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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: [email protected]

Collaborating research institutes, centres and groups

Research outputs

Understanding the transport and CO2 impacts of on-demand meal deliveries: a London case study
Julian Allen, Maja Piecyk, Thomas Cherrett, Muhammad Nabil Juhari, Fraser Mcleod, Marzena Piotrowska, Oliver Bates, Tolga Bektas, Kostas Cheliotis, Adrian Friday & Sarah Wise, 2021, Cities, 108
DOI: 10.1016/j.cities.2020.102973
Type: article
Optimised solutions to the last-mile delivery problem in London using a combination of walking and driving
Antonio Martinez Sykora, Fraser Mcleod, Carlos Lamas Fernandez, Tolga Bektas, Thomas Cherrett & Julian Allen, 2020, Annals of Operations Research, 295(2), 645-693
DOI: 10.1007/s10479-020-03781-8
Type: article
Collaborative parcels logistics via the carrier’s carrier operating model
Fraser Mcleod, Thomas Cherrett, Oliver Bates, Tolga Bektas, Carlos Lamas Fernandez, Julian Allen, Marzena Piotrowska, Maja Piecyk & Andy Oakey, 2020, Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 2674(8), 384-393
DOI: 10.1177/0361198120920636
Type: article
Optimising parcel deliveries in London using dual-mode routing
Thuba Nguyen, Tolga Bektas, Thomas Cherrett, Fraser Mcleod, Julian Allen, Oliver Bates, Marzena Piotrowska, Maja Piecyk, Adrian Friday & Sarah Wise, 2018, Journal of the Operational Research Society, 1-13
DOI: 10.1080/01605682.2018.1480906
Type: article
Using an agent-based model to explore alternative modes of last-mile parcel delivery in urban contexts
Sarah Wise, Kostas Cheliotis, Oliver Bates, Adrian Friday, Julian Allen, Fraser McLeod & Tom Cherrett, 2018
DOI: 10.1145/3284038.3284039
Type: conference