Supply Chains and Urban Logistics Platforms - Sustainable Urban Logistics: Concepts, Methods and Information Systems - page 6

most perceptible facts and city-dwellers 5 do not hesitate to judge severely the
results of past where environmental preservation did probably not have the
attention it should have had.
Economic stakes: in average the costs of distribution of a product represent, for
the urban part only, 3-4 % of the global value of a product. 6 Every increase of the
cost of distribution is followed mechanically by consumers (companies and
individuals) researching a limitation of these costs with the temptation of avoiding
additional costs by relocating in peripheral regions. The challenge is real when we
consider the role of the commercial functions and services in the animation and
influence of a conurbation. While everyone agrees on the necessity of densifying
cities and evolving towards a greater mix of primary components of the activity,
public authorities must favour the traffic of goods which is in the centre of the
balance and attractiveness of the city centres. In that case ULSs have a funda-
mental role as they allow to get closer to the customers, without multiplying the
means of transport. This implies an action on the real estate in order to offer
satisfying spaces at a reasonable price.
Functional stakes: a courier van stopped in front of a shop, a heavy lorry
delivering furniture for a showroom, a moving van parked in front of a building, a
postal service vehicle, a garbage lorry, a car with shopping items in its trunk… all
of these are manifestations of the urban life. No one contests this obligation of
delivering, and this ambition of development leads to more circulating products. It
is necessary to adapt -or at least make compatible- the city to its needs in terms of
goods movements, because if not, the repercussions on the global functioning of
the urban system can be severe. The challenge is important since 15-20 % (Da-
blanc 2007 ; Routhier et al. 2009 ) of the road network occupancy of motorized
vehicles is imputable to goods movements (included the movements of individuals
for shopping motives).
Other stakes, noticeably social (maintaining or creating employment in dense
areas), exist and reinforce the necessity for actors of the public sector to integrate
ULSs in their planning process. This integration would impulse regulatory actions
from the public sector, mainly to monitor the land-use.

2.2 The Stakes for the Private Sector

The look of professionals on urban logistics is different, even if they treat with the
same components of the urban system. The financial filter is in this case funda-
mental when it comes to explain the choices made in a frame where actors just
have one part of the determining factors under control. This is applicable for the
two main groups of concerned professionals: on one hand the shippers (receiving

5

Who are also voters.

6

With a high dispersion according to the weight, volume, value of the analysed goods.