Supply Chains and Urban Logistics Platforms - Sustainable Urban Logistics: Concepts, Methods and Information Systems - page 2

This leads naturally in thinking the urban subjects in the centre of development
policies, and subsequently the logistics (a fundamental function to any economic
and social practice) takes a central role in the organizational choices made by
producers and/or consumers of goods as well as urban decision makers. This state
is justified by the fact that multiplied and accelerated exchanges face the high
quality of life required by 80 % of the inhabitants of Europe who live inside urban
areas, therefore causing disturbances in the urban system (Dufour et al. 2007 ).
It is thus essential to think about the integration of the urban goods movements
in cities (Patier 2001 ; Lindholm 2013 ) at a time where, on the first hand, the supply
chain are recomposing to cope with new challenges (globalization, cost optimiz-
ing, flexibility, differentiation in a mutualized framework) and on the other hand,
the cities try to reinforce their attractiveness by modifying their environment
(global state of mind, activity mixing, dense cities, nuisance limitation,…). This
obligation to take simultaneously into account the points of view (frequently
contradictory) of logisticians and urban planners tends to promulgate solutions
based on the consolidation of input and output flows, in order to limit the number
of vehicles. In fact, loading vehicles to their maximum capacity—which is
determined by the market (goods to deliver) and the regulations (possibilities of
use)—is unavoidable if the objective is to contain or even reduce the costs but also
the environmental impacts for delivering cities.
The consequence in the application of such a choice is the need to create new
transhipping points necessary to recompose the flows (Verlinde et al. 2012 ). These
places have to be at the closest range from the barycentre of the distributed zone.
However, the places answering to these geographical requirements are rare and
expensive, therefore logistics is systematically competing with other functions
(living spaces, shops, services,…), in a frame highly constrained by the history and
the past of the city, as well as present practices and future projects. The public
sector has to intervene to reintroduce the skills related to goods movements in the
urban fabric by opening dedicated spaces. This implies equipments that have to be
integrated in a complex system where private and public sector, geography and
history, economics and environment are at work. These various subjects are
approached in three parts: the stakes linked to urban logistics platforms, the
demand expressed and predictable in urban areas and the conceivable responses
for ''better'' exchanges in cities.
2 The Stakes of Urban Logistics Integration
The logistics organizations develop essentially on geographical and economic cri-
teria. It is mainly with data on production, consumption and infrastructures that
companies invest in indispensable tools for the management of their flows. In parallel
with (and as a consequence of) these needs, territories—whatever scale is defined: a
country, a region, a city—set up infrastructures and capacities that result from land
opportunities, pre-existing transport equipment, or even a market perception.