Take a moment to look around the room you are in right now. Whether it’s your home, place of work or favorite cafe, every item that you see was brought here from places around the corner or the globe by the goods movement system.
![Goods Movement Honeycomb](https://img.imageboss.me/general/width/300/quality:80/work/Reports/Archive-Featured-Reports/Goods-Movement/GoodsMovement-Honeycomb.jpg?bossToken=5da0fd2cf4a939d3842bf4600484de04eb9a0b407b3529106384c36c24a8c05d 171w, https://img.imageboss.me/general/width/600/quality:80/work/Reports/Archive-Featured-Reports/Goods-Movement/GoodsMovement-Honeycomb.jpg?bossToken=1492735e809ef1ce10bbcb26ea3b340ae62ab042d562ea5e813b965a58b3ce11 343w, https://img.imageboss.me/general/width/900/quality:80/work/Reports/Archive-Featured-Reports/Goods-Movement/GoodsMovement-Honeycomb.jpg?bossToken=ba0416e41e807aca6b2fc3e50d037ea55007a4fab6fd112b7f2af9fb0c151705 514w, https://img.imageboss.me/general/width/1200/quality:80/work/Reports/Archive-Featured-Reports/Goods-Movement/GoodsMovement-Honeycomb.jpg?bossToken=ce97e5c49839a05c322b3940e45f4b4c9bdbe35f832a628197a26c06320771aa 686w, https://img.imageboss.me/general/width/1500/quality:80/work/Reports/Archive-Featured-Reports/Goods-Movement/GoodsMovement-Honeycomb.jpg?bossToken=c05ac4303bc4c469f3cfee682c5810f4f6d319b11aedcb86b050c59be8236c25 857w, https://img.imageboss.me/general/width/1800/quality:80/work/Reports/Archive-Featured-Reports/Goods-Movement/GoodsMovement-Honeycomb.jpg?bossToken=281bfbfd48e3b0a25f4205aa51fc5ccb59d9e661ebb80c8c88a60724be11c6d8 1029w, https://img.imageboss.me/general/width/2100/quality:80/work/Reports/Archive-Featured-Reports/Goods-Movement/GoodsMovement-Honeycomb.jpg?bossToken=60e4f8f723eda773ae8b37749aad5f872ecf2a5ad6ccb72d0e3885dcc0c27d38 1200w, https://img.imageboss.me/general/width/2400/quality:80/work/Reports/Archive-Featured-Reports/Goods-Movement/GoodsMovement-Honeycomb.jpg?bossToken=5d6267164fd8195668d187975e0eb1d5d0f197e7ddd9a256dbeb11841f8bf6a4 1371w, https://img.imageboss.me/general/width/2700/quality:80/work/Reports/Archive-Featured-Reports/Goods-Movement/GoodsMovement-Honeycomb.jpg?bossToken=e1db807d74d16f3fb970a30462da89130b114171c4a0508e6a7588a7ddc657b0 1543w)
Goods are the meats and vegetables you cook for dinner, the clothes you buy in the store and order online, the pens you write with at your desk, the walls holding up the buildings around you, and the trash you generate. We live in a world built on trade where the goods movement sector connects people to these goods and goods to people on many levels, from local to global. Just as you must travel to get to your job or to visit a friend, all of the goods that you consume and support your daily life must also travel to their final destination.
- The efficient delivery of products is critical to the satisfaction of the customer, the success of individual businesses and the urban and global economies. Yet in order to reach the final destination, goods distributors face significant challenges across urban and metropolitan environments: congested city streets, regional highways and rail networks, and bottlenecked ports and airports. The distribution of goods also contributes to this congestion, increasing emissions and noise on the streets.
- Impeding the movement of goods impedes the economy. In the extreme situation where the supply chain comes to a standstill in a large metropolitan area, effects will be felt by locals and ripple out across the world. If action is not taken to remedy the situation fast, residents will lose access to basic life necessities. Hospitals would exhaust their critical supplies in just 24 hours, service stations would run out of fuel in 48 hours, and grocery stores would be out of perishables in 72 hours.
- Goods movement must be flexible and able to accommodate rapidly changing environments. Today there is an immense amount of pressure placed upon the goods movement industry. Online sales are growing three times faster than traditional retail sales and companies have shifted to just-in-time deliveries – receiving goods only as they are needed to reduce inventory cost – requiring more frequent and customized deliveries. Modern societal and technological trends, particularly the rise of consumerism and the service sector, impose even more demand on urban distribution systems that must operate within already dense, congested and strained networks.
- The goods movement industry is the backbone of society; it cannot and will not disappear. No matter what, people need to receive goods to sustain their daily lifestyles. For decades, goods movement has existed in an ecosystem that has typically been openly hostile to it or given it a lower priority. Until recently urban freight had been overlooked by urban planners and the government.3 However, even though goods distribution trips are a part of an industry and system that are invisible to most people, goods movement is absolutely critical to people’s lives and must be addressed as a key component of the livability and efficiency of our cities today.
In 2010, for the first time ever, 50% of the world population was living in a metropolitan area; in the United States, Canada and Europe this figure was over 80%. More than 80% of global GDP is generated in cities, urban areas are becoming more attractive and the number of urban residents is expected to increase by 1.5 times by 2045. With more people come higher demand and the need for more deliveries of goods to these areas. It is estimated that close to almost all of global trade originates, traverses through or is destined for a metropolitan area.
As a result, metropolitan areas are the main hubs in the global goods distribution network. They are home to intermodal terminals such as ports, airports and rail yards that serve as the interfaces between the global supply chain and the more local, national and urban supply chain. Goods are both produced and consumed in these places, with some metropolitan areas primarily serving as global manufacturing or trade centers while others mostly serve as consumers of finished products.
The metropolitan goods movement system operates on two scales: 1) goods travelling into and out of a metropolitan area, and 2) goods travelling within a metropolitan area. Once goods arrive at a major gateway – a port, air or rail terminal – they are typically transported to logistics facilities within a metropolitan area – such as warehouses and distribution centers – for processing and then are routed to their final destinations. These destinations may be local (within the same metro area), or regional (to other metro areas). At the same time, metro areas are producers of goods that are exported to other cities and regions. While the entire network is interdependent and must function cohesively, particular attention must be paid to the goods transported and delivered to the growing number of consumers located in complex urban environments.
Livability and Streets
Livability
The Volvo Research and Educational Foundations (VREF) Initiative on Urban Freight is playing a key role in filling a critical knowledge gap in urban goods movement and leading efforts to raise the profile of goods movement in planning and policy arenas. Regional Plan Association, in close cooperation with VREF and three VREF supported research centers – MetroFreight, Sustainable Urban Freight Systems (SUFS), and the Urban Freight Platform (UFP) – has synthesized the key challenges and strategies of urban goods movement identified by the VREF initiative. The research and input from each of the research centers is incorporated throughout, with no division of authorship across sections, highlighting the coherent network supported by VREF.
The initiative originally began at a symposium held in 2012, Urban Freight for Livable Cities, and has since developed into a much broader effort. Following the symposium, VREF launched two international Centers of Excellence (CoEs) in 2013, MetroFreight led by the METRANS Transportation Center in Los Angeles, California and Sustainable Urban Freight Systems (SUFS) led by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Albany, New York, as well as an additional research platform in 2014, the Urban Freight Platform (UFP) in Gothenburg, Sweden.
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Funded By
- Volvo Research and Educational Foundations
Produced With
- Volvo Research and Educational Foundations
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