Undertaken By: IIT Madras, Recent Publication: 2020
The freight industry has a very complex and disintegrated system with urban freight traffic increasing day by day to meet the growing needs of an increasingly urban population. Urban freight transport is the movement of freight vehicles into, out of and within an urban area. The urban freight system includes manufacturing facilities, seaports, airports, distribution centres, wholesale and retail establishments, restaurants, and end customers connected by a network of railroads, roadways, waterways and pipelines for the movement of goods.
While freight represents less than 10 percent of the traffic volume in cities, it contributes up to 40 percent of the total CO2 and Particulate Matter (PM) emissions. The key reasons for such disproportionately large emissions are twofold: 1) poor vehicle emissions standards and 2) inefficient planning and operational strategies for freight movement leading to greater vehicle-kilometres and causing larger emissions. The limited capacity of city governments on this subject has further led to adhoc decision making regarding regulatory and policy frameworks.
Transport planning and development is incomplete unless due consideration is given to urban freight transport. This initiative sets out to develop an implementation strategy for the various planning and technology solutions related to urban freight.