. ( 2010a , b ) but only at a
theoretical level, without becoming into an operational tool). Available as a
software application since 2000, FRETURB is now used in more than 20 French
urban communities (including most large French cities like Paris, Lyon and Lille,
among others), as well as in the cities of Geneva and Zurich (Switzerland). This
chapter introduces the main elements that motivated the development of FRE-
TURB and its different modules, the data collected to build them and the main
methodological and mathematical issues underlying the FRETURB model.
This chapter aims to synthesise the general methodology of the FRETURB
model, since several modules have already been introduced in previous works. 3
The main contributions of the present work are to outline the general framework of
FRETURB, describe its construction methodology (not necessarily the mathe-
matical framework), i.e. the way observed reality is converted into a model (or a
representation), and introduce certain missing elements: the distance generation
(for the simulation of both inter-establishment and end-consumer movement) and
the simulation procedure for urban management movements.
2.1 What does Urban Goods Movement Encompass?
Urban goods movement is a term used by several researchers and practitioners.
Although popular, the definition is far from being used in the same way and with
the same meaning by the community of urban logistics academics and researchers.
It is therefore important here to define what we mean by urban goods movement.
The definition adopted is the widest one (Ségalou et al. 2004 ), which includes all
the existing flows of goods and management flows of an urban zone, from factories
to wholesalers, from wholesalers to retail distribution, and from shops to house-
holds. This also includes urban management flows like waste collection and
construction logistics. In this sense, it includes not only a large share of
commercial transport, but also a share of individual transport. According to
3 Concerning inter-establishment movements: Aubert and Routhier ( 1999 ); Routhier and Toilier
( 2007 ); Bonnafous et al. ( 2013 ). For end-consumers' movements: Ségalou ( 1999 ); Routhier et al.
( 2001 ); Gonzalez-Feliu et al. ( 2010a , b , 2012a , b ). The environmental module has been presented
in Ségalou et al. ( 2004 ) and Toilier et al. ( 2005 ).