Urban Freight Analytics

Prof. Russell G. Thompson

Faculty of Engineering & IT

PUSTRAL, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, 1st March 2024

 Overview

Hyperconnected City Logistics Concepts

Modelling approaches
- Optimisation
- Agent Based Models (ABM)
- Artificial Intelligence (Machine Learning)
Initiatives
- Parcel Lockers
- Micro Consolidation Centres/PI Hubs with multiple modes
- On-line auctions
- Crowdshipping
Montreuil and Ballot
 Urban Freight Challenges

• Development growth
• Congestion (road & rail)
• Disruption (incl. construction, METRO, extreme weather,
special events, incidents)
• Levels of Service: eCommerce (esp. B2C)
• Decarbonising Logistics

Threatening efficiency, reliability & sustainability

City Logistics is an integrated approach for
urban goods distribution based on the systems
approach. It promotes innovative schemes that
reduce the total cost (including economic,
social and environmental) of goods movement
within cities
Major recommendations

Consolidation key to achieving sustainable urban

goods transport
Technological & conceptual innovation can support
sustainable urban goods transport
OECD, (2003) Delivering the Goods,
Challenges for the 21st Century, Paris.
 Total Emissions

Total emissions from transport is product of:

Emissions produced per vehicle kilometre & Vehicle kilometres travelled

Emissions produced per vehicle kilometre largely depend on vehicle type, fuel
type, engine emissions standards & operating conditions

Vehicle kilometres travelled depend on nature of freight networks: location of

terminals, warehouses & customers, demand for goods & vehicle load factors
Network Efficiency

Improved vehicle loading or the tonnes moved by km driven

(tonne-km / vehicle–km ratio) is a key driver of emissions decrease
in logistical field

This implies reducing the number of empty trips or km driven,

increasing the use of available capacity in vehicles (which involves
optimising three measures of capacity: volume, weight and space
floor) and reducing the overall km driven by vehicles while
delivering the same amount of goods (ITF 2018:26)
 3BL

From: Prof Montreuil’s (GA Tech) presentation and slide set; see  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayMBZzLRERI&t=2s
“A global logistics system based on the interconnection of
logistics networks by a standardized set of collaboration
protocols, modular containers and smart interfaces for
increased efficiency and sustainability.”*

The Physical Internet

The future freight & logistics systems

*From: Ballot, E., Montreuil, B., and Meller, R. D. (2014). The physical internet – the network of logistics networks: La Documentation Française, Paris.
 Physical Internet (PI)

Aims to transform the way physical objects are moved, stored, realized,
supplied & used, pursuing global logistics efficiency & sustainability

Key Elements

Open & Shared Networks

Standardised & modular load carriers
Track & Trace protocols & certificates

New business models for sharing assets

 Physical Internet Themes

Corridors, hubs & synchromodality

City Logistics
Sustainable & safe supply chains
Supply network coordination
Information Technology

PI containers
 PI Features

Compatible load units & coordinated transfers

between modes
From: Right mode for the right load
To: Right modes & load factors for the right loads
Multiple modes: eg. EVs, bikes & trolleys
Network Design: vehicles, loads & transhipment
facilities
Multi-modal routing & scheduling
Integration: vehicles: loading bays/docks, drivers:
walking
 PI Concepts

Involves fully coordinated & integrated logistics system to improve

sustainability
Main physical elements are containers, nodes & movers

Goal: “enable the global sustainability of physical object movement,

handling, storage, realization, supply & usage” (Montreuil, 2010)

Hyperconnected City Logistics (HCL) combines concepts of City

Logistics & PI (Crainic & Montreuil, 2016)
Key PI themes – systems & technologies

Efficient & low emissions assets & energy

Corridors, hubs & synchromodality

Systems & technologies for

interconnected logistics

Global supply network coordination &

collaboration

Urban logistics
The ALICE Roadmap to PI in 2040
Hyperconnected City Logistics

Intermodal Hub Locker Bank Transhipment Hub Consolidation Centre

Case Study
In Melbourne

Customers
(a) Direct Distances (b) Vehicle Routes

TKM and Vehicle Routes from Scoresby warehouse

 Case Study
In Melbourne

Customers
Supplier

Braeside
 Case Study
In Melbourne

Customers
Supplier

Dandenong
 Case Study
In Melbourne

Customers
Supplier
Scoresby
 Case Study
Somerton In Melbourne

Customers
Supplier
 Case Study
In Melbourne

Customers
Laverton

Supplier
 Case Study
Somerton North in Melbourne
Customers
East
Laverton Suppliers

West Scoresby Exchange supplier

Dandenong Exchange route

Braeside

South East Local route

Distance with no
collaboration (km) 2899.5
Distance with
collaboration (km) 640.8
South
Reduction (km) 2258.7
Reduction (%) 77.9

Network Efficiency
with collaboration 1.25
w/o collaboration 0.28
Motivation for a Shared Freight
System
• Ancillary transport within metropolitan areas often has low load
factors (LTL cf. FTL)
• A large proportion of trips are unladen (esp. return legs)
• Congestion is becoming a major issue in Australian cities (esp.
Sydney & Melbourne)
• Concern that trucks cause congestion
• How to design a network for a Shared Urban Freight Systems
(SUFS)?
• Can a SUFS be financially viable?
Network Performance Measures
• Efficiency
• Load Factors
• Work
• Laden
• Number of arrivals & departures at receivers

Russell Thompson
Russell Thompson
A Shared Urban Freight System
(SUFS)
• Adapt Physical Internet (PI) concepts: Open & Shared Networks,
Hyperconnected City Logistics (Crainic & Montreuil, 2016)
• Utilising High Productivity Vehicles (HPVs) (Eg. B-Doubles)
• Hub in each Key Freight Area (KFA)
• Shuttle service between KFAs

Russell Thompson
SUFS Characteristics
• Hubs in KFAs
– Transfer of pallets (in & out of KFAs)
– Transshipment of pallets (non-direct path between KFAs)
• Minimum distance paths determine volume of pallets transshipped
at hubs at specific KFAs when no direct transport between KFAs
• B-Doubles: capacity 23 pallets

Russell Thompson
 Existing freight movement patterns between 2 Freight Areas

Freight movement patterns between 2 Freight Areas using a Transhipment

Hub (TH) with HPVs
 Somerton

Laverton
Bayswater

Kingston Scoresby
Clayton
Braeside
Dandenong

10km

Key Freight Areas in Melbourne

 VKT
Shuttle 21,366
Current
Som

Local Routes 6,172

B Total 27,539 190,267
Lav

($/day) %
Shuttle 108,000 55.3
C
Transfers &
K
B Transhipments 55,836 28.6
Local Routes 31,500 16.1
Dan Total 195,336 100.0

Network efficiency = 17.2 Current 2.5

Average cost = $0.41 per pallet/km

Complete Shared Network for Melbourne Thompson et al. (2020)
5V4S
4V1S
4V4S
4V3S
4V2S
1V4S
3V3S
Stakeholder Criteria
Carriers Load Factor – Number of Vehicles (NVs)
weight (LF(w))
Receivers # Swaps Mean Number of Arrivals
and Departures (MNAD)
Administrator Vehicle Network Efficiency (NE)
s Kilometres of
Travel (VKT)
Stakeholder 5V4S 4V1S 4V4S 4V3S 4V2S 1V4S 3V3S
weighting
Uniform 6 2 5 5 4 1 3
Administrator 6 1 5 4 3 2 3
only
Carrier only 5 2 3 3 4 1 3
Pareto front VKT & LF versus maximum no. transfers

Zhang and Thompson (2021)

Depot

Pickup & delivery for one company

Depot

Depot

Pickup & delivery for two companies

Depot

Depot Depot

Pickup & delivery for 3 companies

 Depot

Depot

Depot Depot

Pickup & delivery for 4 companies

 Depot

Depot

Locker Locker
Bank Bank

Locker Locker
Bank Bank

Depot Depot

Shared pickup & delivery using parcel lockers & zero emission vehicles
Integrated Modelling Framework for Hyperconnected City Logistics
Integrated Platform
for Synchromodality
(Sakti et al, 2023)
Synchromodal transport as a multi-agent complex system (Sakti et al, 2023)
PI-Hub Slot Rescheduling System Framework (Vijay et al, 2023)
Decisions and decision epochs for agents

Thompson, Zhang, Nassir,

Costa, Foliente, Ghaderi (2020)
Agent-based simulation model
Non-transhipment and transhipment-based collaborative routing
Guo et al. (2021)
Auction-based Open Trading (AOT) Framework
AOT operational procedure
 Auction Mechanisms

AS1: first price auction - carrier who submits lowest price selected
as winner

AS2: second price auction - offers incentives to bidders to submit

truthful bids, guarantees jobs allocated to carrier with lowest
operational cost
 Algorithms

Transhipment-based path generation mechanism (TPGM)

- to identify uneconomical paths from a carrier’s real-time
network
Transhipment-based routing mechanism (TRM)
- to support each carrier for vehicle route planning in
transhipment networks
eCommerce Networks
Dynamically optimizing stakeholders behaviour
Guo et al. (2021)
 Location-Allocation Modelling

Number & location of UCCs & MCCs impact total costs &
externalities

Vehicle types & VKT → GHG emissions

Trade-offs: transport & facility costs

Optimum number & location of UCCs & MCCs?

 Spatial Analysis

Geographic Information Systems (GIS): best location of UCCs &

MCCs to meet demand
ArcGIS: Maximise Coverage & Minimise Facilities algorithm
Demand points: centroids of postcodes
Facilities: Statistical Areas (SA3)
Route network: main road network: driving times & distances
Demand weightings: % each postcode's demand
 Scenario Based Service Level Analysis

Network configurations: 15, 20 & 25 minutes

Driving Time
Away from Facilities
Maximise Coverage
Minimise Facilities
Sydney Greater Area in 15-minute delivery configuration
 Number & location of MCCs for Service Times

Delivery Scenario: Optimum Coverage of Uncovered

cut-off (minutes) number of Postcodes Population
MCCs (%) (%)

15 minutes 21 87.11 11.6

20 minutes 12 93.78 3.11

25 minutes 7 99.98 0.87

Driving distances for scenarios
Thompson et al. (2023b)
 Sydney Study Conclusions

COVID-19 led to increase in number freight vehicles & VKT from

home deliveries
Confirms that goods follow people
Tools to transform Last Mile Urban Freight Networks not available
Procedures developed for designing new urban logistics networks
developed to facilitate creation of more efficient & sustainable
urban distribution systems
 Research Directions

Digital Twins (ABM, IoT & AI)

Behavioural Choice Modelling & Network Optimisation
Multi-objective optimization
Integrated strategic planning (Energy, Land Use & Infrastructure)
Micromobility (Parcel lockers & crowdshipping)
Revenue Management
 References

Crainic, T.G. and Montreuil, B. (2016). Physical Internet Enabled Hyperconnected City Logistics, Transportation Research Procedia, 12,
383-398.
Fischer, K., N. Kuhn, H.L. Muller, J.P. Muller and M. Pischel, (1995). Sophisticated and distributed: The transportation domain, From
Reaction to Cognition, 5th Eur. on MAAMAW ’93, Neuchatel, Switzerland, (C. Castelfranchi and J.P. Muller, Ed.), LCNS 957, Springer.
Guo, C., R.G. Thompson, G. Foliente and X.T.R. Kong, (2021). An auction-enabled collaborative routing mechanism for omnichannel on-
demand logistics through transshipment, Transportation Research Part E, 146, 102206.
Guo, C., R.G. Thompson, G. Foliente and X. Peng, (2021). Reinforcement learning enabled dynamic bidding strategy for instant delivery
trading, Computers and Industrial Engineering, 160, 107596.
Montreuil, Benoit; Meller, Russell D. and Ballot, Eric, "Towards a Physical Internet: the Impact on Logistics Facilities and Material
Handling Systems Design and Innovation" (2010). 11th IMHRC Proceedings (Milwaukee, Wisconsin. USA – 2010). 40.
Montreuil, B. (2011). Toward a Physical Internet: meeting the global logistics sustainability grand challenge, Logistics Research, 3, 71-
87.
ITF (2018). Towards Road Freight Decarbonisation – Trends, Measures and Policies, International Transport Forum, Paris.
OECD (2003). Delivering the Goods, 21st Century Challenges to Urban Goods Movement, (2003). Road Transport Research Programme
(RTR), Directorate for Science, Technology, and Industry, Organisation for Economic Development (OECD), Paris, Delivering the
Goods
Pan, S., L. Zhang, R.G. Thompson and H. Ghaderi, (2021). A parcel network flow approach for joint delivery networks using parcel
lockers, International Journal of Production Research, 59(7), 2090–2115.
 References (2)

Peng, X., S. Ji, R.G. Thompson and L. Zhang, (2021). Resilience planning for Physical Internet enabled hyperconnected production-
inventory-distribution systems, Computers and Industrial Engineering, 2021, 158, 107413.
Taniguchi, E. and Thompson, R.G. (2015). City Logistics: Mapping the Future, CRC Press, Taylor & Francis.
Thompson, R.G. and L. Zhang (2018). Optimising courier routes in central city areas, Transportation Research, Part C, 93,1-12.
Thompson, R.G., N. Nassir and P. Frauenfelder, (2020). Shared freight networks in metropolitan areas, Transportation Research
Procedia, 46, 204-211.
Thompson, R.G, A. Galkin, J. Zhang and K. Hassall (2023a). Assessing the Performance of Urban Distribution Networks, Proceedings
9th International Physical Internet Conference, (IPIC2023), 13-15th June, 2023, Athens.
Thompson, R.G., M. Stokoe, S. Mohri, M. Kahalimoghadam, A. Vijay and N. Nassir (2023b). Transforming distribution networks in
metropolitan Sydney in response to COVID-19, Proceedings 12th International Conference on City Logistics, Bordeaux, 19-21st
June 2023, Institute for City Logistics, 241-249.
Taniguchi, E., R.G. Thompson and A.G. Qureshi, (2024). Urban Freight Analytics – Big Data, Models and Artificial Intelligence, CRC
Press, Taylor & Francis, Boca Raton.
Zhang, L. and Thompson, R. G. (2021), Optimising Product Swaps in Urban Retail Networks, 8th International Physical Internet
Conference, IPIC, June 14-16, 2021.
For more information:
—
rgthom@unimelb.edu.au