In the 1990s, a few, mostly north European cities have imagined innovative ways of managing urban freight activities by means of "Urban Distribution Centers" (UDC). By doing so, they have been inventing the provision of a freight transport urban service while trying to consolidate freight deliveries so as to decrease the number of veh-kms necessary. Generally, these UDCs have met with commercial and financial difficulties, even though most of them have demonstrated a (small) environmental (...)

London and Italian city centres : access is now controlled via camera based systems Stockholm wishes to implement London’s system Barcelona has had an active policy in developing intelligent control systems for traffic management.

In some European cities such as Copenhagen, Stockholm and Amsterdam, the « cleanest » delivery trucks are given priorities for the use of roads and delivery areas In Amsterdam : in some protected districts, only Euro 2 trucks can deliver goods In Copenhagen, trucks of less than 8 years have easier access to the historic centre In Stockholm, Göteborg, Malmö and Lund (Sweden), only trucks sold after January 1994 can enter the « environmental zones » of the city The City of Paris is (...)

Many city managers expect an increase in the need for new logistic services from city users. Retailers for example (PREDIT survey March 2002) : 15% need storage services close to their shops 15% need home delivery services to their customers 40% need a more efficient pick up service for packaging refuse and palettes Customers are interested in direct deliveries (at home, at work or in nearby depots), especially with the increasing use of e.commerce. And transport companies need small (...)