Proximity, land, labor and planning? Logistics industry perspectives on facility location

Abstract

Distribution, warehousing and logistics facilities located in Canadian municipalities have significant impacts on surrounding land uses and on nearby transportation infrastructure, not to mention the broader socio-economic environment. While there is considerable literature available concerning the location choices of generic industrial firms, explorations of logistics firms' locations have been less extensive. This is somewhat surprising because of the increasing ability of logistics firms to relocate and the potential issues surrounding their activity, for example related to the amount of freight traffic that they generate. The goal of this research is to explore the relative importance of location factors that attract/retain logistics firms to a community, and identify potential issues of operational conflict between municipalities, their residents, and logistics firms. Factors that were found to negatively influence the attractiveness of a particular location (push factors) were land costs and tax rates, a lack of skilled workers, and a lack of land available for expansion on site. Location factors that retained firms at a particular location were access to customers and suppliers, having the ability to operate 24/7 and proximity to highways. There is a need for the public sector, including planners and economic developers, to better understand the requirements of the logistics industry in order to accommodate these firms while mitigating potentially adverse impacts to communities.

Keywords:

• Location Factors
• Logistics
• Land Use Planning
• Transportation Planning