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Urban Freight Lab

Research Keyword: Zero-Emission Delivery Zone (ZEDZ)

Technical Report

Interview Results: Carrier Perspectives on Delivery Operations and Zero-Emission Zones in Downtown Portland

 
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Publication Date: 2024
Summary:

In 2023, Portland was awarded a U.S. Department of Transportation SMART grant to pilot a Zero-Emission Delivery Zone (ZEDZ). Funding for this Stage One SMART grant will allow PBOT to trial changing three to five truck loading zones into “Zero-Emission Delivery” loading zones in downtown Portland. The Urban Freight Lab (UFL) was approached by PBOT to assist in their SMART grant implementation by providing subject matter expertise on the topics of urban freight, curb management, and freight decarbonization. The UFL team created a questionnaire and interview guide to inquire about current carrier operations, current and future fleet composition, and loading activities of carriers operating in the City of Portland.

The selected organizations were identified as carriers or organizations that make deliveries into the proposed Zero-Emission Delivery Zone (ZEDZ) in downtown Portland. The UFL reached out to over 20 different organizations spanning different business sectors and company sizes, from large national parcel carriers to regional wholesale distributors to small delivery companies. Ultimately, only four organizations responded to requests for interviews. Between June and August 2024, the UFL conducted these interviews. Table 1 provides an overview of the companies interviewed and their main business activities. Company and organization names are omitted from this report to anonymize the respondents.

The goal of the interviews was to understand the parking behaviors and fleets of individual companies. In particular, the interviewers focused on understanding the current delivery operations in the Portland area, the related parking and routing behaviors of their delivery drivers, fleet composition, and the challenges they face in performing deliveries in the study area.

Each interview was 1-hour long and was guided on a questionnaire reported in the appendix. The questionnaire was developed into three sections:

  • Organization – Describe their main business activities, logistics network and fleet composition.
  • Routing, parking, and payment behaviors – Description of typical drivers’ operations in the City of Portland and specifically downtown, including routing and parking behaviors, as well as use of paid parking and citations.
  • Future scenarios – Companies were asked about zero-emission vehicles and implications of the ZEDZ on operations.

This report contains the main results of the interviews, including a description of the logistics network infrastructure, delivery operations, and curb use behaviors. The final section provides the key lessons learned.

Zero-Emission Delivery Zone: City of Portland SMART Grant

The Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) was awarded a nearly $2 million Strengthening Mobility and Revolutionizing Transportation (SMART) Grant by the US Department of Transportation (USDOT) in Fall 2023 to pilot the country’s first regulated Zero-Emission Delivery Zone in downtown Portland and test digital infrastructure tools. This project will test an innovative set of incentives and regulations to better understand what technology and strategies municipalities can use to support and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the freight sector.

While other cities in the United States have piloted voluntary Zero-Emission Delivery Zones (ZEDZs) to encourage the transition of commercial fleets to zero-emission modes, Portland will be the first U.S. city to pilot a regulated ZEDZ. The regulated ZEDZ will be active during a demonstration period of approximately six months beginning in late summer/early fall of 2024. During this temporary demonstration period, the parking rules for all truck loading zones within the project area will be changed to prioritize access for zero-emission vehicles only (see Figure 1). Loading zones within the ZEDZ will be monitored by parking sensors, both before and after the approximately six-month long demonstration period, so that project staff can better understand the impact of this regulation. These loading zones will be referred to as Zero-Emission Loading Zones.

This pilot project will also test a variety of partnerships and incentives to accelerate the movement of “clean goods,” or goods with fewer negative impacts to health and the environment. This could include diverting existing deliveries into the ZEDZ to local fleets of electric-assist cargo trikes and electric vehicles, vans and trucks, or supporting local delivery companies in transitioning their own fleets to zero-emission modes.

This project is enabled by a nearly $2 million USDOT SMART Stage 1 pilot and prototyping grant. Depending on outcomes from this pilot project, PBOT will have the opportunity to apply for a Stage 2 implementation grant for up to $15 million to refine or scale promising strategies identified in the initial pilot project. The two stages of the SMART grant program are unique in that they allow the City of Portland to test several strategies on a small scale before exploring any larger-scale implementation. All of this work is in service to Portland’s values around climate and transportation justice: a safer, cleaner, and more equitable system for delivering goods and services.

Draft map of project area showing proposed zero-emission load zones updated in March 2024. Loading zone site selection will be refined with stakeholder input in late Spring 2024.

Scope of Work

The Urban Freight Lab (UFL) was approached by PBOT to assist in their Phase 1 SMART grant implementation. The UFL will provide subject matter expertise on the topics of urban freight, curb management, and freight decarbonization. They will support PBOT in the form of interviews and/or surveys to summarize current carrier operations, current and future fleet composition, and loading activities.

  • Task 1. Project management and subject matter expertise support
    • Deliverables: Attend meetings and provide subject matter expert consultation as needed.
  • Task 2. Document how some carriers and delivery operators would be impacted by a zero-emission delivery zone (ZEDZ) in Portland, including understanding current and planned fleet composition, interactions with the curb, and barriers and opportunities for the City to support.
    • Deliverables: Interview questionnaire and summaries of answers (we will aggregate and anonymize results). Draft and final technical memo, with one PBOT review of the draft