The impacts of automated urban delivery and consolidation

Bin Hu, Wolfgang Ponweiser, Apostolos Ziakopoulos, Julia Roussou, Amna Chaudhry, Maria Oikonomou, Sarah Gebhard, Rins de Zwart, Charles Goldenbeldd Govert Schermers, Wendy Weijermars, Knut Veisten, Knut J.L. Hartveit, Mark Brackstone, Pete Thomas, George Yannis, The impacts of automated urban delivery and consolidation, Transportation Research Procedia, Volume 72, 2023, Pages 2542-2549, ISSN 2352-1465, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trpro.2023.11.766. ; Automation in urban freight transport is an important milestone for city logistics, but it is challenging due to the complex traffic situations. While the parcel volume is soaring due to the popularity of e-commerce – and especially accelerated by COVID, cities are thinking about the future delivery system. Automation and consolidation are expected to bring disruptive changes to the system we know today. The aim of the present paper is to provide an insight in the impact assessment method used and the results related to parcel delivery in Vienna. By applying analytical methods, we show which impacts at what magnitude we may expect from the changes brought by automation in freight transport. We consider the direct impacts consisting of fleet size, freight mileage and fleet operation costs, as well as the wider impacts consisting of parking space, public health and road safety. ; The impacts of automated urban delivery and consolidation ; publishedVersion