Delivery Constraints and Access Policies in City Centers: Common Beliefs, Proposal of Assessment, and Sources of Improvement

Abstract

This chapter contributes to the discussion on city access policies via the identification of a set of common beliefs and the relations between vehicle size (related to one of the most popular types of access policy actions) and logistics performance of urban deliveries. First, the author makes an overview of such policies in various European countries, then establishes a non-exhaustive set of common beliefs regarding urban logistics that influence policy making among others. Then, to illustrate the common belief regarding vehicle sizes, the chapter proposes an example of scenario assessment for stating on the usefulness and performance of different vehicles. Results show that there is not a more suitable vehicle type than another, and the use of the different vehicles will depend on the carriers' strategies and choices.