Urban Freight Transport with New Eyes

Looking at the world of freight transport from a new perspective. Habits are always the hardest to break — even when the goal is to improve our cities and make them more livable.

It is not easy to tell the owner of a laundry business — who every morning enters the city center at dawn with his van to deliver linens to a hotel, then returns in the afternoon with tablecloths, and again in the evening to collect used laundry (as he has done for years) — that he could make just one trip. Through integrated technologies, he could better organize and optimize his routes, save time, reduce traffic, and cut pollution.

It is all about shifting perspective toward a more coordinated and organized system. The technologies and innovations to improve urban mobility flows already exist.

The European project Dorothy – Development of Regional Clusters for Research and Implementation of Environmentally Friendly Urban Logistics focused on a three-year study (2013–2016) aimed at improving urban logistics in our cities.

As Marco Mastretta recalled during a project meeting, urban logistics is an ancient problem. As early as the Lex Iulia (45 BC), Julius Caesar attempted to regulate and reduce congestion caused by goods distribution in Rome by banning commercial deliveries within the city after 10 a.m. The law originated from residents’ complaints about noise pollution.

At that time, the main issue was noise. Today, “pollution” has multiplied into environmental, water, and air pollution — all harmful to human health. Yet we have also multiplied the tools available to address this challenge.

21 Strategic Actions to Improve Urban Mobility Quality

The objective of the Dorothy project was to outline strategic actions to be implemented in the coming years for urban logistics.

Significant change requires planning, analysis, research, reflection, and dialogue — and Dorothy provided exactly this framework. The project resulted in 21 concrete actions to improve freight transport, with positive impacts on air quality and stress reduction, ultimately enhancing urban well-being.

Project partners came from four European regions: Tuscany (Italy), Valencia (Spain), Lisbon and the Tagus Valley (Portugal), and Oltenia (Romania).

The Fondazione per la Ricerca e l’Innovazione led the project and collaborated locally with the University of Florence Department of Industrial Engineering, the Municipality of Florence, the Tuscany Region, and companies including Aleph srl, Liberologico srl, and Metro srl.

Among the ideas developed:

• The implementation of a Sustainable Urban Logistics Plan, promoting energy efficiency, reduced congestion, lower air and noise pollution, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, and overall improvement of urban quality of life.
• The creation of Urban Consolidation Centers (proximity distribution areas), already widespread in Northern Europe, where large deliveries are sorted and then distributed to city centers using electric vehicles, bicycles, and low-impact transport solutions.
• The development of urban parcel distribution points to improve last-mile delivery efficiency.
• The enhanced use of Open Data by public administrations to optimize urban logistics systems.

The JAP – Joint Action Plan is the document produced during the project that gathers all identified actions.

An Open Worksite for the Future

The laboratory led by Marco Pierini, Professor of Mechanical Design and Machine Construction at the University of Florence, focuses on mobility and vehicle design in terms of technology, safety, and economic, environmental, and social sustainability. Within Dorothy, the lab conducted a state-of-the-art analysis of urban logistics in the region.

The picture that emerged was of a system with significant room for improvement — yet supported by cutting-edge IT and electronic technologies and by models already successfully tested in other European cities.

“Training,” Pierini emphasized, “is a powerful tool to update professionals in the transport sector and help them adopt the opportunities offered by emerging technologies.”

From this idea arose the proposal for an International Master’s Program in Urban Logistics, involving the four universities participating in the project:

• Universitat Politècnica de València
• University of Craiova
• Instituto Pedro Nunes
• University of Florence

The Master’s program, currently under development, will have international recognition and a high level of qualification. It will be taught in English, with international students and faculty, hosted across partner countries, and will include a distance-learning component.

Conclusions

As Dorothy Gale, the protagonist of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, reminds us — and whose name inspired the project — perhaps “to cross the city center, silver shoes are enough.”

For the rest, the Dorothy clusters have sought to contribute to a more sustainable urban future.

For Information About the Project

• Fondazione per la Ricerca e l’Innovazione
• University of Florence – Department of Industrial Engineering
• Tuscany Region
• Municipality of Florence
• Companies: Liberologico srl; Aleph srl; Metro srl

Website: www.clusterdorothy.com