Shifting urban freight deliveries to the off-peak hours: a review of theory and practice

ABSTRACT

This paper presents a comprehensive review of the literature on off-peak hour deliveries (OPHD). The review identifies different approaches and policy levers used in the past, such as the laissez-faire approach, a road pricing approach, an incentives approach, and a regulatory approach. The paper also identifies different delivery reception schemes discussed in the literature. The authors complement the theory with a synthesis of pilot tests and the analysis of a set of interviews with practitioners (from the public sector and other organisations) in charge of OPHD programmes. The results from this review show the potential benefits that these programmes could bring about, the challenges faced in the early stages – along with potential solutions – and the significant progress that has been made in this domain in the last decade. According to the review, the results from the pilot tests tend to be positive, suggesting the importance of these programmes to reach more efficient and sustainable transportation systems.

KEYWORDS:

• Off-peak hour deliveries
• freight transportation policy
• urban freight transportation
• freight efficiency
• pilot tests
• nighttime freight distribution

Acknowledgements

The support from Fordonsstrategisk Forskning och Innovation (FFI) programme is both acknowledged and appreciated. The authors would like to acknowledge the support from the interviews’ participants: Stacey Hodge from NYCDOT, Jaz Chani from Transport for London, Martin Hellung-Larsen from Trafikstyrelsen, and Eric Devin from Cemafroid. The authors would also like to acknowledge the contributions from the Integrated Transport Research Lab (ITRL) at KTH. This paper does not represent the official position of the funding agency or the organisations whose representatives participated in the interviews.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

ORCID

Iván Sánchez-Díaz https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0213-9711

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Vinnova/Fordonsstrategisk Forskning och Innovation (FFI) programme under “Off-Peak City Distribution” Project [grant number 2014-05598], Volvo Research and Educational Foundations under Project [grant number EP-2014-09], and Integrated Transport Research Lab (ITRL) at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.