The Potential of Urban Freight Consolidation for the Toronto Central Business District

In large metropolitan centres, multiple courier and small package delivery companies often deliver large amounts of goods to many receivers in a small area, which leads to opportunities to improve efficiency by consolidating these goods at an urban freight consolidation centre. In this study, a consolidation centre is proposed to serve the Toronto Central Business District (CBD) and located on the south east corner of the study area. Demand for goods delivery in the Toronto CBD is simulated and assigned to numerous courier and small package delivery companies. Delivery vehicles are routed through the study area to determine the total distance travelled with and without freight consolidation. Multiple scenarios with varying numbers of participating companies and levels of market share are tested. The results show that savings in total vehicle-kilometres travelled is positive in the majority of scenarios, and the savings increase as the number of participating companies increase, and decrease as the number of deliveries for these participating companies increase.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AT025 Urban Freight Transportation.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Su, Fangzhou
  • Roorda, Matthew J
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 93rd Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC
  • Date: 2014-1-12 to 2014-1-16
• Date: 2014

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References;
• Pagination: 16p
• Monograph Title: TRB 93rd Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Central business districts; Consolidation; Courier service; Delivery service; Freight traffic; Simulation; Trip length; Urban goods movement; Vehicle miles of travel
• Geographic Terms: Toronto (Canada)
• Subject Areas: Freight Transportation; Planning and Forecasting; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01516608
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 14-2104
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 28 2014 1:32PM