EFFICIENT URBAN
FREIGHT
EVALUATION METRICS
ABOUT MINISTRY OF HOUSING AND URBAN
AFFAIRS (MoHUA)
The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs is the apex
authority of Government of India to formulate policies,
coordinate the activities of various central ministries,
state governments and other nodal authorities and
monitor programs related to issues of housing and urb-
an affairs in the country. The Smart Cities Mission was
launched by the Ministry in 2015 to promote sustaina-
ble and inclusive cities that provide core infrastructure
and give a decent quality of life to its citizens, a clean
and sustainable environment and application of
‘Smart’ Solutions.
ABOUT ROCKY MOUNTAIN INSTITUTE (RMI)
Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI)—an independent
nonprofit founded in 1982—transforms global energy
use to create a clean, prosperous, and secure
low-carbon future. It engages businesses, communi-
ties, institutions, and entrepreneurs to accelerate the
adoption of market-based solutions that cost-effec-
tively shift from fossil fuels to efficiency and renew-
ables. RMI has offices in Basalt and Boulder, Colo-
rado; New York City; Washington, D.C.; and Beijing.
RMI has been supporting India’s mobility and energy
transformation since 2016.
EFFICIENT URBAN
FREIGHT
EVALUATION METRICS
Document outline
This document describes key performance metrics (KPIs) for monitoring a city’s progress
towards making its urban freight system more efficient.
1.0 Introduction to freight performance measurement .................................................... 06
1.1 Purpose and logic of performance measurement ...................................................... 06
1.2 Caveats on interpretation ..................................................................................................... 06
2.0 Metric discussion .............................................................................................................. 08
2.1 Freight intensity of GDP ..................................................................................................... 08
2.2 Through-freight share of total demand .......................................................................... 10
2.3 Truck loading capacity ........................................................................................................ 12
2.4 Net load factor ....................................................................................................................... 14
2.5 Delivery productivity ............................................................................................................ 16
2.6 Logistics sprawl ..................................................................................................................... 18
2.7 Routing efficiency .................................................................................................................. 22
2.8 Time travel index on freight lanes ................................................................................... 24
2.9 Truck-related casualties ...................................................................................................... 26
2.10 Truck emissions ..................................................................................................................... 27
2.11 Unit costs ................................................................................................................................ 28
3.0 References ......................................................................................................................... 30
1.0 Introduction to
freight performance
measurement
1.1 Purpose and logic of performance travel per unit of freight demand and exc-
measurement ess cost, both external and direct, per unit
——————————————————————————— of vehicle travel. Further explanation of
Many different causes, which are often metric definition and potential pathways to
mutually interdependent, contribute to the improvement are discussed below.
overall efficiency of urban logistics. For
that reason, rather than trying to isolate 1.2 Caveats on interpretation
and measure every potential cause of ———————————————————————————
inefficiency, we suggest a set of metrics Care must be exercised when interpreting
that are easy to understand and collectively this KPI system: analysis of any single metric
describe key elements of urban freight in isolation is not meaningful. Many of these
efficiency that are amenable to action by metrics are inextricably tied together and
policymakers. any change to affect one metric can have
knock-on effects on many others. For ex-
This KPI system is designed to help ample, a change in an average truck size
policymakers understand, at a high level: would have knock-on effects on many
other metrics such as load factor, number
• What goods must travel on city roads of trips, cost per kilometer, delivery produ-
• How much vehicle travel to move those ctivity, etc. Furthermore attempting to use
goods can be reduced this KPI system to use one city as a bench-
• For vehicle travel that must occur how mark against another is not possible. It is
much cost, both internal and external, best interpreted as a time series for a single
can be removed from the system. city.
This metric system identifies and quantifies While some lessons may be learned from
a limited set of drivers for excess freight looking at other cities, especially at how
movement on urban roads, excess vehicle they have improved metric performance,
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EFFICIENT URBAN FREIGHT: EVALUATION METRICS
strict comparison is misleading. Many ex- ment with logistics players, as outlined in
ogenous factors such as size, geography, the Policy Workbook Document, can help
composition of the economy and even policymakers interpret why metrics have
climate and weather patterns will affect the changed and whether the overall evolution
metric performance. Furthermore, when of the system was positive or negative.
evaluating performance, robust engage-
TOTAL
DEMANDS
(TONS)
Local Non-local Remove
demands demand from city
(tons) (tons) roads
Number
of truck
trips
Reduce
Doesn’t truck kms
serve urban Serve created for Direct cost
citizens (e.g., urban each ton of per kilometer
industry) citizens freight
moved
Reduce
Distance total cost per
Shift freight of each trip kilometer
generation
out of city
External cost
per kilometer
Figure 1: Logic of a KPI system
Table 1 : Metric system Note: GVWR—gross vehicle weight rating
7
2.0 Metric discussion
2.1 Freight intensity of GDP
———————————————————————————
TRUCK FREIGHT GENERATED BY ACTIVITIES ( IN TON-KM)
2.5
FREIGHT/EUR OF GDP
TON-KM OF TRUCK
1.25
Construction
Service
Agriculture
Textile
Wood
Paper + printing
Energy
Chemistry
Machinery
Manufacturing
ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES
UNITED KINGDOM SPAIN
Figure 2: Ton-km of truck freight/EUR of GDP generated by different types of economic activities in the UK and Spain1
» Description Producing goods and to a lesser extent, services entail
the movement of freight. However, different economic
activities tend to produce different amounts of freight
movement. For that reason, the size and composition of
the economy, especially the share of the tertiary sector
in a city’s GDP, heavily influence how much freight demand
is created in a city. Broadly speaking, the tertiary sector
produces far less demand for freight movement than
other sectors. Low value-added manufacturing and heavy
industry, on the other hand, tend to produce relatively high
freight demand per unit of GDP.
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EFFICIENT URBAN FREIGHT: EVALUATION METRICS
FREIGHT IN GLOBAL MEGACITIES ( IN TONS/ GDP)
1.2 100%
SERVICE SHARE
TON/$1000 GDP
OF GDP
0.6 50%
0 0%
Beijing 2011
Beijing 2016
Paris
New York
MEGACITIES
TON/$1000 GDP
SERVICE SHARE OF GDP
Figure 3: Tons of freight/$1000 GDP in global megacities. Service-based economies generate less freight per unit of GDP
» Pathways to To the extent possible, urban freight should consist of
improvement products consumed by urban residents, rather than inputs
for industrial or manufacturing processes. Therefore, the
primary pathway to improving freight intensity of GDP is to
create policy, which encourages urban GDP to consist of
economic activities that directly serve the needs of urban
consumers. However, the composition of GDP is only part-
ly in control of policymakers. Many other elements such as
land prices, infrastructure layout, access to suppliers, etc.
all affect where businesses choose to locate.
Furthermore, at certain stages of urban development,
freight intensive activities such as fixed asset formation,
infrastructure build-out and building stock creation are
unavoidable. Therefore, policymakers must view reduction
of freight demand as a long-term endeavor, which requires
holistic planning well beyond transportation authorities
and also is subject to the city’s need to invest in fixed as-
sets such as building stock and infrastructure.
9
2.2 Through-freight share of total demand
———————————————————————————
Through freight movement in a city
» Description Goods moving through a city or metropolitan area, which
are neither produced nor consumed in the area, are referred
to as through-freight. Through-freight generates truck traffic
and associated costs in metropolitan areas without bringing
in significant economic benefit. It is typically the product
of national transportation network planning, over which
municipal policymakers have little control. Furthermore, if
municipal policies disrupt national logistics activities, it can
be detrimental to the economy as a whole.
In cities that have ports and other logistics network nodes,
which concentrate national or global freight flows in a single
metropolitan area, through-freight can become a major
issue for policymakers to manage. For example in Chicago,
which is a major hub in American freight rail networks,
through-freight accounts for approximately 32% of the
tonnage moved by trucks in the metropolitan area2 and
49% of the tonnage moved by rail.³ Similarly in Los Angeles
County, truck trips to and from the Los Angeles
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EFFICIENT URBAN FREIGHT: EVALUATION METRICS
Figure 4: Cancer risks along the 710 freeway in L.A., due to air pollution
Source: South Coast Air Quality Management District Draft Multiple Air Toxics Exposure Study IV (October 2014)
Long Beach port complexes generate nearly 8% of total
truck trips in the county.4 Furthermore, because these trips
are carried out by heavy-truck concentrated routes, they
tend to produce high external costs. For example, in LA,
the corridor that serves the ports is known
as the ‘diesel death zone’ due to the markedly higher
cancer risks experienced by residents living along the
corridor.
» Pathways to Infrastructure such as ring roads or bypasses, can route
improvement through-freight around cities rather than through it. When a
trade node that is not easily relocated such as a port is in a
city, policymakers can build infrastructure such as portside
rail, which reduces truck travel generated by through-
freight. City policymakers can collaborate with national-
level policymakers on infrastructure creation to
reduce the burden, which through-freight puts on cities,
without undermining national logistics systems.
11
2.3 Truck loading capacity
———————————————————————————
DELIVERY VEHICLES WEIGHT RATING (IN GVWR)
3.0
GROSS VEHICLE WEIGHT RATING (GVWR)
1.5
0
Parcels
Mixed
Pallets
End-to-end
Line haul
Non-perishable food
Beverages
Finished Products
Intermediate products
Fresh food
TYPE OF GOODS
GROSS VEHICLE WEIGHT
RATING (GVWR)
Figure 5: Gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of Delivery Vehicles in Paris5
» Description The right size of delivery vehicles is a thorny question with
multiple factors influencing the decision. Broadly speaking,
however, truck size influences the overall urban logistics
efficiency in two ways, trip generation and creation of
external costs. If a truck is too small to carry a load, it may
be split into multiple loads and create extra trips, arguing
for larger delivery trucks. However, larger trucks are often
much more disruptive to urban quality of life on a per-
kilometer basis than smaller vehicles. The goal of truck
size regulation should be to minimize the overall systemic
cost, looking at both trip generation and unit costs, direct
and external, per kilometer of vehicle travel.
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EFFICIENT URBAN FREIGHT: EVALUATION METRICS
Types and sizes of vehicles that carry urban freight
» Pathways to There is no one-size-fits-all answer for what the right-sized
improvement vehicle is and how it should be regulated. Such decisions
must be made with a view towards the requirements
of logistics system users and also the capability of
infrastructure to handle different types of vehicle traffic.
That entails both improving infrastructure to allow heavy
vehicles where appropriate and banning them where
they are inappropriate. Designing a flexible system,
which allows heavy truck travel in suitable corridors but
restricts it in sensitive areas and at sensitive times, can
help cities achieve efficient use of all types of vehicles.
As infrastructural capabilities on key corridors improve,
policymakers can continuously evaluate regulations on
vehicle size, how the trade-off between trip generation
and external cost creation is playing out and can adjust the
policy accordingly.
13
2.4 Net load factor
———————————————————————————
» Description Net load factor is the average share of vehicle loading
capacity that is productively used. That encompasses two
factors: the share of rated loading capacity, which is used
when a vehicle is loaded and the share of driving, which a
vehicle does when it is not loaded. Vehicles that run empty
or partially loaded generate extra travel and associated
costs, without generating commensurate economic value.
Operators typically will seek to maximize net load factors
in order to maximize operating margins and the role of
policymakers in improving this metric is secondary. The
relevance of the metric to policymakers is to evaluate
whether infrastructural and regulatory factors are imposing
constraints on operators that increase total systemic costs
or whether operators are achieving high net load factor
at the cost of society, for example through overloading.
In either case, policymakers can adjust regulation and
enforcement practices to maximize efficiency.
14
EFFICIENT URBAN FREIGHT: EVALUATION METRICS
FREIGHT SYSTEM
GEOGRAPHY
INFRASTRUCTURE TYPE OF
FREIGHT
NET LOAD
COLLABORATION OPERATIONAL
FACTOR EXPERTISE
Figure 6: Factors that affect net load factor
» Pathways to Why vehicles are underloaded or why they run empty
improvement are complex questions, which are influenced by diverse
factors such as freight type, freight system geography,
infrastructure, operational expertise and the willingness
to collaborate with competitors. Broadly speaking,
policymakers should consult with industry players to
identify factors that are decreasing load factors in a
way that creates a net value loss to the city. Many times,
resolving those issues will enhance the revenue and
profitability of industry players. In other cases, where
excessive travel due to low load factors is imposing
unacceptably high costs on society, policymakers can
also consider mandating measures such as required
consolidation to improve load factors.
15
2.5 Delivery productivity
———————————————————————————
PARISIAN TOUR TIMES ( IN MINUTES)
500
TIME (IN MINUTES)
250
0
Parcels
Mixed
Pallets
End-to-end
Line haul
Non-perishable food
Beverages
Finished Products
Intermediate products
Fresh food
TYPE OF GOODS
TIME SPENT DRIVING TIME SPENT ON OPERATIONS
(IN MINUTES) (IN MINUTES)
Figure 7: Parisian Tour Times and Their Composition (minutes) 6
» Description Delivery productivity measures how many deliveries
a vehicle can accomplish in a day. It is closely related
to load factor and in that it seeks to shed light on how
the efficiency of vehicle use influences trip generation.
Delivery vehicles typically only load as much freight as
they can deliver on a single day. The time that delivery
vehicles spend driving to and from the distribution
center to the first delivery point, the time they spend on
each delivery and the time they spend driving between
deliveries, all influence how many deliveries they can make
in a given day. In many cases, greater delivery productivity
could lead to larger loads and fewer trips reducing overall
urban driving.
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EFFICIENT URBAN FREIGHT: EVALUATION METRICS
Figure 8: Loading and unloading of trucks
» Pathways to As with other metrics that primarily measure operational
improvement efficiency such as net load factor, policymakers can
consult with the industry to identify policy or infrastructural
causes of low-delivery productivity and work to resolve
them. Common causes of lowered productivity include
congestion on freight routes, lack of access to convenient
parking for delivery trucks and long or circuitous
travel distances between stops.
For this reason, poor delivery productivity can often be
addressed by a portfolio of measures that also influence
other metrics in the KPI system such as congestion,
routing efficiency, logistics sprawl, etc.
17
2.6 Logistics sprawl
———————————————————————————
DISTANCE OF WAREHOUSE FROM CITY CENTER (IN KM)
12
CITY CENTER(IN KM)
DISTANCE FROM
0
Paris
Tokyo
Atlantis
Los Angeles
Toronto
MEGACITIES
DISTANCE FROM CITIES(IN KM)
Figure 9: Average change warehouse distance from city center (kilometers) in select global cities
» Description Logistics sprawl is the propensity for the distribution
centers, which serve urban freight demand to move
progressively further from the city center. The immediate
effect of logistics sprawl is that each trip from a distribution
center grows longer, increasing vehicle kilometers
required to meet freight demand. Two main causes of
logistics sprawl exist – increasing land prices in urban
cores, which price out logistics uses and the changing
land-use regulations, which zone out logistics facilities. In
some cases, when logistics establishments generate large
volumes of heavy truck travel, their exit from the urban
core may be a net positive. However, for goods consumed
in the city such as food and consumer goods, if logistics
sprawl increases total vehicle travel and forces the use of
larger delivery vehicles, it is typically a net negative.
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EFFICIENT URBAN FREIGHT: EVALUATION METRICS
95
93
78
75
92
77
94
1974 91
3 terminals
2 terminals
1 terminal
Department limit
Circlular route and highways
95
93
78
75
92
77
2008 94
91
3 terminals
2 terminals
1 terminal
Department limit
Circlular route and highways
Figures 10 & 11: Logistics Sprawl in Parisian Parcel Distribution Centers in 1974 and 20088
19
Figure 12: Spatial distribution of groupage network of hubs and terminals
Source: Heitz, Adeline, Pierre Launay, and Adrien Beziat. “Heterogeneity of logistics facilities: an issue for a better
understanding and planning of the location of logistics facilities.” European Transport Research Review 11.1 (2019): 5.
» Pathways to The primary pathway to combat logistics sprawl is to
improvement identify sectors of urban delivery, which serve the
demand of urban consumers such as inventory restocks
to shops and restaurants or e-commerce deliveries
and actively seek to keep warehousing infrastructure
serving that demand in the urban core. Measures may
include preferred pricing of brownfield land for logistics
development or modifications to planning and zoning laws
that encourage logistics use of suitable land in the urban
core.
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EFFICIENT URBAN FREIGHT: EVALUATION METRICS
21
2.7 Routing efficiency
———————————————————————————
Efficient deliveries minimizing vehicle travel
» Description Routing efficiency is closely related to delivery productivity
and focuses specifically on one aspect of delivery
productivity— how efficiently operators string together
various stops on a delivery tour and therefore their ability
to minimize vehicle travel while making deliveries. While
arriving at the optimal sequence of deliveries to minimize
total driving is a private sector concern, policy decisions
can constrain the solution space. For that reason,
policymakers should seek to understand how elements of
infrastructure, urban planning and vehicle access policy
all influence the ability of private sectors to optimize their
activities.
22
EFFICIENT URBAN FREIGHT: EVALUATION METRICS
Input
A sub-optimal tour The optimal tour
Figure 13: Optimal and sub-optimal routes on delivery tours.
» Pathways to For policymakers, the goal for routing efficiency is to
improvement create a system that enables maximum routing efficiency
for logistics operators without compromising on the quality
of life for urban residents. To that end, policymakers can
examine infrastructure or policies, which force operators to
choose suboptimal routes. As with vehicle size, however,
policymakers must keep an eye on minimizing total
systemic cost, not merely maximizing metric performance.
Other circumstances where policymakers can positively
influence routing efficiency is when operators are lacking
either the information or scale to route trucks efficiently
themselves. In such cases, provision of information,
for example through either intelligent transportation
systems (ITS) or the provision of infrastructure such as
consolidation centers, can enhance routing.
23
2.8 Travel time index on freight lanes
———————————————————————————
» Description Logistics uses can cause congestion by illegal parking and
by using vehicles that are poorly suited to urban
roads. Both hurt traffic fluidity. However, delivery vehicles
also suffer from congestion. The costs that congestion
imposes on logistics operators, which typically are directly
passed on to consumers, are often under appreciated. For
example, in US cities, the cost of congestion per vehicle
hour is estimated at $94.04, much higher than the $17.67
cost per vehicle hour for passenger vehicles9. For this
reason, efficient urban logistics must focus not only on
reducing congestion caused by logistics uses but also
seek to mitigate the effects of congestion on delivery
vehicles themselves.
24
EFFICIENT URBAN FREIGHT: EVALUATION METRICS
Intelligent transport systems
» Pathways to Restricting truck access to certain routes can ensure
improvement the smooth functioning of urban mobility systems.
However, concentrating logistics uses onto certain
corridors also increases the cost of congestion in those
corridors. As policymakers reduce the flexibility of delivery
vehicles to certain corridors, they must pay particular care
to the performance of those corridors.
Policies such as congestion pricing and tolling, regular
maintenance of road surfaces, ITS to provide real-time
updates on corridor conditions, access restrictions for
incompatible uses such as walking, cycling or other
slow-moving vehicles and high priority resolution of
traffic bottlenecks along freight corridors can all reduce
congestion in key freight corridors.
25
2.9 Truck-related casualties
———————————————————————————
Traffic injuries and fatalities
» Description Logistics vehicles, in particular heavy trucks, are
disproportionately responsible for traffic injuries and
fatalities. This is especially true when they are mixed
with non-motorized, two and three-wheeler traffic. Heavy
vehicles with poor maneuverability, large blind spots and
long braking distances tend to produce very destructive
collisions.
» Pathways to In order to mitigate safety problems without undermining
improvement the efficient functioning of urban distribution systems,
policymakers can develop truck routes, which concen-
trate truck travel onto suitable high capacity roads where
conflicts with other types of vehicles are minimized. Pol-
icymakers can also enhance enforcement of illegal over-
loading and poorly maintained vehicles. Furthermore, reg-
ulations such as speed limits should be robustly enforced
to protect vulnerable user groups where infrastructure
must be shared. Similarly, system design decisions, for ex-
ample signal timing or robust physical barriers separating
vehicular traffic from non-vehicular traffic, can be adjusted
to favor the safety of pedestrians.
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EFFICIENT URBAN FREIGHT: EVALUATION METRICS
2.10 Truck emissions
———————————————————————————
Tailpipe emissions from truck
» Description Logistics vehicles, especially diesel trucks, account for a
disproportionately large amount of transport emissions,
both air pollutants and greenhouse gases. These
pollutants reduce livability of cities and take years off the
lives of their inhabitants.
» Pathways to Policymakers can restrict access to cities for trucks that
improvement do not comply with the required emissions criteria. In the
most ambitious cases, policymakers can require zero emis-
sions logistics vehicles such as electric ones for all urban
deliveries.
27
2.11 Unit costs
———————————————————————————
» Description Unit costs are the direct costs incurred by delivery vehicles
per kilometer that they drive. Unit costs typically consist
of fixed and variable costs. Fixed costs do not vary with
vehicle use. They are composed of vehicle costs, financing
costs, basedriver wages and items such as insurance and
registration fees. Variable costs on the other hand, vary
linearly with vehicle use and consist of fuel, maintenance,
tires and any variable driver wages. Cost reduction is at
the core of competitiveness and therefore is mostly a
commercial matter.
» Unusually low-unit costs can be an
indicator that operators are externalizing
costs onto urban residents such as through
overloading, the use of low-quality fuel
or the use of obsolete or non-compliant
trucks. «
However, the metric is of interest for policymakers for two
reasons:
01 Policymakers should always evaluate the effect policy
changes will have on operator costs because urban
logistics costs are typically entirely passed on to the
consumer; increased costs to logistics players represent
a direct burden to the urban economy and that impact
should be understood.
02 Policymakers should be on the lookout for unusually
low-unit costs; it can be an indicator that operators are
externalizing costs onto urban residents such as through
overloading, the use of low-quality fuel or the use of
obsolete/ non-compliant trucks.
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EFFICIENT URBAN FREIGHT: EVALUATION METRICS
29
3.0 References
1. Alises, A., J.M. Vassallo, and A.F. Types of Freight Routes According to
Guzmán. Road freight transport Their Logistics Organization in the Paris
decoupling: A comparative analysis Region. [Link]
between the United Kingdom and Spain. default/files/Beziat-freight%20tours%20
Transport Policy, 32. 2014. paper_0.pdf
2. Trucking System—CMAP. 7. Aljohani, Khalid & G Thompson, Russell.
[Link] (2016). Impacts of logistics sprawl on
freight/freight-data-resources/trucking- the urban environment and logistics:
system. Taxonomy and review of literature.
Accessed 3 Jan. 2019. Journal of Transport Geography.
3. Rail System—CMAP. 8. Dablanc, Laetitia, and Dina
[Link] Rakotonarivo. “The Impacts of Logistics
freight/freight-data-resources/rail- Sprawl: How Does the Location of Parcel
system. Transport Terminals Affect the Energy
Accessed 3 Jan. 2019. Efficiency of Goods’ Movements in Paris
and What Can We Do about It?” Procedia
4. Southern California Association of - Social and Behavioral Sciences, vol.
Governments. 2016 RTP/SCS Goods 2, no. 3, 2010, pp. 6087–96. CrossRef,
Movement Appendix. doi:10.1016/[Link].2010.04.021.
[Link]
2016/draft/d2016RTPSCS_Goods 9. David Shrank, et al. 2015 Urban Mobility
[Link]. Accessed 3 Jan. 2019. Scorecard. Texas A&M Transportation
Institute & INRIX, Aug. 2015, https://
5. Adrien Beziat, et al. Analysis of Different [Link]/[Link]/
Types of Freight Routes According to documents/[Link]
Their Logistics Organization in the Paris
Region. [Link]
default/files/Beziat-freight%20tours%
20paper_0.pdf
6. Adrien Beziat, et al. Analysis of Different
30
AUTHORS AND
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
SUGGESTED CITATION
Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA)
and Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI). Efficient
Urban Freight: Evaluation Metrics. 2019
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Authors:
Dave Mullaney
Samhita Shiledar
Akshima Ghate
Clay Stranger
Art Director: Vindhya Tripathi
Designers: P. Pallavi Baasri, Dhara N. Mittal
Editorial Director: Ashpreet Sethi
Image Credits: Shutterstock
CONTACT
For more information, please contact:
RMI: india_contact@[Link]
The views and opinions expressed in this
document are those of the authors and do
not necessarily reflect the positions of the
institutions or governments. While every
effort has been made to verify the data and
information contained in this report, any
mistakes or omissions are attributed solely
to the authors and not to the organizations
they represent.
