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A number of innovative modelling approaches for the analysis of urban freight demand and its impact upon the built environment and transport infrastructure have been proposed over the past several years. These range from new and more robust synthetic models to tour-based formulations based on truck survey data to agent-based microsimulation models. As impressive as these contributions are, most have only included nominal validation efforts, typically limited to comparing the flow estimates to observed traffic counts. In many cases in both research and practice the quality and quantity of these counts are disappointing, and definitive conclusions about model validity and accuracy are difficult to draw from them. Fortunately, increasing the number of counts is far from the only option open to modelers. A far more expansive practice known as process validation can not only overcome the limitations of count data, but admit a far wider spectrum of information, data, and knowledge to the task. This paper illustrates how the process was applied to a tour-based microsimulation model of urban freight, and offers suggestions how it can be more widely applied to freight and logistics models.

There is a great focus on how to eliminate high-risk causes of train accident. There is also research being done on how to strengthen rail tank cars that carry hazardous material. It also talks about improving highway-rail grade crossing safety

In the freight logistics business, supply chains are under strong pressure to provide customized goods and services. Individualized product deliveries, modifications in product specification, late orders and volume changes need to be accommodated within strict delivery time frames. This uncertainty in demand can only be accommodated by allowing for slack capacity and time in trip planning. As this overbooking creates substantial costs, however, firms will attempt to minimize these costs by further optimizing and re-organizing their distribution channels. In this paper we look at the feasibility of one such solution, a hybrid system of contracting freight carrying services. Here, part of the services are provided by various carriers using contracts for a fixed base volume of freight, which results in planned delivery tours. Additional to these volumes, peaks resulting from additional shipments are accommodated by one or more of these carriers within an auction setting based on price and quality of service. The additional freight is won by the carrier that has the most flexible trip planning in terms of capacity, service quality and costs. We test the effectiveness and efficiency of this contracting system by means of a simultaneous, real time simulation of the execution of planned tours, the auctioning process and the rescheduling of tours. The model provides us with new insights on the dynamics of bidding behavior on the side of carriers and shippers.

Urban freight transport has become an essential issue in urban planning. There are many challenges and problems relating to increasing levels of traffic congestion, negative environmental impacts and energy consumption. To cope with these complicated problems, new city logistics schemes are required that are aimed at increasing the efficiency of urban freight transport systems as well as reducing traffic congestion and impacts on the environment. Recent developments in ICT (Information and Communication Technology) and ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems) help tackle these difficult problems. As well, the corporate social responsibility of shippers and freight carriers promotes public-private partnerships in urban freight transport planning. This book, "Recent Advances in City Logistics", is an outcome of the Fourth International Conference on City Logistics (City Logistics IV held in Langkawi in 2005) organized by the Institute for City Logistics. It includes recent developments in the modelling, evaluation and planning of city logistics schemes. Since city logistics measures have already been implemented in several cities, a review of the performance of these innovative schemes is presented. As well, an overview of the data collection for modelling, evaluating and benchmarking city logistics schemes and intermodal freight transport for city logistics is given. Recent developments and applications of ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems) in city logistics are covered. It outlines developments in modelling, evaluation, and planning of city logistics schemes. It reviews performance of existing innovations, and presents an overview of data collection techniques.

This paper reviews the options available to policy makers in their efforts to reduce the negative impacts of urban freight transport. After providing a summary of the categories of negative impacts that can be targeted together with the specific policy initiatives available, it reviews the actions taken by policy makers across in cities within four countries (UK, Japan, the Netherlands and France). In the case of the UK and Japan attention is focused on a single city as an exemplar of some of the developments. In the case of the Netherlands and France the discussion is wider.

In this paper the authors present a review of city logistics modeling efforts reported in the literature for urban freight analysis. The review is based on an extensive search in the academic literature. The authors position the contributions in a framework that takes into account the diversity and complexity found in the present-day city logistics practice. Next, this paper covers the different aspects in the modeling selection process that includes (1) the stakeholders involved in the model (2) the objective behind the modeling (3) the defining criteria i.e., the descriptor for modeling purpose and (4) the tool used for achieving objective with the help of descriptor, i.e. the perceptive. The authors argue that such factors are evidently demonstrating forces behind urban freight transportation and thus are far more determinative for carrying out urban freight modeling. In the discussion and overview the authors take these situational factors as the starting point for categorizing and evaluating the city logistics modeling literature. The review analyzes the trends of city logistics modeling research in terms of its relevance to city logistics problems and attempts to identify missing links in modeling urban freight domain.

Although ridesharing can provide a wealth of benefits, such as reduced travel costs, congestion, and consequently less pollution, there are a number of challenges that have restricted its widespread adoption. In fact, even at a time when improving communication systems provide real-time detailed information that could be used to facilitate ridesharing, the share of work trips that use ridesharing has decreased by almost 10% in the past 30 years. In this paper we present a classification to understand the key aspects of existing ridesharing systems. The objective is to present a framework that can help identify key challenges in the widespread use of ridesharing and thus foster the development of effective formal ridesharing mechanisms that would overcome these challenges and promote massification.

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