Urban logistics

Logistics is an omnipresent but often invisible reality in the organization of cities. It provides essential services such as transporting and distributing goods, storing and processing orders, and managing product flows and returns. It enables us to adapt to the growing product needs of urban residents, visitors and businesses.

Urban logistics is a key element in the economic and social life of today's cities. The visible growth in urban spaces of electric utility vehicles, cargo bikes and new logistics real estate formats, coupled with the digital boom in on-demand delivery platforms, bear witness to the transformations underway. Boosted by the growth of e-commerce, the establishment of a circular economy and sophisticated recycling circuits, and changing consumer expectations, urban logistics today faces major challenges, summarized by these questions.

How can we optimize the circulation of goods flows in expanding and increasingly constrained urban spaces? How can urban logistics hubs be integrated into city buildings? What are the social and environmental impacts of product flows? How can we make the most of these impacts when they are positive, and how can we reduce the negative impacts of logistics?

Faced with the problems of congestion, air pollution and noise pollution, cities are having to rethink the organization of urban distribution. Long perceived as a purely technical issue, urban logistics is now a strategic challenge that mobilizes a wide range of players: transport and warehousing service providers, small "last mile" delivery companies, local authorities, elected representatives, town planners and technical services, digital players and even citizens. Urban logistics therefore raise a number of regulatory issues.

At a time when infrastructure and roads are limited resources, how can we reconcile the needs of logistics with those of other users of public space? What place should be given to new forms of delivery, whether micro-mobility, new trades intermediated by algorithms or automation? To what extent can public policies, such as low-emission zones, Zero Net Artificialization (ZAN) or the regulation of increasingly diversified forms of e-commerce, promote a more sustainable model of urban logistics?

Urban logistics is much more than just a question of goods transport: it is a key to understanding the transformations of cities, their economic dynamics and their ecological challenges. We need to explore these issues using quantitative and qualitative analyses, to shed light on current transformations and future choices for industry players and public decision-makers.