Supply Chains and Urban Logistics Platforms - Sustainable Urban Logistics: Concepts, Methods and Information Systems - page 7

or sending the goods), and on the other hand the logisticians 7 (operating the
transport, the storing, the conditioning). Every actor is restrained by the market
and the urban environment, in an ever more competitive context (Morana and
Gonzalez-Feliu 2011 ).
For these actors, practices cannot ignore social prerequisites, innovation is often
related to marketing, rigidity of supply chains have to be associated with flexible
segments and the value of time is always kept in mind.
The extreme diversity of needs leads to a multitude of cases channelled by
urban realities (infrastructures, sites of activity, regulations). Hence, these plat-
forms have varied roles, ranging from a simple relay allowing the solving a par-
ticular difficulty, to a piloting centre for all the administrative and technical
operations necessary to deliver a city. If the objective is always to reach a better
organization of exchanges, it is obvious that logisticians are the most concerned
actors, being the operators of the system, whereas shippers are the clients. It is
however possible to define the main stakes attached to the UDC through the
perception of transport professionals, by using the same approach as for the
institutional actors.
Environmental stakes: the companies generally consider that promoting a better
life in urban areas is not their role. 8 Even if they are ''citizen-friendly'', they
remain economic operators, having to sustain a financial health, which is a con-
dition of survival. However they are aware of the growing interference of the
environment in the competition and some even develop 9 aggressive tools to
acquire an advantage (i.e. ''clean'' vehicles, waste management, carbon foot-
print…). Subsequently, platforms are an essential component of transport orga-
nizations, as they enable to finely lean segments of the supply chain by adapting
the practices to each step of the delivery process. The upcoming hardening of the
rules defining limits in air pollution and noise incites the creation of goods flows
nodes inside the cities. Numerous providers already integrate these criteria in their
offer, as well as distributors, artisans, service companies, are more and more
conscious of their role. The increasing number of agreements related to logistics
practices is a proof of this state.

• Economic stakes: these are the real motives behind the behaviour of transport
professionals, as their competitiveness is linked to their skill to offer efficient
logistics (Gonzalez-Feliu and Morana 2011 ). For shippers, the quality of service
(often measured in terms of respect of the schedules) and the cost of their
supplies is a key element in the choice of their locations; every dysfunction
increasing their weakness against their competitors located outside of the city is
a potential motive for leaving a dense zone. In this case ULS are strong elements
in an attractive policy (in particular commercially), as long as transhipping does

7 These professionals can also be shippers: a distributor can operate its supplying without
needing the help of a service provider.
8

Companies consider that the rules have to be clearly defined by policies.

9

But also promote.