Supply Chains and Urban Logistics Platforms - Sustainable Urban Logistics: Concepts, Methods and Information Systems - page 17

Fig. 4 DHL Packstation
(credit: DHL)

4.8 Urban Logistics Boxes ULB

These ULSs are interfaces between the carrier and the customer without any
human presence needed in the transhipment place. The advantage of this sort of
solution is mainly the control of time; indeed, the notion of delivery hour is
particularly important for all the actors of the urban system (however, frequently
with diverging needs). The ''urban logistics boxes'' (ULB) can be fixed (sieves,
deposits, parcel boxes) or mobile (container with varied shapes and dimensions).
They are implanted in accessible private or public places (Fig. 4 ).
The classic procedure (reception of the parcel/acknowledgment of the delivery)
is therefore changed. This implies a disconnection between transport and admin-
istrative operations, the latter being realized closely after the first (2 days maxi-
mum and rarely exceeding 2 h). These equipments, declined in various shapes
(premises, lockers, automatons), are particularly adapted to online purchase

(e-commerce).

5 Conclusion

5.1 A Necessary Arbitration to Preserve the Equilibrium
of a Threatened Urban ''Ecosystem''

Pollution, nuisances will be difficult to jugulate if the paradigm of urban supplies
does not change. But do we have to reach this threshold to react?
In France, each year, 4,000 people die in accidents involving a heavy lorry. But
nearly 42,000 ''anticipated'' deaths every year are the consequences of an expo-
sition to pollutants and especially particulate matter which density is very high in
urban areas. In fact, urban goods movements could be the origin of 70 % of
particulate matter, 35 % of Nitrogen oxides and 25 % of GHG emissions.