Supply Chains and Urban Logistics Platforms - Sustainable Urban Logistics: Concepts, Methods and Information Systems - page 8

not cause heightened delivery (or shipping) costs. The main consequence is that
professionals whish for public authorities to intervene directly (help to use
certain techniques) or indirectly (decrease of the real-estate prices) to limit the
tariffs. For their part, logisticians are more and more disposed to split up the
operations all along the supply chain linking producers to customers, this
approach allows to adjust the tasks to the client's requirements. The urban
platforms are not only elements used to recompose the flows; they are also part
of the chain of value of the transport companies. Hence, these tools have to be
adapted to the selling process.
• Functional stakes: In order to manage the goods exchanges and control the time,
it is necessary to use control nodes to manage the goods flows in urban areas. In
fact, transport infrastructures in cities are often saturated (in particular when the
needs in logistics services are high 10 ) and local authorities search to regulate
their use by limiting the conditions of traffic and light vehicles parking.
According to this, it becomes essential to come closer to customers in order to
operate the last kilometre with less disturbing means of transport for the envi-
ronment (on foot, clean vehicles, electrically assisted tricycles…) and generally
perceived as acceptable by public actors who are in charge of defining the
regulations. Higher functional constraints 11 also mean higher needs in ULS. If
during a long time providers could answer the requirements of the customers -
frequently by ignoring the rules in terms of traffic and/or parking- the diversi-
fication of demand shows the limits of traditional schemes based on the relation
with a platform located outside the conurbation (direct delivery or rounds).

This summary of stakes related to logistics shows the opportunities linked to
ULS. The actors of the private sector mainly take actions on organizations to
develop those opportunities. We will now review the characteristics of the demand.

3 The Demand

Public and private spheres are the components of a complex urban system
(Ambrosini et al. 1998 ). At the same time distinct and complementary, they have
different needs, functions and temporalities. However, ''bridges'' exist and are
under

development. Institutions and companies meet to organize solutions

satisfying both economic and urban planning needs.
Nonetheless, the accessibility to urban areas is more and more constrained,
atrophied by harder regulatory frames (access hours, conditions of delivery stops),
and in addition more and more random due to the congestions of the road network.

10 The 7-10 h period is the one when light goods transport vehicles enter dense areas, often
being in conflicts with the transport of people (cars, buses, motorbikes…).
11

Caused by a difficult topography, a particular history, or even regulations.