City logistics simulation can help to provide empirical proof of potential benefits of new solutions in city logistics but decision support tools for such analyses are scarce because of a lack of empirical data and resources. The Tactical Freight Simulator (TFS) is a multi-agent simulator that represents the decision-making of freight agents and individual freight shipments. In this study it is applied to four distinct use cases in city logistics: micro hubs, introduction of zero-emission zones, crowd-shipping and the land use planning of logistic facilities. The simulations show impacts of each development and provide learnings: the type of open or single carrier operation of micro hubs have big local impacts. The impact of freight traffic avoiding zero emission zones can have substantial local impacts. Depending on the configuration of the service, crowd-shipping can lead to more vehicle kilometres. A common finding is the impact of the chosen scenario parameters on the outputs: regulation is important to shape city logistics operations. This also illustrates that, although the technology seems to be ready for innovative solutions, the logistical organisation or business models and policies are not yet well developed.@en

Micro-hubs are considered to be a potential solution to increase the consolidation of inner-city deliveries: in the City of Rotterdam it is a potential measure to increase the logistic efficiency in and around the planned zero-emission zone in the city center. When designing the configuration of micro-hubs in an urban setting multiple aspects should be considered, such as their location, the type of vehicles to operate them, and the business model to be adopted for their operation. And although the topic is much studied it remains difficult to predict how different micro-hub configurations affect the transportation system in terms of transport movements, number of travelled kilometers, etc. This paper describes the use of the Tactical Freight Simulator (TFS) to investigate the impact of micro-hubs on the transportation system in case they would be implemented at a wider scale across the city center, and make a comparison with the current state of last-mile delivery. The case study explores three different design aspects: location, type of vehicles (delivery robots, cargo bike, LEV), and the business model (individual/full collaboration). Results show that the largest reduction of vehicle kilometers can be achieved in the scenarios with full collaboration between the CEPs.@en

As part of a broader vision for emission-free city logistics, the city of Rotterdam plans to introduce a zero-emission zone in combination with consolidation hubs at the outskirt of the city to generate a shift to zero-emission vehicles. For the design of this zero-emission zone many research questions arise that require a systematic analysis of the impacts of the transition scenarios on the freight demand patterns, the use and market shares of new (zero-emission) vehicles, and the impacts of truck flow and emissions. As a case study we implemented heterogenous transition scenarios for each logistic segment into the Tactical Freight Simulator from the project HARMONY and analyses the system wide impacts. This model is multi-agent, empirical and shipment based and simulates long term tactical choices (distribution channel choice, shipment size and vehicle type choice, sourcing) and short-term tactical choices (tour formation, delivery times).
Results shows that the impact of UCCs is not trivial: we can see a small increase in vehicle kilometers travelled (VKT) overall: +0.25% which can be attributed to the rerouting of shipments through the UCCs. Calculations confirm that emissions are reduced dramatically, by 90%, inside the ZEZ. At the city scale this corresponds to a reduction of almost 10%, as most freight related traffic is generated by the port and involves long haul HGV transport that do not enter the city center. At regional level the reduction of impacts is very small. More measures are needed of more ambitious reductions in emissions are to be achieved.
@en

As part of a broader vision for emission-free city logistics, the city of Rotterdam plans to introduce a zero-emission zone in combination with urban consolidation centers (UCCs) on the outskirts of the city to generate a shift to zero-emission vehicles. For the design of this zero-emission zone, several research questions arise that require a systematic analysis of the impacts of the transition scenarios on freight demand patterns, the use and market shares of new (zero-emission) vehicles, and the impacts of truck flow and emissions. As a case study, we implemented heterogenous transition scenarios for each logistic segment into the Tactical Freight Simulator from the HARMONY project and analyzed the systemwide impacts. This model is multiagent, empirical, and shipment based and simulates long-term tactical choices (distribution channel choice, shipment size and vehicle type choice, sourcing) and short-term tactical choices (tour formation, delivery times). Results showed that the impact of UCCs is not trivial: we observed a small increase in vehicle kilometers traveled overall of +0.25%, which can be attributed to the rerouting of shipments through the UCCs. Calculations confirmed that emissions reduced dramatically, by 90%, inside the zero-emission zone. At the city scale this corresponds to a reduction of almost 10%, as most freightrelated traffic is generated by the port and involves long-haul heavy goods vehicle transport that does not enter the city center. At a regional level, impact reduction was very small. More measures are needed if more ambitious reductions in emissions are to be achieved.@en