The urban freight system can include seaports, airports,[1] manufacturing facilities, and warehouse/distribution centers that are connected by a network of railroads, rail yards, pipelines, highways, and roadways that enable goods to get to their destinations.
Urban freight distribution is essential to supporting international and domestic trade as well as the daily needs of local businesses and consumers.
As urban freight continues to grow, the community and environmental impacts associated with these challenges will need to be addressed and mitigated.
According to the United Nations (UN), 3.9 billion people (54%) of the world's population lives in urban areas, up from 746 million in 1950.
In addition, many companies today use sophisticated computerized logistics systems to manage their supply chains and employ just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing and delivery to minimize inventory and expenses.
While JIT can significantly reduce production costs, it also requires efficient and reliable transportation systems, both within and between urban regions, to be effective.
At the local or neighborhood level, the growth of E-commerce and small package delivery by firms such as FedEx and UPS means that cities and communities should consider the needs of truck circulation and parking/loading zones within residential and commercial areas to facilitate delivery of goods.
Complicating urban freight is the need of the transportation system to also accommodate other roadway users such as automobiles, public transit, bicycles, and pedestrians.
For example, cities are increasingly implementing road diets to enhance and encourage walking, bicycling, livability, and pedestrian safety.
According to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), it is possible for road diets to accommodate freight movement if factors such as current land use, truck size, delivery parking areas, and intersection design are considered in the planning process.
Railroads are complemented by rail yards that allow freight from shippers to be trucked in, transferred onto railcars, and for trains to be assembled.
In the United States the Surface Transportation Assistance Act of 1982 established a National Network of highways that permits "conventional combination" trucks (tractors with one semitrailer up to 48 feet in length or with one 28-foot semitrailer and one 28-foot trailer, and can be up to 102 inches wide) to travel on.
[4] There are a number of challenges resulting from urban freight distribution, including traffic congestion, environmental impacts, and land use conflicts.
The TIP is a listing of proposed transportation projects to be funded through a variety of federal, state and local sources over the next six years in the respective region.
A variety of strategies exist and have been proposed or implemented by governments and private industry that help address the challenges of urban freight distribution.
The range of strategies includes infrastructure, operational, technological, and policy: Consumers enjoy a best quality of life due to economic and societal changes, which imply several modifications in consumption.
Apart from that, the government has developed policies of "security of quality" and the regulation, obligating to add new products that need to be transported in refrigerated vehicles to the existing list.
Societal and legal requirements have obliged suppliers and transport companies to resort more frequently to the refrigerated urban freight distribution.
According to a study (A. Ghirardi, 2003), the exportation and the distribution of fruit and vegetables are affected by the high cost of the environmental impact.
The transit time is a central aspect in export operations, and it has to take into account multiple factors, even imponderable as the quality of the product at destination.