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Urban Freight Lab

Research Topic: The Final 50 Feet of the Urban Goods Delivery System

The Urban Freight Lab coined the term “Final 50 Feet” and defined it as the supply chain segment that begins when a delivery vehicle pulls into a parking space and stops moving — in public load/unload spaces at the curb or in an alley, or a building’s loading dock or internal freight bay. It tracks the delivery process inside buildings and ends where the customer takes receipt of their goods. This research analyzes processes, develops potential solutions, and tests operational improvements in the final segment of the urban goods delivery system.

Paper

Identifying the Challenges to Sustainable Urban Last-Mile Deliveries: Perspectives from Public and Private Stakeholders

 
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URL: https://doi.org/10.3390/su14084701
Publication: Sustainability
Volume: 14, 4701
Publication Date: 2022
Summary:

While freight transportation is a necessary activity to sustain cities’ social and economic life—enabling the movement and deployment of goods and services in urbanized areas—it also accounts for a significant portion of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. The urban freight ecosystem is a complex network of agents, both public and private. Reducing CO2 emissions from urban freight requires the collaboration and coordination between those agents, but the motivations behind their goals, strategies for achieving those goals, and the challenges faced by each agent may differ. In this paper, we document the strategies aimed at reducing CO2 emissions considered by cities and private companies with the goal of understanding the challenges to progress faced by each. To accomplish this, we interviewed officials from purposefully sampled city departments in North America and private companies involved in city logistics. We found that cities face challenges related to a lack of strong leadership, resources, and policy tools. Companies must consider technological challenges, costs, and their workforce before reducing emissions. Cities and companies are challenged by the disaggregated nature of the urban freight “system”—a system that is not organized at the municipal scale and that is driven by performance and customer expectations.

Authors: Thomas MaxnerDr. Giacomo Dalla ChiaraDr. Anne Goodchild
Recommended Citation:
Maxner, T.; Dalla Chiara, G.; Goodchild, A. Identifying the Challenges to Sustainable Urban Last-Mile Deliveries: Perspectives from Public and Private Stakeholders. Sustainability 2022, 14, 4701. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14084701.
Paper

Exploring Benefits of Cargo-Cycles Versus Trucks for Urban Parcel Delivery Under Different Demand Scenarios

 
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URL: https://doi.org/10.1177/0361198120917162
Publication: Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board
Publication Date: 2020
Summary:

Urban deliveries are traditionally carried out with vans or trucks. These vehicles tend to face parking difficulties in dense urban areas, leading to traffic congestion. Smaller and nimbler vehicles by design, such as cargo-cycles, struggle to compete in distance range and carrying capacity. However, a system of cargo-cycles complemented with strategically located cargo-storing hubs can overcome some limitations of the cargo-cycles. Past research provides a limited perspective on how demand characteristics and parking conditions in urban areas are related to potential benefits of this system. To fill this gap, we propose a model to simulate the performance of different operational scenarios—a truck-only scenario and a cargo-cycle with mobile hubs scenario—under different delivery demand and parking conditions. We apply the model to a case study using data synthesized from observed freight-carrier demand in Singapore. The exploration of alternative demand scenarios informs how demand characteristics influence the viability of the solution. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis clarifies the contributing factors to the demonstrated results. The combination of cargo-cycles and hubs can achieve progressive reductions in kilometers-traveled and hours-traveled up to around densities of 150 deliveries/km ² , beyond which savings taper off. Whereas the reduction in kilometers-traveled is influenced by the the carrying capacity of the cargo-cycle, the reduction in hours-traveled is related to to the cargo-cycle ability to effectively decrease the parking dwell time by reducing, for instance, the time spent searching for parking and the time spent walking to a delivery destination.

Authors: Dr. Giacomo Dalla Chiara, André Romano Alho, Cheng Cheng, Moshe Ben-Akiva, Lynette Cheah
Recommended Citation:
Dalla Chiara, Giacomo and Alho, André Romano and Cheng Cheng, Moshe Ben-Akiva and Cheah, Lynette. “Exploring Benefits of Cargo-Cycles versus Trucks for Urban Parcel Delivery under Different Demand Scenarios.” Transportation Research Record, (May 2020). doi:10.1177/0361198120917162.
Technical Report

Safe Truck Parking in PacTrans Interstate Corridors: I-5 and I-90

 
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URL: http://hdl.handle.net/1773/43751
Publication Date: 2018
Summary:

Unresolved safety issues caused by truck parking shortages in high-demand locations are of keen importance to the State Departments of Transportation (DOTs) participating in the Regional PacTrans Center and to the thousands of trucking companies and drivers using the Interstate 5 (I-5) and Interstate 90 (I-90) corridors. Safety issues include serious and/or fatal crashes that may be related to the lack of safe and secure parking, and illegal/unofficial parking on entrance and exit ramps, shoulders, and freeway lanes that create hazards for motorists during severe weather.

WSDOT completed a statewide truck parking study in December 2016, and the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) published a report on truck parking along the US97 corridor in July 2017. Both states are interested in addressing safety issues inherent in the current lack of truck parking capacity. Researchers at the Supply Chain Transportation and Logistics Center (SCTL) at the University of Washington developed this project’s research goals with WSDOT to support their work.

Goals

The project goals are to:
  • Provide data-based decision support to WSDOT and neighboring states as they develop solutions for the lack of safe truck parking along the I-5 and I-90 corridors.
  • Develop new and valuable insights from truck drivers’ expertise on safety problems resulting from the lack of truck parking capacity on these corridors.
To achieve these goals, the research team first conducted a research scan of existing studies and other online reports that describe the lack of parking in high-demand locations along the I-5 and I-90 corridors in the PacTrans region.

Future Trends 

SCTL identified three trends in the truck parking industry that will affect the truck parking shortage in the future:
  1. The rising cost of land in growing metropolitan areas will continue to intensify this problem. Rapidly increasing land costs create pressure on truck service firms to either create new revenue streams (charging for parking that was formerly included for ‘free’ along with retail fuel sales) or relocate further from metro centers if they cannot compete with higher-value land uses near highway interchanges. Also, manufacturing and wholesale facilities that generate a high number of truck trips will likely continue to maximize building footprints on parcels, reducing available land for on-site truck parking.
  2. Federal regulatory changes are likely to increase long-haul truck parking demand in the next 10 years. In the short term, the electronic logging device (ELD) mandate beginning in 2018 will change driver behavior. Although some long-haul drivers have not strictly followed federal Hours of Service (HOS) regulations in the past, under the new ELD mandate they are more likely to stop and park for required rest periods because it will be more difficult to evade detection. In the next 10 years, additional federal regulations may be enacted and shorten drivers’ HOS again, thereby increasing demand for more rest stops on the Interstate Highway System and other major truck routes.
  3. In the longer term, emerging autonomous and cooperative truck technologies that address driver fatigue are likely to reduce demand for truck stops in rural areas – but not near cities. The truck driver interviews conducted for this project show that drivers stop for business reasons, not just for safety rest periods.

Finally, SCTL conducted 184 interviews of truck drivers over a three-week time period at two high-demand truck stops on the I-5 and I-90 corridors to determine: (a) origin and destination of trips; (b) connection to the Ports of Seattle and Tacoma; (c) drivers’ perceptions of safety issues caused by a lack of truck parking; (d) types of commodities carried; and (e) why drivers parked at these rest stops.

Key Findings 

The SCTL Center’s research provides new data and insights to answer questions under discussion between state, local, and regional transportation agencies and communities in the central Puget Sound region. The research results supported development of the Washington State Freight Mobility Plan. However the project’s findings have not resulted in public funding for additional parking in high-demand locations near I5 and I-90.

One of the most topical questions is whether the state’s economy and/or the Ports of Seattle and Tacoma benefit from the truck trips that require rest stops near the Seattle-Tacoma Bellevue metropolitan area. This question is central to understanding their proportional roles and funding responsibilities to add parking capacity where it is scarce: in the central Puget Sound region.

  • The on-site truck driver survey showed that there is an extremely strong tie between truck parking activity and the state’s economy: 91% percent of trucks parked along I-90 (at TA Seattle East Travel Center in North Bend) and 87% of those parked along I-5 (at the Mustard Seed in Sumner) delivered goods to businesses and other customers within Washington State. The evidence belies the hypothesis that most trucks using parking facilities in Washington are passing through the state and therefore provide no economic value to it.
  • Most drivers using the two truck parking facilities in central Puget Sound were not going to either the Port of Seattle or Port of Tacoma. In fact, 83% of truck drivers parked near I-90 and 78% near I-5 did not go to either of the two container ports. Although port-related traffic uses iv the truck parking facilities, it is not the major cause of increased parking demand at these locations.
  • Why do truck drivers park in these facilities? Surprisingly, more park there – and park longer – for business reasons rather than for safety reasons. The largest group of drivers (34% of those interviewed at TA Seattle East and 36% at Mustard Seed) said their primary reason for the stop was to wait to meet a specific delivery time at their destination or wait to locate another load. When SCTL compared the number of hours parked with the primary reason for parking, it found that delivery operations were the largest driver for longer stays.

The research findings have been used to communicate the importance of providing truck parking in high-demand areas in Washington State, particularly near I-5 south of Seattle and along I-90 near North Bend, to local officials, WSDOT, and other state officials.

By an overwhelming margin, truck drivers who parked along I-5 and I90 near the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metropolitan area delivered goods in Washington State, providing strong evidence that their activities support the state’s economy and residents.

Authors: Gabriela Girón-ValderramaDr. Anne GoodchildBarbara Ivanov
Recommended Citation:
Giron-Valderrama, Gabriela, Barbara Ivanov, and Anne Goodchild. "Safe Truck Parking in PacTrans Interstate Corridors: I-5 and I-90." (2018).

Common Carrier Locker Systems – Evaluation of Sound Transit Train Stations and Transit-Oriented Development Areas, Phase I (Task Order 3)

This study explored locating common carrier lockers at or near three of Seattle’s Link Light Rail stations. The Urban Freight Lab developed multi-factor criteria to evaluate placing common carrier locker systems on public property and applied it to evaluate potential sites at or near three of Seattle’s Link Light Rail stations and the Transit-Oriented Development areas near them. Mobility hubs aim to consolidate multiple modes of transportation – bicycles, ride shares, trains, and buses – within well-designed, well-connected public spaces containing ample community amenities.

Placing common carrier locker systems specifically at or near transit sites offers unique public sector benefits:

  • Improving an amenity that adds value to transit stations and the Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) areas near them, by ensuring that riders can get their online orders when expected in a secure, convenient place.
  • Cutting crime and providing a safer environment for residents and workers.
  • Ensuring that all city neighborhoods can receive online orders, not just a few.

Additionally, common carrier locker systems support King Country Metro Transit’s, SDOT’s, and Sound Transit’s mobility hub policies, which call for rider amenities that create lively public spaces.

This study included a survey of 185 riders at three Link Light Rail stations  – University of Washington Station, Capitol Hill Station, Westlake Station – which showed strong rider interest in common carrier lockers. Sixty-seven percent of respondents at the UW Station said they would use common carrier lockers located at that station, and nearly half the respondents at the other two stations said they would use lockers or consider using them. The vast majority of these riders expressed a willingness to carry a package three to six blocks, and 24-42% of riders reported a willingness to walk with a package seven or more blocks.

Approximately 137,000 people live within a 30-minute walk of one of these three stations. Each station has residential housing within a five-minute walk or less. From two of the stations – Capitol Hill and Westlake – the majority of housing is less than a 15-minute-walk away. This suggests that, since a significant percentage of riders expressed willingness to walk considerable distances with packages, tens of thousands of Seattle’s urban residents would be willing to use common carrier parcel locker systems located at transit stations.

Location Criteria

Researchers and stakeholders devised criteria for locating lockers at or near transit stations. These criteria are built around four central categories:  location and logistics, market demand, operations, and legal considerations.

Five Potential Locker Locations

The criteria in the “location and logistics” category – lighting, electricity, visibility, ADA standards, commercial vehicle access, commercial vehicle parking, live ethernet/strong cellular, vehicle traffic flow management, pedestrian traffic flow management – proved especially helpful to researchers and stakeholders in evaluating potential sites. Based largely on these criteria, they identified five viable pilot locker locations:

  • Husky Train
  • Capitol Hill Bikes Under Cover (Cap Hill #1)
  • Capitol Hill Streetscape (Cap Hill #2)
  • Capitol Hill Mural Interior (Cap Hill #3)
  • Westlake Retail Hub

Conclusion

King County Metro Transit, Sound Transit, and the Seattle Department of Transportation, working with the UFL, have demonstrated national leadership in conducting this first-ever study of locating common carrier lockers on public right of way at or near transit stations. This study reveals strong interest among both potential locker users (Link Light Rail riders) and carriers (UPS and USPS, both UFL members). Researchers selected five potential locker sites, one or all of which will be pilot tested in future research. Pilot tests will provide an opportunity to see how riders respond to the lockers and to what extent lockers reduce dwell times and failed first deliveries. No single solution can solve all of the challenges that plague the Final 50 Feet of the urban goods delivery system. This research shows that common carrier parcel lockers are a promising first step in improving freight transport in urban areas.

 

Presentation

Growth of Ecommerce and Ride-Hailing Services is Reshaping Cities Connecting State and City DOTs, and Transit Agencies for Innovative Solutions

 
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URL: https://policy.transportation.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/Growth-of-E-Commerce-and-Ride-Hailing-Services-Urban-Freight-Lab.pdf
Publication: AASHTO 2018 Joint Policy Conference: Connecting the DOTs
Volume: 19-Jul-18
Publication Date: 2018
Summary:

There is not enough curb capacity, now.

A recent curb parking utilization study in the City of Seattle indicated 90% or higher occupancy rates in Commercial Vehicle Load Zones (CVLZs) for some areas for much of the workday.

The Final Fifty Feet is a new research field.

The Final 50 Feet project is the first time that researchers have analyzed both the street network and cities’ vertical space as one unified goods delivery system. It focuses on:

  • The use of scarce curb, buildings’ internal loading bays, and alley space
  • How delivery people move with handcarts through intersections and sidewalks; and
  • On the delivery processes inside urban towers.
Authors: Barbara Ivanov
Paper

Urban Delivery Company Needs and Preferences for Green Loading Zones Implementation: A Case Study of NYC

 
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URL: https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784484340.030
Publication: Proceedings of American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Transportation and Development Conference 2022: Transportation Planning and Workforce Development
Publication Date: 2022
Summary:

(This project is part of the Urban Freight Lab’s Technical Assistance Program, where UFL contributes to the project by providing 1:1 match funds in terms of staff and/or research assistants to complete project tasks.)

Green Loading Zones (GLZs) are curb spaces dedicated to the use of electric or alternative fuel (“green”) delivery vehicles. Some U.S. cities have begun piloting GLZs to incentivize companies to purchase and operate more green vehicles. However, there are several questions to be answered prior to a GLZ implementation, including siting, potential users and their willingness to pay. We reviewed best practices for GLZs around the world, and surveyed goods delivery companies operating in New York City to collect such information for a future GLZ pilot. The findings suggest the best candidate locations are areas where companies are currently subject to the most parking fines and double parking. Companies expressed willingness to pay for GLZs, as long as deploying green vehicles in the city can offset other cost exposures. Respondents also selected several single-space GLZs spread throughout a neighborhood as the preferred layout.

Authors: Thomas MaxnerNota GoulianouDr. Andisheh RanjbariDr. Anne Goodchild
Recommended Citation:
Maxner, T., Goulianou, P., Ranjbari, A., and Goodchild, A. (2022). "Studying Urban Delivery Company Needs and Preferences for Green Loading Zones Implementation: A Case Study of NYC", In Proceedings of ASCE Transportation and Development Conference (Forthcoming), Seattle, WA.
Paper

A Policy-Sensitive Model of Parking Choice for Commercial Vehicles in Urban Areas

 
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URL: https://doi.org/10.1287/trsc.2019.0970
Publication: Transportation Science
Publication Date: 2020
Summary:

Understanding factors that drive the parking choice of commercial vehicles at delivery stops in cities can enhance logistics operations and the management of freight parking infrastructure, mitigate illegal parking, and ultimately reduce traffic congestion. In this paper, we focus on this decision-making process at large urban freight traffic generators, such as retail malls and transit terminals, that attract a large share of urban commercial vehicle traffic. Existing literature on parking behavior modeling has focused on passenger vehicles. This paper presents a discrete choice model for commercial vehicle parking choice in urban areas. The model parameters were estimated by using detailed, real-world data on commercial vehicle parking choices collected in two commercial urban areas in Singapore. The model analyzes the effect of several variables on the parking behavior of commercial vehicle drivers, including the presence of congestion and queuing, attitudes toward illegal parking, and pricing (parking fees). The model was validated against real data and applied within a discrete-event simulation to test the economic and environmental impacts of several parking measures, including pricing strategies and parking enforcement.

Authors: Dr. Giacomo Dalla Chiara, Lynette Cheah, Carlos Lima Azevedo, Moshe E. Ben-Akiya
Recommended Citation:
Dalla Chiara, Giacomo and Cheah, Lynette and Azevedo, Carlos Lima and Ben-Akiva, Moshe E. (2020). A Policy-Sensitive Model of Parking Choice for Commercial Vehicles in Urban Areas. Transportation Science, 54(3), 606–630. https://doi.org/10.1287/trsc.2019.0970 
Paper

Delivery Process for an Office Building in the Seattle Central Business District

 
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URL: https://trid.trb.org/view/1497161
Publication: Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board
Volume: Transportation Research Board 97th Annual Meeting
Publication Date: 2018
Summary:

Movement of goods within a central business district (CBD) can be very constraining with high levels of congestion and insufficient curb spaces. Pick-up and delivery activities encompass a significant portion of urban goods movement and inefficient operations can negatively impact the already highly congested areas and truck dwell times. Identifying and quantifying the delivery processes within the building is often difficult.

This paper introduces a systematic approach to examine freight movement, using a process flow map with quantitative delivery times measured during the final segment of the delivery process. This paper focuses on vertical movements such as unloading/loading activities, taking freight elevators, and performing pick-up/delivery operations. This approach allows us to visualize the components of the delivery process and identify the processes that consume the most time and greatest variability. Using this method, the authors observed the delivery process flows of an office building in downtown Seattle, grouped into three major steps: 1. Entering, 2. Delivering, 3. Exiting. This visualization tool provides researchers and planners with a better understanding of the current practices in the urban freight system and helps identify the non-value-added activities and time that can unnecessarily increase the overall delivery time.

Authors: Haena KimDr. Anne Goodchild, Linda Ng Boyle
Recommended Citation:
Kim, Haena, Linda Ng Boyle, and Anne Goodchild. "Delivery Process for an Office Building in the Seattle Central Business District." Transportation Research Record 2672, no. 9 (2018): 173-183. 

The Final 50 Feet of the Urban Goods Delivery System (Task Order 1)

Urban goods delivery is an essential but little-noticed activity in urban areas. For the last 40 years, deliveries have been mostly performed by a private sector shipping industry that operates within general city traffic conditions.

However, in recent years e-commerce has created a rapid increase in deliveries and an explosion of activity in the future. Meeting current and future demand is creating unprecedented challenges for shippers to deliver increased volumes and meet increasing customer expectations for efficient and timely delivery. Delivery vehicles parked in travel lanes, unloading taking place on crowded sidewalks, and commercial truck noise during late night and early morning hours are familiar stories in urban areas. These conditions are particularly problematic in Seattle’s high-density areas of Downtown, Uptown (lower Queen Anne), South Lake Union, and First and Capitol Hills. Please note that at the time this research report was published, this area was called Center City in Seattle’s planning documents but is now referred to as the Greater Downtown area.

This was the first research project in SDOT’s strategic partnership with the Urban Freight Lab (UFL), which is part of the Supply Chain Transportation and Logistics Center at the University of Washington. The Urban Freight Lab members come from retail, delivery, and building management sectors; SDOT and the members set clear and measurable goals for each research project. UFL researchers collect original and existent data, analyze it, and pilot test promising strategies in the real world.

This report provides the first assessment in any U.S. city of the privately-owned and operated elements of the Final 50 Feet of goods delivery supply chains. These include private truck freight bays and loading docks, and delivery policies and operations within buildings located in Center City.

Key Findings

The research showed that in three of Seattle’s Center City neighborhoods Downtown, South Lake Union and private loading bays and docks are scarce, forcing delivery drivers to park in public spaces. Researchers found that there are 144 entrances to internal loading bays, 93 exterior loading docks, and 9 exterior loading areas. Only 13% of all buildings in downtown, uptown, and South Lake Union have private loading bays and/or docks; 87% must use the city’s curb and alley space to receive deliveries. The research team also quantified and created maps of the Final 50 Feet delivery process flows in and around five prototype buildings in Seattle (the Seattle Municipal Tower, a 62-story office building; Insignia residential tower; the Dexter Horton historic building; the Four Seasons hotel and condominium; and Westlake Mall retail Center). The researchers then quantified delay in the process steps for the Seattle Municipal Tower to understand which improvement strategies will have the greatest payoff: clearing security took 12% of the total time; looking for tenants and/or their locations and riding the freight elevator took 61% of the total time. Data showed that a smart locker system in the loading bay level of the Seattle Municipal Tower would reduce the time delivery people spend in the building by up to 73%. It would almost eliminate failed first deliveries and dramatically cut the mean truck dwell time in parking spaces serving the Tower. This result led to the Final 50 Feet: Common Carrier Locker Pilot Test at Seattle Municipal Tower.

Video:
How the Final 50 Feet Research is Being Used (National Academies Transportation Research Board)

Paper

Do Parcel Lockers Reduce Delivery Times? Evidence from the Field

 
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URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tre.2023.103070
Publication: Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review
Volume: 172 (2023)
Publication Date: 2023
Summary:

Common carrier parcel lockers have emerged as a secure, automated, self-service means of delivery consolidation in congested urban areas, which are believed to mitigate last-mile delivery challenges by reducing out-of-vehicle delivery times and consequently vehicle dwell times at the curb. However, little research exists to empirically demonstrate the environmental and efficiency gains from this technology. In this study, we designed a nonequivalent group pre-test/post-test control experiment to estimate the causal effects of a parcel locker on delivery times in a residential building in downtown Seattle. The causal effects are measured in terms of vehicle dwell time and the time delivery couriers spend inside the building, through the difference-in-difference method and using a similar nearby residential building as a control. The results showed a statistically significant decrease in time spent inside the building and a small yet insignificant reduction in delivery vehicle dwell time at the curb. The locker was also well received by the building managers and residents.

Authors: Dr. Andisheh RanjbariCaleb DiehlDr. Giacomo Dalla ChiaraDr. Anne Goodchild
Recommended Citation:
Ranjbari, A., Diehl, C., Dalla Chiara, G., & Goodchild, A. (2023). Do Commercial Vehicles Cruise for Parking? Empirical Evidence from Seattle. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, 172, 103070. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tre.2023.103070