Urban Distribution: The Impacts of Different Governmental Time-Window Schemes

Local authorities increasingly use time-access regulations to improve social sustainability issues, such as the attractiveness of a city centre, the shopping climate, or to reduce the nuisance caused by urban freight transport. However, these time-windows increase delivery costs and the environmental burden. This paper evaluates five different time-window schemes on their social, environmental, and economic impacts. The first scheme examines the current time-window policy scheme. In the second scheme time-windows are harmonized between different cities. The third scheme moves all deliveries to the night. The fourth and fifth schemes evaluate the consequences of the proposal by the Dutch committee for urban distribution (committee Sakkers). The fourth scheme includes noise-legislation for delivering during the night, the fifth does not. This research includes interviews with several Dutch policy-making officials and is further based on a multiple-case study of fourteen large retail chains in different sectors and with different formulas. The results show that the current time-window scheme performs worst. The best time-window scheme would be a combination of the proposal of the committee Sakkers and the harmonization scenario.