The Logistics City Chair is dedicated to research on urban and metropolitan logistics real estate, as well as trends and new consumer practices and their impact on urban logistics and logistics facilities. Here is an overview of our activities over the last few months and access to the main results.
New team of graduate research interns
As in the two previous years, the Chair now includes a team of grad research students to work with us from Spring until the end of Summer 2022 on urban logistics:
- Emilie Tilak (Sorbonne University) on “Regional spatial planning and local regulation of logistics”
- Joséphine Mariquivoi (University of Lyon III) on “Analysis of stakeholders’ strategies in B2C food logistics”
- Coriolan Grout (University of Paris I) on “The Freight Landscape concept: how can freight contribute to characterizing the socio-economic structure of a city”
- Arthur Artaud (University Paris VII) on “Methodological approach to mapping warehouses from Open Street Map data”
Urban logistics in New York City
Sandrine Wenglenski, Assistant Professor at University Gustave Eiffel, recently finalized her movie “Daily life of delivery workers in New York”. The film explores the concrete modalities of delivery work, the ordinary tasks and the practical organization of this daily performance, through four portraits of today’s delivery workers in the dense New York City area. Here is the teaser and the complete documentary (password: Delivery).
Laetitia Dablanc and Matthieu Schorung have recently made a field trip to New York City and put together a small slideshow of some of their observations on urban logistics, including new types of urban warehouses and lots of bicycles, cargobikes, electric mopeds and carriages for the transportation of goods in the Big Apple. Find the slideshow here.
Warehouses in large metropolitan areas
Matthieu Schorung and Thibault Lecourt have completed an analysis of the spatial patterns of Amazon warehouses in the United States using a multiscalar and temporal approach. The research report, “Geography of Amazon warehouses in the US” is available online, as well as an English summary.
Renata de Oliveira, Matthieu Schorung and Laetitia Dablanc finalized a piece of research on an international comparison of logistics spatial patterns and the differential in warehouse rental prices between urban and suburban areas based on a comparison of several global metropolitan areas. Link to the report.
Laetitia Dablanc made a presentation on the growth of urban warehouses in Paris, that can be explained by several factors: increase in level of service, response to rapidly changing demand from consumers, innovation, and response to societal demands for a cleaner and more energy efficient urban logistics.
Matthieu Shorung gave a presentation at the Annual Conference of the Association of American Geographers (the presentation) on warehouse spatial patterns in Houston, Dallas, New York City and Philadelphia. This communication is an opportunity to promote the Chair’s research on logistics spatial patterns, which will result in the publication of an atlas of warehousing geography in the US in the coming weeks (e-book format).
E-commerce mobilities
Heleen Buldeo Rai presented research results on e-commerce environmental impacts in a presentation (link to the presentation in French) and exchanged about the topic with Ian Kerr of The Postal Hub podcast series (link to the episode).
A survey on instant delivery workers in Nantes, a city in the Western part of France, for the Logistics City Chair and the project PUCA SUBWORK provides interesting and contrasting results with similar surveys in Paris. Link to the report.
Laetitia Dablanc participated in a radio show on France Culture on « dark stores » and « dark kitchens », warehouses and restaurants not open to the public and only used as bases for fast deliveries of grocery goods and prepared meals. Link to the broadcast in French.
Heleen Buldeo Rai, Sabrina Touami and Laetitia Dablanc published a paper on the potential of autonomous vehicles for e-commerce deliveries and developments in autonomous vehicle technology and implementations during the 2020 lockdowns. Link to the publication. This research piece was also presented during a webinar at SEPRO working group, Colombia National University. The presentation is available online.
We keep updating the Observatory on e-commerce mobilities (E-commerce Mobilities Observatory), specifically the sections on COVID-19, general statistics on e-commerce and warehousing. Don’t hesitate to use it!
Low Emission Zones in Europe
Thanks to the work of Lucas Belliard, a Chair’s 2021 research intern, we made a synthesis about low-emission zones in France and Europe and their implications for urban logistics. See the presentation (in French).
List of recent research reports and journal publications
Buldeo Rai, H., Touami, S., Dablanc, L. (2022) Autonomous e-commerce delivery in ordinary and exceptional circumstances. The French case. Research in Transportation Business & Management. 100774.
Dablanc, L. (to be published June 2022) The COVID pandemic and urban freight. Chapter 8 in Transportation Amid COVID-19 and Pandemics: Practices and Policies (Editors: Y. Hayashi & J. Zhang).
Dablanc, L., Proulhac, L., Raimbault, N. (2022) Enquête sur les travailleurs nantais des plateformes de livraison instantanée. Survey report for PUCA/SUBWORK and the Logistics City Chair. https://www.lvmt.fr/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Livreurs-a-Nantes-des-plateformes-de-livraison-instantanee.pdf.
Schorung, M., Lecourt, T. (2022) Analyse des logiques spatiales des entrepôts Amazon suivant une approche multiscalaire et temporelle. Pour une géographie du système logistique d’Amazon aux États-Unis. Research report. https://hal-lara.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-03489387v1.
Buldeo Rai, H. (2021) The net environmental impact of online shopping, beyond the substitution bias. Journal of Transport Geography. 93, 103058.
Buldeo Rai, H., Broekaert, C., Verlinde, S., Macharis, C. (2021) Sharing is caring: How nonfinancial incentives drive sustainable e-commerce delivery. Transportation Research Part D. 53, 102794.
Buldeo Rai, H., Dablanc, L. (2021) Le e-commerce et son impact sur la ville : transformations logistiques dans l’ombre, Les Cahiers Palladio, No 95.
De Oliveira, R., Schorung, M., Dablanc, L. (2022) Relationships among urban characteristics, real estate market, and spatial patterns of warehouses in different geographic contexts. https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-03369462.
Dablanc L., Aguiléra A., Krier C., Adoue F. et Louvet N. (2021) Étude sur les livreurs des plateformes de livraison instantanée du quart nord-est de Paris. Report ANR MOBS and Logistics City Chair.
Dablanc, L. et Simon, G. (2021) Marche en ville et logistique. In Demailly, K.E, Monnet, J., Scapino, J., Deraëve, S. (coord) Dictionnaire pluriel de la marche en ville. L’œil d’or.
Dablanc, L. (2021) Urban freight policy. In: Vickerman, Roger (eds.) International Encyclopedia of Transportation, vol 6. pp. 278-285. United Kingdom: Elsevier Ltd.
Dablanc, L. (2021) Kilomètre (Dernier). In Abécédaire de la mobilité durable, Groupement des autorités responsables de transport.
Dablanc, L. (2021) Logistique urbaine et pandémie de COVID. Annales des Mines, juin.
Dablanc, L. (2021) Vélo ou vélo-cargo ? Le double visage de la cyclo-logistique, Ville, Rail et Transports, 643.
Guerin, L., Vidal, J., De Oliveira, R., Ewbank, H., Dablanc, L. (2021) The geography of warehouses in the São Paulo Metropolitan Region. Journal of Transport Geography, 91.
Dablanc, L. (à paraître) Land use planning for a sustainable urban freight. Chapter 3.1 in Handbook on City Logistics and Urban Freight, Eds Marcucci, E., Gatta, V., Le Pira, M., Edward Elgar.