National Academies Press: OpenBook

Guidebook for Understanding Urban Goods Movement (2012)

Chapter: Chapter 3 - Moving Urban Goods: It s All about Supply Chains

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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 3 - Moving Urban Goods: It s All about Supply Chains." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2012. Guidebook for Understanding Urban Goods Movement. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14648.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 3 - Moving Urban Goods: It s All about Supply Chains." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2012. Guidebook for Understanding Urban Goods Movement. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14648.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 3 - Moving Urban Goods: It s All about Supply Chains." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2012. Guidebook for Understanding Urban Goods Movement. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14648.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 3 - Moving Urban Goods: It s All about Supply Chains." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2012. Guidebook for Understanding Urban Goods Movement. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14648.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 3 - Moving Urban Goods: It s All about Supply Chains." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2012. Guidebook for Understanding Urban Goods Movement. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14648.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 3 - Moving Urban Goods: It s All about Supply Chains." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2012. Guidebook for Understanding Urban Goods Movement. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14648.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 3 - Moving Urban Goods: It s All about Supply Chains." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2012. Guidebook for Understanding Urban Goods Movement. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14648.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 3 - Moving Urban Goods: It s All about Supply Chains." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2012. Guidebook for Understanding Urban Goods Movement. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14648.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 3 - Moving Urban Goods: It s All about Supply Chains." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2012. Guidebook for Understanding Urban Goods Movement. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14648.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 3 - Moving Urban Goods: It s All about Supply Chains." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2012. Guidebook for Understanding Urban Goods Movement. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14648.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 3 - Moving Urban Goods: It s All about Supply Chains." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2012. Guidebook for Understanding Urban Goods Movement. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14648.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 3 - Moving Urban Goods: It s All about Supply Chains." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2012. Guidebook for Understanding Urban Goods Movement. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14648.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 3 - Moving Urban Goods: It s All about Supply Chains." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2012. Guidebook for Understanding Urban Goods Movement. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14648.
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Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

16 The character of economic activity and concentration of residential populations largely deter- mine what is moving in an urban area. Much of what is transported to, from, and within metro- politan regions are goods needed to support residents and service businesses. As described earlier, while the U.S. economy continues to employ a significant number of people in manufacturing, the base economy has evolved from manufacturing to services. “Over the past three decades, the United States has lost almost 5 million manufacturing jobs. As a result, the share of the nation’s workforce employed in this sector has dropped sharply, from 20 percent in 1979 to about 11 per- cent today” (Deitz 2006). As more manufacturing has moved offshore, urban regions have increas- ingly become centers of consumption rather than centers of production. Twelve different goods and services supply chains characteristic of many urban environments were examined for this guidebook. Four are presented as case studies in this chapter; the other eight are provided in Appendix A. These 12 case studies cover a wide range of freight movements and illustrate common constraints in the urban environment. Together, they incorporate a spec- trum of multimodal activity, but particular attention is given to the truck mode because the last link in the supply chain often is a truck moving through metropolitan streets. The dozen supply chain illustrations are organized into three channels of goods movement. Distribution channels are the paths used by businesses to bring goods to market. They can inter- sect and overlap, and they embody the dynamic nature of goods movement and supply. The three principal channels for urban goods are defined as follows: • Industrial Production: Comprises manufacturing of heavy and light goods bound for businesses and retail outlets. Product shipments range from chemicals, petroleum, and motor vehicles to packaged goods. Two examples appear in this chapter (on soft drink bev- erages and gasoline). One more for pharmaceuticals and biotechnology can be found in Appendix A. • Retail Distribution: Comprises businesses that distribute consumer products like food, elec- tronics, publications, and housewares through wholesale and store-front facilities. One exam- ple appears in this chapter (on retail apparel). Five more can be found in Appendix A, for food services, urban wholesale food, supermarkets, big box retail, and retail drug stores. • Service Provision: Comprises service-oriented businesses supplied with, or handling, goods for their engagements, such as constructing facilities, caring for health, mounting exhibi- tions, moving household goods, and removing waste. One example appears in this chapter (on aggregate-based construction materials). Two more can be found in Appendix A, for hos- pitals and waste and recyclables. Each illustration has three components: a narrative overview of the steps in the supply chain, a flowchart depicting those steps, and an account of performance issues for the chain in urban environments, which underscores concerns for public planners. Following the illustrations is a C H A P T E R 3 Moving Urban Goods: It’s All about Supply Chains

comparative discussion that begins with a table of comparisons for all 12 chains in terms of their major elements. The table identifies • The supply chain, its channel, and types of goods; • Geographic features, main types of facilities, and modes of transportation; • Patterns in the staging of goods and urban delivery; and • Performance features, including expectations, common risks, and enhancement strategies. After the table, short discussions of each of these elements, their differences and shared traits, and significant factors for planning are presented. Case Illustration 1: Soft Drink Beverages Overview Consumer soft drink beverages are produced in two steps. First is the manufacture of concen- trate by a parent company, which is also responsible for branding and marketing. Second is the manufacture and packaging of the finished product by a bottling subsidiary or company, which is also responsible for distribution. The major concern for urban goods movement is the second step, which is the focus of the supply chain illustrated here. Each geographic region has a collection of company production and distribution facilities working together to provide a broad range of beverage products to various customers, including stores, restaurants, and vending facilities. Production facilities receive raw materials for beverages and packaging entirely from domestic sources, including concentrate, sweetener, water and gasses, and empty bottles and cans. Water is city water piped in locally; some chemicals and liquid sweet- ener may arrive by rail; everything else arrives by truck, mostly in full loads. There are full distri- bution functions at all production facilities, and there is an additional set of dedicated distribu- tion centers (DCs) that exclusively perform warehousing and delivery. The two facility types work together, and production plants are coordinated as to beverage and packaging types, resulting in a significant amount of cross-shipping of product between locations. Thus, a distribution point— whether located in a dedicated facility or a bottling plant—will receive finished product in the form of various beverages packaged in glass, plastic bottles, and cans, from multiple plants as well as from producers of specialty beverages the parent company controls. Customer deliveries then originate either from a production facility or a dedicated DC, are handled entirely by the com- pany truck fleet, and are organized and programmed for optimal fleet use within customer ser- vice requirements. Different truck vehicle types are employed for different delivery sizes and functions, broken broadly into bulk (high-volume stores), side loader (convenience store and restaurant), and fill service (vending machine) retail channels. Each truck runs a stem route, typ- ically with multiple stops over the course of a trip, optimized around the customer delivery sched- uling needs. The stem runs to the far end of the route, and then works its way back to the plants or DC with deliveries along the way, and the truck finishes empty. See Exhibit 3-1. Performance Time schedules are set by routing software that optimizes the delivery sequence within cus- tomer time windows, in order to minimize delivery costs. Most customers prefer day deliveries, but windows can be flexible as long as delivery occurs by close of business. Nevertheless, some customers specify early morning delivery, bars and restaurants may prefer afternoon, and ware- house stores demand specific delivery appointments. Schedules are sensitive because delivery windows have specific lengths and deliveries are set in sequence, which can cause delays to cas- cade from one stop to the next. The goal of the route design is to achieve full use of each vehicle Moving Urban Goods: It’s All about Supply Chains 17

while meeting all customer delivery times. Consequently, trucks are sent out completely full only if there is time to deliver the entire load, and a significant percentage of load capacity is not used because of this constraint. (This gives rise to an interest in night deliveries, which allow more efficient use of scheduling time.) To maintain schedule, drivers in difficult downtown locations will judge whether to (1) rely on close-by legal parking spots, (2) hand cart the delivery to the door from a legal spot farther away, or (3) take the risk of a parking fine with an illegal parking spot. (The company pays large amounts annually in parking fines and regards them as a cost of doing business.) When missed windows occur—most often caused by traffic or parking lot congestion—the driver will attempt to arrange redelivery later in the day’s route. If the product must be brought back to the distri- bution facility and the delivery re-set, the company’s added operating cost for doing so runs approximately $50 per order. Case Illustration 2: Gasoline and Petroleum Fuels Supply Chain Overview Petroleum fuels are derived from crude oil, which originates in a variety of worldwide loca- tions and arrives at U.S. refineries principally by ship, and also by crude oil pipelines from domestic and offshore oil wells. The majority of U.S. refining capacity is concentrated on the Gulf Coast between New Orleans and Houston, and most gasoline is produced and distributed from there, although there are important but smaller clusters of refining facilities in the North- 18 Guidebook for Understanding Urban Goods Movement Exhibit 3-1. Soft drink beverages flowchart. Truck Direct Rail Pipeline

east, Midwest, and on the West Coast. Gasoline and other petroleum fuels are carried from refiner- ies to consumption regions mainly by product pipeline or by water in barges or ships; rail is used to land-locked regions with low population densities, and truck occasionally for very short dis- tances. Products are transferred into large holding tanks at storage terminals (commonly called tank farms), which are located at pipeline termini or at waterside; terminals belonging to several producers normally are clustered around a single pipeline or harbor. Ethanol and fuel additives also come into tank farms for blending, the former chiefly by rail from agricultural regions, and the latter by truck from a few national producers. The final transfer of blended product from tank farm to convenience store or gas station is by motor carrier delivering a full truckload in a single stop—a transport stage that is controlled by a highly automated monitoring process to ensure sufficient inventory at the point of consumption. See Exhibit 3-2. Performance The petroleum supply chain is not particularly sensitive to time performance until the final stage of delivery to retail outlets. At that point, a significant degree of precision is needed for efficient replenishment, and the process is largely automated based on usage rates and future forecasts. Most gas station storage tanks have metering, which feeds to a central location and is monitored. The goal is to predict when the tanks at a station can take a full truckload of gasoline, with product orders registering automatically. Producers strive to minimize two undesirable results in delivery performance: (1) retains (i.e., a truck that expected to deliver a full load instead returns to the tank farm with product still aboard) and (2) run-outs (i.e., the station ran out of gasoline). The consequence is that the supply chain at the final stage of urban retail delivery is exceptionally just-in-time, because it attempts to optimize both objectives. Apart from delivery efficiency, vehicular accident, injuries, environmental risk from over- fill (spillage) or leaks, and passenger vehicle access to the loading point area all are common Moving Urban Goods: It’s All about Supply Chains 19 Exhibit 3-2. Petroleum fuels flowchart. Truck Ship/Barge Direct Rail Pipeline

safety-related risks to performance. For these reasons, proper design of the physical layout of gas stations is crucial. The ideal station configuration places storage tank delivery access as far away as possible from the retail pumps, and facility ingress is separated from egress, so a deliv- ery truck does not need to back up while surrounded by automobiles or other traffic. Older stations in urban markets may lack these features. Access restrictions typically concern noise and time of day. Although stores usually accept delivery 24 hours a day, there can be neigh- borhood delivery limitations at night or during rush hour. Greater flexibility for delivery win- dows results in better service, because the system already functions under tight constraints. Case Illustration 3: Apparel Retail Supply Chain Overview Within the U.S. clothing store industry, the very large apparel companies, each encompassing some specialty brands, account for a dominant share of the total market. Each individual specialty brand can have a national chain of retail locations, sometimes numbering in the hundreds. The products of each specialty brand also often are available for catalog and online purchase. Much of the apparel sold by these companies is manufactured overseas and transported to the United States by either ocean container or aircraft. After arrival in the United States, shipments are transferred to a container freight station, cleared through customs, and sorted into truck deliveries bound for regional DCs. From these DCs, product is transported by outbound truck either to specific retail locations or, in the case of online or catalog orders, directly to the consumer. Delivery is a multi-stop trip to stores, or to a mixture of commercial and residential locations. See Exhibit 3-3. 20 Guidebook for Understanding Urban Goods Movement 18 Wheeler Small Truck Aircraft Intermodal Rail Exhibit 3-3. Apparel flowchart.

Performance The primary issues for the company’s urban logistics include traffic congestion (both general and related to construction), timely access to loading docks, and maneuvering space. Megastores are located in major metropolitan areas and deliveries are constrained by limited delivery times. Often, deliveries must be made within less than an hour’s time at a specific time of day. Because of prolonged morning and evening rush hours and schedule constraints, the company is often forced to operate simultaneous deliveries to megastores, which increases logistics costs. Docks at delivery locations are rarely sufficient in number, and maneuvering areas are nearly always confined. These space limitations exist at both shopping malls in suburban areas and megastores in the central business district. Older shopping malls often have a common loading dock area shared by many stores, which complicates and constrains deliveries. The most opti- mal loading facilities are newer malls that provide load doors or docks for each store or for a small group of stores. Although late night or early morning deliveries may be an option, trailers and cargo trucks are seldom left loaded and unattended in store loading docks overnight because of security and product theft issues. Case Illustration 4: Aggregate-Based Construction Materials Supply Chain Overview The aggregate-based construction materials supply chain includes multiple inputs, sources, consolidation points, and transportation modes. The interrelated processes of cement and ready- mix concrete production and transport illustrate this complexity. Cement production occurs in a limited number of locations in the United States and must be sited close to a limestone source. The powdered cement product is typically transported to cement terminals by rail or barge and then brought onward to ready-mix concrete plants by truck. At the same time, aggregate materials are transported to ready-mix concrete plants as another production input. The cement and the aggregates are combined to produce ready-mix concrete: a highly perishable substance. Once a batch is mixed at the production plant, mixer truck drivers have only a few hours to get ready-mix concrete to the construction site and poured in place. See Exhibit 3-4. Performance Supply chain performance is highly dependent on facility siting. Cement production plants are always situated near a limestone supply that ideally is near barge or rail access, for ease of bulk transport. It is also ideal for ready-mix concrete production sites to be located close to aggregate deposits, also to reduce bulk transport costs. Simultaneously, the time-sensitive nature of the final product makes it necessary for ready-mix production sites to be close to destination construction sites. Typically, transport of ready-mix should take no longer than 1 hour for road construction and no longer than 2 hours for residential and commercial construction. This requires that ready- mix concrete plants (which are relatively mobile) be established near points of use and that each facility has a very precise approach to final production and delivery scheduling. Local regulations have become high barriers to efficient production and transport of aggre- gate products. It is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain conditional use permits for the many processes involved. Siting potential facility locations typically requires preventive company actions including street sweeping, dust control measures, backup alarms, pollution controls, and covered stockpiles. As a result, construction of new facilities in optimal locations is both time- consuming and expensive. For instance, because of the increasing complexity of environmental Moving Urban Goods: It’s All about Supply Chains 21

regulations, one cement plant required 8 years to move through the permitting process, and the delay imposed great costs. Given that delivery to the construction site of highly perishable concrete is so time-sensitive, supply chain performance is also significantly degraded by local and regional freight bottlenecks, maintenance activities, and general congestion of freight- dependent roadways. Supply Chain Comparisons The supply chains in the 12 case studies (including four in this chapter and the eight in Appen- dix A) represent a cross-section of urban supply chain models. Exhibit 3-5 provides an overview of the key elements of each chain. Across this diverse set of businesses, the chains display contrasts but even more similarities. This section highlights the major points of comparison among them, in the categories of types of goods, facilities and geography, modes, staging and urban delivery, and performance. Types of Goods Manufacturing processes are transformative, turning raw materials or components into dif- ferent, finished products. Distribution functions mainly deliver the same products they take in. Many times they will be packaged or unitized or labeled, but the commodity handled is not sub- stantially changed. For supply chains involving a particular manufacturing process, there may be multiple product types, but all have a comparable form. Supply chains illustrating this include soft drink beverages and pharmaceuticals and biotechnology. Similarly, the supply chains for bulk products, including petroleum, aggregate-based construction materials, and waste, all involve 22 Guidebook for Understanding Urban Goods Movement For-Hire Truck Direct RailBarge Exhibit 3-4. Construction aggregates flowchart.

Exhibit 3-5. Supply chain comparison. (continued on next page)

Exhibit 3-5. (Continued).

the handling of very large quantities of relatively homogenous materials. In contrast, distribu- tion and retail supply chains typically involve a much broader range of products, often number- ing in the hundreds of stock keeping units (SKUs), but most products within a specific supply chain will fit into common or related categories. For example, the food service distribution sup- ply chain includes an extensive list of items, but most can be categorized as either food or gen- eral restaurant supplies. Facilities and Geography The principal facility types are production and distribution operations, although either type may have some features of the other. There are several kinds of production plants, ranging from national petroleum refineries to regional bottling plants to local makers of ready-mix concrete. The regional and local facilities especially share a distribution function for their surrounding territory; in soft drink beverage manufacturing, for example, a significant amount of cross- hauling between facilities is fundamental to the production and distribution process. DCs can be national, but a regional orientation was more common, in part because companies with sub- stantial urban delivery operations are receiving product from the DCs of others upstream in the supply chain. In some cases, regional facilities feed into local facilities within the same company, before final distribution to customers. For transfer of products between very distinct supply chain stages, specialized transition facilities such as container freight stations or tank farms can become necessary. Most supply chains serve urban markets from either local or regional facilities. This reflects the design of the chain and its requirement for reliable and productive service to end-customers. Outbound delivery routes typically are designed to keep truck trips within several hundred miles of these distribution hubs, meaning that most delivery roundtrips can be completed within a day or a single driving shift. In many cases, the regional DC of a supplier is feeding into the regional DC of a distributor; this is a common pattern that exists in some form across a wide range of interrelated industries. For bulk products, such as petroleum and aggregate-based construction materials, a variation on this basic pattern relies on very local distribution facilities to keep final delivery leg distances particularly short (typically no more than 30 to 40 miles). Modes A rich mix of modes is used, spanning pipelines, ocean shipping and barge transport, air, car- load and intermodal rail, as well as a great variety of truck types in a wide selection of fleet con- figurations, for handling full loads, less-than-loads, and packages. Virtually all supply chains become dependent on trucks at some point, particularly as they reach the final delivery miles. Trucking is also the chief mode in the regional transport stage. This includes the commonplace movement of inbound goods to retail DCs from vendor regional DCs. The design features of the supply chain are reflected in this, because both the vendor and the distributor are placing goods within an overnight drive or a same-day turn for a truck, for the sake of ensuring service. Most urban delivery is handled by truck and frequently by private or dedicated fleets. The type of equipment employed varies by product, volume, and delivery types. A 53-foot tractor-trailer may be the favored option for a customer receiving large quantities of goods, and the trailer may even be dropped on site; or a 28-foot pup trailer may be used because it can be doubled into a set for linehaul service and then split up for urban delivery; or side-loaders and step vans may be used because they are faster for offloading case product or for streetside parking. Trucking equip- ment is specified to be efficient for the services it is expected to perform. Individual companies attempt to standardize their fleets for economies in purchasing and maintenance, but will use multiple types if their business and operating environment require it. 26 Guidebook for Understanding Urban Goods Movement

Staging and Urban Delivery Effectively, all goods are handled through at least a couple of distinct stages, which may incor- porate production, consolidation, deconsolidation, change of direction or mode, and storage. Sometimes, multiple functions occur within a single location, as in the case of production facil- ities that also serve as regional DCs. At other times, a staging point along the supply chain exists strictly for cross-dock movement, and involves no processing or storage of goods. Overall, stag- ing patterns are organized to provide competitive service levels to the receiving markets, mean- ing that there is a strong service performance feature embedded in all supply chain designs. Typically, a supply chain is more spatially concentrated at its production end and becomes more fragmented as it moves toward the delivery stage. As a result, modes that support consol- idation or high-volume movement, such as barge and rail, are most useful during early phases and become significantly less useful in the later, more dispersed phases of the supply sequence. For many supply chains, a clear modal shift can be traced through the stages of distribution. Delivery Trips For the delivery stage, there are at least three types of standard patterns exhibited by the case studies. In one type, a truck will depart the DC or serving facility with a full load for one specific destination and will return to the facility empty. In another, a truck will set off in a long stem and pocket pattern, making multiple deliveries in a zone at some remove from the DC, and then return an equivalent distance back to the DC empty. In the third pattern, a truck will set out on a long, loaded stem pattern and make deliveries as it works back to the DC. In this case, the final return miles empty will be shorter, but the pattern can only be used if customer dispersion and delivery windows support it. A variant pattern is one that unloads a full truck over a few stan- dard stops, which can be scheduled in efficient sequence. The loaded stem in delivery has some particularly interesting characteristics for the planner. This beginning phase of the trip is typically longer than the distances between subsequent stops, because the truck is traveling crosstown to its first delivery. In this crucial segment, the truck is going the longest continuous distance through the metropolitan area and simultaneously initiat- ing adherence to a set schedule, making this the section of the trip with the highest risk to service. The on-time performance for all subsequent stops depends on how well the first stop is executed. Truck fleets commonly depart DCs very early in the morning to protect this first delivery. Performance A strong commonality across supply chains is the incorporation of service sensitivity in their design. Most supply chains share the ultimate goal of fulfilling end-user needs, with as little inventory investment by all parties as possible. Along any particular chain, each stage has its own set of service expectations. For instance, a DC may require that inbound goods are delivered from vendors within a specific “must-arrive-by date,” as illustrated by the big-box retailer example. Customer destinations, such as retailers served by the grocery wholesale functions, often desig- nate a constrained window of time for deliveries. Even in waste removal, the supply chain is sen- sitive to the dual service requirements of timely and thorough collection of all waste materials within a given geographic area. Many companies maintain statistics on how inbound and out- bound stages adhere to performance requirements and will tailor supply chain strategies accord- ingly. Although specific requirements vary along the length of each supply chain, there is rarely a stage that is considerably less sensitive to overall supply chain service needs. This is indicative of a goods movement system that seeks to minimize excess inventory at all stages of the chain. Although service sensitivity is a constant, there is more built-in flexibility for longer than shorter haul transport stages—and distances tend to shrink as goods near final delivery. If a disruption Moving Urban Goods: It’s All about Supply Chains 27

arises during a longer haul stage, such as the transport of aggregates to a ready-mix concrete plant, it is relatively easy to make up for lost time and still deliver the materials when needed. However, during a shorter haul stage, such as the delivery of highly perishable ready-mix concrete to a con- struction site, there is less buffer time for handling hurdles like traffic jams. As a result, it is much more challenging to meet stage service requirements during shorter hauls, especially in the dense metropolitan areas that are frequently the environment for final delivery. Not surprisingly, congestion is one of the most common obstacles to supply chain perfor- mance. Given that service deadlines are often geared around customer time-of-day preferences— such as delivery at the start of the work day, and pick-up at the end—shipment windows tend to fall during peak travel times when the transportation network is most congested. Even though a truck on a multi-stop route may plan an early crosstown stem leg before peak hours, it will start encountering traffic delays as the morning wears on. If the traffic is particularly slow, a truck may fall so far behind schedule that it runs the risk of returning undelivered items to the DC. This is a costly outcome that drivers make every effort to avoid by rescheduling same-day delivery— and local drivers nurture relationships with their customers to facilitate this option. In addition to compromising service performance, congestion affects supply chain produc- tivity. Not only are trucks at greater risk of not making their deliveries on time, they are also at risk of supplying fewer customers. Within the constraints of customer receiving requirements, fleet schedules are designed to complete as many deliveries in a workday as possible, and this is built into performance metrics and driver incentives. Maintaining high per-truck productivity should also be of particular interest to public planners trying to reduce overall numbers of truck trips. When a single truck can dependably serve a multi-stop territory, companies are less likely to assign multiple trucks for performance assurance on the route. A further challenge to both supply chain service and productivity performance is urban facil- ity access. Without adequate and reliable parking facilities and unloading docks, metropolitan delivery trips are significantly less efficient. Urban deliveries tend to require live unloading, which necessitates time and space to be completed effectively. Facility access can even be a challenge for supply chains that control their own retail networks if stores are in dense urban districts. Access issues arise as well from efforts to work large delivery trucks, such as gasoline tankers, into tight destinations, such as older filling stations, particularly when competing for space with passenger vehicles. The difficulties with urban facility access can be partially mitigated by nighttime or dawn delivery, which many supply chains employ to some degree and some trend toward strongly. Transport regulations, especially those that are inconsistent across jurisdictions, are potential barriers to optimal urban delivery performance; weight limits are a typical example. Finally, sus- tainability is an increasingly important supply chain performance goal. 28 Guidebook for Understanding Urban Goods Movement

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TRB’s National Cooperative Freight Research Program (NCFRP) Report 14: Guidebook for Understanding Urban Goods Movement is designed to help facilitate decisions that accommodate and expedite urban goods movement while minimizing the environmental impact and community consequences of goods movement.

The guidebook and cases studies are designed to help decision makers better understand the potential impacts of their urban goods movement decisions on transportation infrastructure and operations; land use and site design; and laws, regulations, and ordinances applicable to urban areas.

The guidebook includes case studies that explore how urban supply chains connect to the urban economy, infrastructure, and land use patterns; their impacts on land use codes and regulations governing metropolitan goods movement of private-sector freight providers; and planning strategies for potentially improving mobility and access for goods movements in urban areas.

The print version of the NCFRP Report 14 includes a CD-ROM that includes a report and appendices on the process that developed the guidebook, and two PowerPoint presentations with speaker notes that transportation planners may use to help explain how local decision makers might enhance mobility and access for goods movement in their area.

The CD-ROM is also available for download as an ISO image. Links to the ISO image and instructions for burning a CD-ROM from an ISO image are provided below.

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An article on NCFRP Report 14 was published in the January-February 2013 version of the TR News.

CD-ROM Disclaimer - This software is offered as is, without warranty or promise of support of any kind either expressed or implied. Under no circumstance will the National Academy of Sciences or the Transportation Research Board (collectively “TRB”) be liable for any loss or damage caused by the installation or operation of this product. TRB makes no representation or warranty of any kind, expressed or implied, in fact or in law, including without limitation, the warranty of merchantability or the warranty of fitness for a particular purpose, and shall not in any case be liable for any consequential or special damages.

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