Environmental Engineering Reference
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contribution of regional, national or European subsidies). The most significant cases
are the UCCs of La Rochelle (France), Monte Carlo (Monaco), Ferrara, Parma,
Venice Mestre and Vicenza (Italy). In all those cases, the logistics terminals and the
vehicles have been funded by the public authorities (who remain the owners). Also
failed projects have followed this funding strategy, like Strasbourg (France), Genova
and Bologna (Italy), Regarding logistics facilities, such projects use mainly on
de-used public publics like gross marketplaces, warehouses or industrial pavilions,
reconverted into urban crossdocking terminals (and sometimes, like in Parma,
warehouses). The vehicles are in general built in association with the public transport
operator, but remain property of the city council. Once the investments are funded (in
general without a real return of investment), a carrier is contracted to operate the
system. This can be a consortium of existing operators (Bologna), a municipal
service (Monte-Carlo, Parma, Venice Mestre), a specific society created with public
funds (Vicenza), a mixed-capital company (Genova) or a public transport operator
(La Rochelle).
Subsidies are in general applied in many cases. From R&D projects (like those
promoted by the European Union) to public actions like those of the Emilia
Romagna region in Italy, we find in several countries cases of subsidies. They
cover in general the following application fields:
• Subsidies to local authorities by national or international entities to cover a part
of structural and infrastructural investments (Emilia Romagna Region subsidies,
European Commission projects).
• Financial support of local, regional and national governments to carries for
equipping them with green vehicles.
• Technological subsidies, when dealing to the deployment of vehicle and driver
support technologies.
• In some cases, social subsidies can be used to recruit fragile populations and to
prepare them to urban logistics. Although some French stakeholders like La
Petite Reine or Alud have promoted those practices, this field remains less
developed than the others.
The case of public loans is less common. However, the French politics in terms
of environment have promoted several actions where funds are not given to private
carriers as subsidies but as loans that have to be refunded back. Although most
actions concern industry and long haul carriers, we can find also applications
regarding urban logistics, mainly related to intermodal transport in urban areas o to
technological innovation to support urban goods transport.
3 Public Economics Re-funding Strategies
Traditionally, two main families of re-funding approaches have been applied by
public authorities, mainly for infrastructure investments: that of collective utility
and that of users' refunding. Those two families have been seen as opposite so
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