Sustainable Supply Chain Management in Urban Logistics - Sustainable Urban Logistics: Concepts, Methods and Information Systems - page 29

3 An Illustration: Cityporto Padua
Padua is an Italian medium city (about 2,50,000 inhabitants) that has a historical
city centre recently classified as Human Patrimony by the UNESCO. The main
urban transport problems in Padua are traffic congestion and noise, low air quality
and large commercial road traffic into the city centre. Like other medium Italian
cities, the municipality has defined a restricted access zone (in Italian, Zona a
Traffico Limitato), here noted ZTL (local policy) to deal with this congestion.
Further regulations are proposed by the Veneto region (regional policy). These
regulations establish a time window within it is possible to enter the ZTL. In the
rest of the day, only the residents and other authorised categories are allowed to
enter. An electronic tag identification system has been adopted to increase the
access control at the ''gates'' of the zone.
Interporto di Padova S.p.A. is a mixed capital company that operates as both
logistics real estate company and platform management operator. This company
was created to deal with the management and planning of the intermodal platform
of Padua (Italy). This platform hosts nowadays about 80 companies and its
inducted activity involves more than 3,000 employees. Its surface is about 2 km 2
and has both a railway infrastructure and terminal facilities, like warehouses and
cross-docks. Located in the North East of Italy, Interporto di Padova is connected
to the main national and international railways and roads; it is thus a ''strategic''
logistic hub. Cityporto is an urban logistics service proposed by Interporto di
Padova S.p.A. The main purpose is to reduce the number of trips by maximizing
the loading rates of vehicles and the usage of low-pollution. Further than that,
Cityporto is a new service for freight transport operators destined to enhance the
delivery flows of goods as well as to improve the quality of the city life. Operative
since the twenty first of April 2004, Cityporto of Padua is one of the few expe-
riences of this kind successfully operating in Italy.
The project, promoted by the Municipality and Interporto di Padova, in col-
laboration with the Province, the local Chamber of Commerce and A.P.S. Holding
S.p.A.—Mobility Division, is the result of more than 18 months of an experience
which involved also the transport operators. The Protocol of Agreement which
established Cityporto has been signed on the fifth of April 2004 and considered,
among other things, a 4 year long contribution. The project forecasted a 12 months
long first pilot stage directly managed by Interporto. The model laying on the basis
of Padua urban consolidation centre is extremely simple: the transport operators or
the self-transporting stakeholders deliver the goods to a logistics platform (a
warehouse property of Interporto di Padova S.p.A.) located on the city surrounds
where they are temporary stored; from this site depart the low-emission vehicles,
i.e., those that have a low environmental impact in terms of CO 2 emissions and
other air polluting gazes, which are intended for the distribution of goods in the
city centre, i.e., the last mile of the supply chain. Nowadays, Cityporto's fleet has 9
vehicles: 7 methane small lorries (3, 5 t), one electric small lorry and one methane
light commercial vehicle (2, 5 t). In the following analysis, the small lorries will be