Running an urban consolidation centre

Binnenstadservice 10 years back and forth

Journal article (2020)

Authors

Hans Quak TNO, NHTV Breda University of Applied Sciences
Ron van Duin Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences, Transport and Logistics - TPM
Birgit Hendriks Binnenstadservice
Research Group
Transport and Logistics (TPM) (TU Delft)
Copyright: © 2020 Hans Quak, Ron van Duin, Birgit Hendriks
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trpro.2020.03.162
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Published Date

2020

Language

English

Faculty

Technology, Policy and Management

Department

Engineering, Systems and Services

Research Group

Transport and Logistics

Abstract

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.