Financing Urban Logistics Projects - Sustainable Urban Logistics: Concepts, Methods and Information Systems - page 245

operational and economically viable (for operational costs and a part of the
investments). However, mixed approaches are various in nature and structure and
it is not always easy to properly identify all of them. We however propose a
categorisation of mixed approaches:
The most common strategy is that of a partial contribution of authorities as a
subsidy. In other words, when developing urban logistics solutions, some invest-
ment costs are covered by a public subsidy. In general, those costs cover feasibility
studies, part of the investments (mainly related to civil works and technological
issues, including clean vehicles) and a demonstration period. In many cases, they
are not refunded back (like in Genova and in several cities from the Emilia
Romagna Region in Italy). In other cases, a part is refunded back but not the entire
subsidy.
Another strategy is that of giving concession (with or without asking for ret-
ribution) of infrastructures and/or vehicles. Indeed, since platforms and vehicles
constitute the main investment costs, public authorities can give concession of
them to the service operator. In Vicenza (Italy), a specific carrier was created to
operate the UCC, freely having the right to use the logistics facilities and the
vehicles given by the city's authorities. The management, maintenance and other
management costs are covered by the fees the system asks the transport carriers to
deliver the city centre. Being compulsory to a large number of fields to use the
UCC (Ville et al. 2012 ), the economic benefits are enough to make the operator
continue managing the system, and ensures its continuity.
Also indirect subsidies are found in practice. In Paris, Chronopost developed an
urban logistics space in a central part of the city (Place de la Concorde). Since the
facility prices are high, the city of Paris gave a subsidy to one of the main real
estate stakeholders to make reduce the price asked to Chronopost to the values
seen in near periphery areas, and allow the operator have an economically viable
system. The platform is still working but the indirect subsidy needs to be main-
tained because of the economic situation.
Concerning Private-Public Partnerships (PPPs), the most common action
related to financing transport systems is that of making a mixed investment, where
public funds are used to cover a part of the global costs and the rest must be funded
by the private company, or vice versa. That strategy starts to be popular in urban
people transport but remains quite unusual in urban logistics.
Finally we find approaches combining various strategies, like in Padova's UCC,
where the facility was already owned by the operator. In that case, costs for
feasibility analysis and demonstration were not refunded (as paid directly by
public authorities), but vehicles were bought on the name of the public transport
operator, and given free to the operator. The system is operational and economi-
cally viable (for only operational costs) since its second year. For new vehicles,
subsidies have been given, but original vehicles are step by step re-bought to the
public transport company in order to refund a part of the initial investments. New
investments, like the increase of storage surface and the development of fresh
products logistics, are funded by the operator (which is a main logistics real estate
stakeholder in the area).