Urban freight models

The chapter discusses specific challenges and applications for modelling urban distribution. In fact, the analyses of urban freight transport traditionally focus only on restocking flows and usually neglect shopping flows. But the end-consumer choices in relation to type of purchasing undoubtedly impact on freight distribution flows and the end-consumer shopping choices depend on the commercial supply with respect to residence and on end-consumer behaviour, which in turn depends on some characteristics such as age, income, family dimension and lifestyle. Starting from literature, the paper reviews models for the urban freight movements, mapping the behaviour of the retailers and some aspects of the end consumers that generate freight movements in an urban context. Two macro-segments in the last miles of the freight supply chain are identified, with the retail outlet as final decoupling point: the segment upstream, between firms (push movements), and the segment downstream, between consumer and retailer (pull movements).