Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
However, we observe that after almost 20 years of coordinated urban logistics
researches and studies, most innovations and projects are stopped or reduced
because of a common constraint that becomes its worst enemy: the financing
mechanisms. Although many studies deal with urban logistics, most of them are
related to regulation, optimization and management issues, and only a little set show
the difficulties at financing, without entering in detail on the financing mechanisms.
For this reason, and to support this field in urban logistics research, this chapter
proposes to present the main financing issues in urban logistics. First, the three
categories of funding strategies common to infrastructure investment are presented
and applied to urban logistics, focusing on public-private interactions and col-
laborations. Moreover, several examples are presented to illustrate those concepts.
Then, an example is presented to show the different interests and issues of each
category of stakeholders, and show the main advantages and limits of each cate-
gory of investment and financing strategies. To do this, an example of deployment
of delivery space booking systems is proposed, as well as a cost benefit analysis
taking into account three modes of financing: an ''all private'', an ''all public'' and
a ''public-private partnership''. After that, the fields of urban logistics that seem
the most adapted to financing-based public-private collaboration are identified and
commented. As a conclusion, guidelines for researchers and practitioners to take
into account financing issues in urban logistics decision support are proposed.
2 Urban Logistics Funding Strategies
In urban logistics several funding strategies can be identified. Since the variety of
stakeholders is high and their interactions frequent, the financing actions can take
different forms.
The first is public funding, as happens in several city's infrastructures like
delivery bays or reserved lines.
For private initiatives, private funding is the most common strategy. However,
public intervention is possible. We find three main forms of public intervention:
• Delegation: public authorities cover a part of the investments (or not) and give a
private company the structures to make a service. Sometimes (like in public
transport) they cover a part of operational costs, in other cases (like Vicenza's
UCC) they cover only the investments and give free usage of the structures, but
the operational costs have to be covered by the private company.
• Subsidies: subsidies are economic helps that must not be refunded back.
• Public loans: this is the case of low interest credits to help the development of
urban logistics systems. Those economic helps must be refunded back to the
public authority.
In South-West Europe, the concept of delegation is one of the most popular when
referred to the deployment of urban logistics solutions. Indeed, many operational
systems derive from trials and demonstrations financed by local authorities (with the
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