IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/transa/v51y2013icp56-62.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The milk run revisited: A load factor paradox with economic and environmental implications for urban freight transport

Author

Listed:
  • Arvidsson, Niklas

Abstract

Research has shown that time access restrictions in city centers might increase social sustainability aspects such as livability or safety, but might also increase the number of vehicles and the total distance travelled; which have negative environmental impact and can decrease economic sustainability. In this paper we see that this negative effect could also be the result of other access restrictions, like load factor restrictions, and may be related to factors other than the number of vehicles and total distance travelled. Such as if the distribution center is in the outskirts of the city and customers are situated outside the city center. In this study a common urban distribution network scenario is presented – the milk run – where only the load factor is changed. Increasing the load factor is usually regarded as a way of improving efficiency, but we observe that under certain conditions improving the load factor affects economic and environmental sustainability, by increasing total costs and emissions. Following insights from this study, policy makers and companies should be careful when using single key performance indicators in urban freight distribution.

Suggested Citation

  • Arvidsson, Niklas, 2013. "The milk run revisited: A load factor paradox with economic and environmental implications for urban freight transport," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 56-62.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:transa:v:51:y:2013:i:c:p:56-62
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tra.2013.04.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965856413000979
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tra.2013.04.001?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Woxenius, Johan, 2012. "Directness as a key performance indicator for freight transport chains," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 63-72.
    2. Dietrich Braess & Anna Nagurney & Tina Wakolbinger, 2005. "On a Paradox of Traffic Planning," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 39(4), pages 446-450, November.
    3. Bektas, Tolga & Laporte, Gilbert, 2011. "The Pollution-Routing Problem," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 45(8), pages 1232-1250, September.
    4. Stathopoulos, Amanda & Valeri, Eva & Marcucci, Edoardo, 2012. "Stakeholder reactions to urban freight policy innovation," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 34-45.
    5. Liimatainen, Heikki & Pöllänen, Markus, 2010. "Trends of energy efficiency in Finnish road freight transport 1995-2009 and forecast to 2016," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(12), pages 7676-7686, December.
    6. Cidell, Julie, 2010. "Concentration and decentralization: The new geography of freight distribution in US metropolitan areas," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 363-371.
    7. Danielis, Romeo & Rotaris, Lucia & Marcucci, Edoardo, 2010. "Urban freight policies and distribution channels: a discussion based on evidence from Italian cities," European Transport \ Trasporti Europei, ISTIEE, Institute for the Study of Transport within the European Economic Integration, issue 46, pages 114-146.
    8. Morgan, John & Orzen, Henrik & Sefton, Martin, 2009. "Network architecture and traffic flows: Experiments on the Pigou-Knight-Downs and Braess Paradoxes," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 348-372, May.
    9. H. J. (Hans) Quak & M. (René) B. M. de Koster, 2009. "Delivering Goods in Urban Areas: How to Deal with Urban Policy Restrictions and the Environment," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 43(2), pages 211-227, May.
    10. Niklas Arvidsson & Johan Woxenius & Catrin Lammgård, 2013. "Review of Road Hauliers' Measures for Increasing Transport Efficiency and Sustainability in Urban Freight Distribution," Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(1), pages 107-127, January.
    11. Sahin, Bahri & Yilmaz, Huseyin & Ust, Yasin & Guneri, Ali Fuat & Gulsun, BahadIr, 2009. "An approach for analysing transportation costs and a case study," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 193(1), pages 1-11, February.
    12. Dablanc, Laetitia, 2007. "Goods transport in large European cities: Difficult to organize, difficult to modernize," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 280-285, March.
    13. Geroliminis, Nikolaos & Daganzo, Carlos F., 2005. "A Review of Green Logistics Schemes Used in Cities Around the World," Institute of Transportation Studies, Research Reports, Working Papers, Proceedings qt4x89p485, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Berkeley.
    14. Erling Holden & Kristin Linnerud, 2011. "Troublesome Leisure Travel," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 48(14), pages 3087-3106, November.
    15. Ryan, Michael J., 2000. "The distribution problem, the more for less (nothing) paradox and economies of scale and scope," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 121(1), pages 92-104, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Marcucci, Edoardo & Gatta, Valerio & Scaccia, Luisa, 2015. "Urban freight, parking and pricing policies: An evaluation from a transport providers’ perspective," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 239-249.
    2. Sijing Liu & Jiuping Xu & Xiaoyuan Shi & Guoqi Li & Dinglong Liu, 2018. "Sustainable Distribution Organization Based on the Supply–Demand Coordination in Large Chinese Cities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-25, August.
    3. Ivan Cardenas & Yari Borbon-Galvez & Thomas Verlinden & Eddy Van de Voorde & Thierry Vanelslander & Wouter Dewulf, 2017. "City logistics, urban goods distribution and last mile delivery and collection," Competition and Regulation in Network Industries, , vol. 18(1-2), pages 22-43, March.
    4. Yi Jiang & Polin Lai & Chia-Hsun Chang & Kum Fai Yuen & Sihang Li & Xinchen Wang, 2021. "Sustainable Management for Fresh Food E-Commerce Logistics Services," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-19, March.
    5. Wanjie Hu & Jianjun Dong & Bon-gang Hwang & Rui Ren & Zhilong Chen, 2019. "A Scientometrics Review on City Logistics Literature: Research Trends, Advanced Theory and Practice," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-27, May.
    6. Berling, Peter & Eng-Larsson, Fredrik, 2016. "Pricing and timing of consolidated deliveries in the presence of an express alternative: Financial and environmental analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 250(2), pages 590-601.
    7. Phan, The Vinh & Huynh, Cong Minh, 2023. "The Effect of Logistics Services Quality on Consumer Satisfaction in Fresh Food E-Commerce: Evidence from the South of Vietnam," MPRA Paper 117627, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 14 Jun 2023.
    8. Bram Kin & Tomas Ambra & Sara Verlinde & Cathy Macharis, 2018. "Tackling Fragmented Last Mile Deliveries to Nanostores by Utilizing Spare Transportation Capacity—A Simulation Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-15, February.
    9. Gatta, Valerio & Marcucci, Edoardo, 2014. "Urban freight transport and policy changes: Improving decision makers' awareness via an agent-specific approach," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 248-252.
    10. Ashu Kedia & Diana Kusumastuti & Alan Nicholson, 2019. "Establishing Collection and Delivery Points to Encourage the Use of Active Transport: A Case Study in New Zealand Using a Consumer-Centric Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(22), pages 1-23, November.
    11. Anna Nagurney & Min Yu & Jonas Floden, 2013. "Supply chain network sustainability under competition and frequencies of activities from production to distribution," Computational Management Science, Springer, vol. 10(4), pages 397-422, December.
    12. Ermagun, Alireza & Stathopoulos, Amanda, 2018. "To bid or not to bid: An empirical study of the supply determinants of crowd-shipping," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 468-483.
    13. A. Wang & I. Ziedins, 2018. "Probabilistic selfish routing in parallel batch and single-server queues," Queueing Systems: Theory and Applications, Springer, vol. 88(3), pages 389-407, April.
    14. Letnik, Tomislav & Marksel, Maršenka & Luppino, Giuseppe & Bardi, Andrea & Božičnik, Stane, 2018. "Review of policies and measures for sustainable and energy efficient urban transport," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 245-257.
    15. Meisel, Frank & Thiele, Nicole, 2014. "Where to dispose of urban green waste? Transportation planning for the maintenance of public green spaces," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 147-162.
    16. Dhirendra Prajapati & Arjun R Harish & Yash Daultani & Harpreet Singh & Saurabh Pratap, 2023. "A Clustering Based Routing Heuristic for Last-Mile Logistics in Fresh Food E-Commerce," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 24(1), pages 7-20, February.
    17. Sergio Maria Patella & Gianluca Grazieschi & Valerio Gatta & Edoardo Marcucci & Stefano Carrese, 2020. "The Adoption of Green Vehicles in Last Mile Logistics: A Systematic Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-29, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Vidal Vieira, José Geraldo & Fransoo, Jan C., 2015. "How logistics performance of freight operators is affected by urban freight distribution issues," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 37-47.
    2. Eren Akyol, Derya & De Koster, René B.M., 2018. "Determining time windows in urban freight transport: A city cooperative approach," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 34-50.
    3. Rafael Grosso & Jesús Muñuzuri & Alejandro Escudero-Santana & Elena Barbadilla-Martín, 2018. "Mathematical Formulation and Comparison of Solution Approaches for the Vehicle Routing Problem with Access Time Windows," Complexity, Hindawi, vol. 2018, pages 1-10, February.
    4. Sathaye, Nakul & Harley, Robert & Madanat, Samer, 2010. "Unintended environmental impacts of nighttime freight logistics activities," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 44(8), pages 642-659, October.
    5. Olsson, Jerry & Woxenius, Johan, 2014. "Localisation of freight consolidation centres serving small road hauliers in a wider urban area: barriers for more efficient freight deliveries in Gothenburg," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 25-33.
    6. Priscila Pereira Suzart Carvalho & Ricardo Araújo Kalid & Jorge Laureano Moya Rodríguez & Sandro Breval Santiago, 2019. "Interactions among stakeholders in the processes of city logistics: a systematic review of the literature," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 120(2), pages 567-607, August.
    7. Jonathan Cowie & Keith Fisken, 2023. "Urban freight policy maturity and sustainable logistics: are they related?," Journal of Shipping and Trade, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 1-17, December.
    8. Zhang, Zhenzhen & Wei, Lijun & Lim, Andrew, 2015. "An evolutionary local search for the capacitated vehicle routing problem minimizing fuel consumption under three-dimensional loading constraints," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 20-35.
    9. Danielis, Romeo & Maggi, Elena & Rotaris, Lucia & Valeri, Eva, 2012. "Urban supply chains and transportation policies," Working Papers 1207, SIET Società Italiana di Economia dei Trasporti e della Logistica, revised 2012.
    10. Dezhi Zhang & Xin Wang & Shuangyan Li & Nan Ni & Zhuo Zhang, 2018. "Joint optimization of green vehicle scheduling and routing problem with time-varying speeds," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(2), pages 1-20, February.
    11. Ballantyne, Erica E.F. & Lindholm, Maria & Whiteing, Anthony, 2013. "A comparative study of urban freight transport planning: addressing stakeholder needs," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 93-101.
    12. Aljohani, Khalid & Thompson, Russell G., 2021. "Modelling individual preferences of goods receivers for a Receiver-led delivery consolidation service," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 74-94.
    13. Boshuai Zhao & Juliang Zhang & Wenchao Wei, 2019. "Impact of Time Restriction and Logistics Sprawl on Urban Freight and Environment: The Case of Beijing Agricultural Freight," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(13), pages 1-17, July.
    14. Maria Lindholm, 2013. "Urban freight transport from a local authority perspective – a literature review," European Transport \ Trasporti Europei, ISTIEE, Institute for the Study of Transport within the European Economic Integration, issue 54, pages 1-3.
    15. Holden, R. & Xu, B. & Greening, P. & Piecyk, M. & Dadhich, P., 2016. "Towards a common measure of greenhouse gas related logistics activity using data envelopment analysis," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 105-119.
    16. Kang, Sanggyun, 2020. "Warehouse location choice: A case study in Los Angeles, CA," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    17. Jagienka Rześny-Cieplińska & Agnieszka Szmelter-Jarosz, 2019. "Assessment of the Crowd Logistics Solutions—The Stakeholders’ Analysis Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-26, September.
    18. Orhan, Cosku Can & Goez, Julio Cesar & Guajardo, Mario & Osicka, Ondrej & Wallace, Stein W., 2024. "Assessing macro effects of freight consolidation on the livability of small cities using vehicle routing as micro models: The case of Bergen, Norway," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    19. Hu, Wanjie & Dong, Jianjun & Hwang, Bon-Gang & Ren, Rui & Chen, Zhilong, 2022. "Is mass rapid transit applicable for deep integration of freight-passenger transport? A multi-perspective analysis from urban China," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 490-510.
    20. Sijing Liu & Jiuping Xu & Xiaoyuan Shi & Guoqi Li & Dinglong Liu, 2018. "Sustainable Distribution Organization Based on the Supply–Demand Coordination in Large Chinese Cities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-25, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:transa:v:51:y:2013:i:c:p:56-62. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/547/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.