Integrated passenger freight transport (IPFT) has gained recent attention as an option to support policymakers’ efforts to negative impacts of passenger transport and logistics and to help them to reach the Carbon Net Zero target. In particular, IPFT has been considered as a solution towards reducing the inefficiencies for the first and last mile (FLM) of both people and goods transport chains. The FLM (i.e., the first and last leg of each trip, between the starting point or final destination and a transport/logistics hub) is in fact among the most costly and time-consuming legs of each journey, especially in relation to its length, and produces relevant inefficiencies and negative externalities. Typically, the FLM faces customers and operators with long waiting and idle time, congestion, delays, and other contingencies. As a consequence, freight FLM operations generate irritation among residents and workers, whereas passengers tend to increase their reliance on private transport modes in an effort to reduce the unpredictability of their trip (Nocera et al., 2021). So far, the debate on IPFT business models and performances regarded limited cases. Researchers highlighted how integration can have different declinations according to the context and to characteristics of mobility systems: IPFT can mean sharing vehicles (e.g., by allocating to freight spare capacity on local busses), infrastructure (e.g., by operating freight trams on urban tram tracks, within regular passenger services), or other assets, like mobility-related public space (e.g., by placing small consolidation facilities or parcel lockers at transit stops). More types of integration can also be promoted (Bruzzone et al., 2021). Long-distance transport traditionally adopts IPFT: airliners, ferries and even buses commonly transport goods together with passengers. In short-haul movements, however, the passenger and freight sectors are normally independent. In 2007, also in response to the registered and foreseeable growth of e-commerce and logistics movements in general, the European Commission (EC) published the Green Paper on Urban Mobility, the first strategic document to explicitly consider IPFT as a concurring solution to contemporary urban FLM challenges. Such hint by the EC started a research stream exploring IPFT’s potential not only in urban operations, but also in rural contexts. In urban environments, the potential of IPFT lies mostly in the reduction in the number of vehicles deployed for logistics operations, and thus driving and idling. Besides environmental benefits, the reduction of the impacts of urban logistics increases its social sustainability. This is due to less conflicts for the use and allocation of the limited urban space, less noise, fewer crashes, and higher use of flexible delivery and collection solutions, such as parcel lockers and pickup-delivery points.
The integration of passenger and freight transport: Trends, gaps and future research challenges
Nocera, Silvio
;
2023-01-01
Abstract
Integrated passenger freight transport (IPFT) has gained recent attention as an option to support policymakers’ efforts to negative impacts of passenger transport and logistics and to help them to reach the Carbon Net Zero target. In particular, IPFT has been considered as a solution towards reducing the inefficiencies for the first and last mile (FLM) of both people and goods transport chains. The FLM (i.e., the first and last leg of each trip, between the starting point or final destination and a transport/logistics hub) is in fact among the most costly and time-consuming legs of each journey, especially in relation to its length, and produces relevant inefficiencies and negative externalities. Typically, the FLM faces customers and operators with long waiting and idle time, congestion, delays, and other contingencies. As a consequence, freight FLM operations generate irritation among residents and workers, whereas passengers tend to increase their reliance on private transport modes in an effort to reduce the unpredictability of their trip (Nocera et al., 2021). So far, the debate on IPFT business models and performances regarded limited cases. Researchers highlighted how integration can have different declinations according to the context and to characteristics of mobility systems: IPFT can mean sharing vehicles (e.g., by allocating to freight spare capacity on local busses), infrastructure (e.g., by operating freight trams on urban tram tracks, within regular passenger services), or other assets, like mobility-related public space (e.g., by placing small consolidation facilities or parcel lockers at transit stops). More types of integration can also be promoted (Bruzzone et al., 2021). Long-distance transport traditionally adopts IPFT: airliners, ferries and even buses commonly transport goods together with passengers. In short-haul movements, however, the passenger and freight sectors are normally independent. In 2007, also in response to the registered and foreseeable growth of e-commerce and logistics movements in general, the European Commission (EC) published the Green Paper on Urban Mobility, the first strategic document to explicitly consider IPFT as a concurring solution to contemporary urban FLM challenges. Such hint by the EC started a research stream exploring IPFT’s potential not only in urban operations, but also in rural contexts. In urban environments, the potential of IPFT lies mostly in the reduction in the number of vehicles deployed for logistics operations, and thus driving and idling. Besides environmental benefits, the reduction of the impacts of urban logistics increases its social sustainability. This is due to less conflicts for the use and allocation of the limited urban space, less noise, fewer crashes, and higher use of flexible delivery and collection solutions, such as parcel lockers and pickup-delivery points.
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