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Research project

Freight Traffic Control 2050: transforming the energy demands of last-mile urban freight through collaborative logistics

Project overview

Working with major parcel carriers in London, this project examined the potential for closer operational collaboration to reduce urban traffic, energy demand and vehicle emissions.  

Initiatives included:

  • carriers dropping off parcels to porters or cycle couriers for the final delivery;
  • an operating model in which one carrier delivers parcels in a given area on behalf of others;
  • green delivery strategies where better coordination of deliveries is planned.

The project’s legacy website

Staff

Lead researchers

Professor Tom Cherrett

Prof of Logistics and Transport Mgnment
Research interests
  • Understanding and improving the distribution of goods and the management of freight vehicles in urban areas, including the supply of goods to hospitals and the use of consolidation centres; 
  • How optimisation techniques can be used to improve system efficiency and in what ways Intelligent Transport Systems (smart tagging of assets and the use of smartphones) can improve operating efficiency; 
  • Approaches to more effectively collect and manage the movement of waste in terms of both household domestic waste collection strategies, Household Waste Recycling Centre (HWRC) management and joint domestic/commercial waste collection strategies. He has worked on a number of research projects in these specific areas: (Department for Transport grant PPAD 9/142/034, ‘Optimising vehicles undertaking waste collections' GR/S79626/01, SUE project 55 ‘Transport and Logistics'; EP/D043328/1, ‘Green Logistics'.
Connect with Tom

Email: T.J.Cherrett@soton.ac.uk

Collaborating research institutes, centres and groups

Research outputs

Enabling the freight traffic controller for collaborative multi-drop urban logistics
Julian Allen, Tolga Bektas, Thomas Cherrett, Adrian Friday, Fraser Mcleod, Maja Piecyk, Marzena Piotrowska & Martin Zaltz Austwick, 2017, Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board
DOI: 10.3141/2609-09
Type: article