Urban consolidation centres (UCCs) have been discussed over many years in the city logistics literature. The amount of successful UCCs in the long run were, and are, very scarce, though. Little is published on the practical issues and experiences of running a UCC and offering UCC-services. In the Netherlands, Binnenstadservice (BSS) has run UCCs and UCC services for over a decade now. This contribution discusses development and the experiences of running a UCC in practice in the form of seven lessons, including the evolvement of the business model and organisation model, as well as the development from offering 'only' the cross-dock of physical flows, to that of the full triple cross-dock, including financial and information flows. Next, UCCs can be the answer to future challenges, such as zero emission city logistics and fit perfectly into the Physical Internet vision.
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A new urban consolidation centre, called Binnenstadservice.nl ('Inner city service'), started business in April 2008 in the Dutch city of Nijmegen. The consolidation centre in Nijmegen differs from initiatives in the past, distinguishing itself from other UCC initiatives by its focus on receivers rather than on carriers. After one year already 98 stores joined Binnenstadservice.nl and this number is still growing. Due to Binnenstadservice.nl, fewer trucks enter the city centre and fewer kilometres are driven. In this paper we provide insights into the local effects of the Binnenstadservice pilot after one year, such as air quality, inconvenience for residents and noise nuisance. The effects on local air quality and noise nuisance are limited, due to the amount of passenger and bus traffic remaining. Plans exist to start Binnenstadservice.nl franchises in other Dutch cities, which could result in making Binnenstadservice.nl a more serious partner for carriers to handle the transport of last mile distribution in cities.
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The objective of this research is to advice the Municipality of The Hague whether, if and under which conditions, the implementation of an Urban Consolidation Centre (UCC) is possible and desirable. To determine factors that caused the success or failure of UCCs in practice, a survey of 6 cases in Europe is conducted. The cases were selected because of the similarity of the service area of the UCC and the city centre of The Hague or because of the uniqueness of the UCC. To determine the possible success for a UCC in The Hague four scenarios are evaluated. Two major difficulties with implementing the UCC are the allocation of the costs and benefits and the willingness to cooperate of the transportation companies. Both consignees and transportation companies can benefit financially from using the UCC. The UCC operator, however, incurs the costs. The municipality should play a role in bringing the costs and benefits together. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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