Understanding the Purchasing Behaviour of a Large Academic Institution and Urban Freight Demand

Only in recent years has a conceptual model focussed on the ‘receiver’ end of the supply chain has been discussed amongst European urban freight researchers even though purchasing for large organisations does certainly have a documented and often regulated sustainability agenda. A localised city logistics Delivery Service Plan, within a ‘coherent campus strategy’ for an academic campus has been established at Newcastle University, located at the centre of a medium size British city. In order to better understand the relationships between delivery services, urban environment and staff attitudes, a questionnaire was conducted targeting Newcastle University staff, addressing the purchasing of all goods to be delivered at the work place. A high response rate led to new data on purchasing behaviour. Tentatively we would draw out that the qualitative surveys show willingness amongst the buying population to both suggest and embrace alternatives ideas. We can see that a very small core of people raise most of the orders, and as such it should be possible to influence the majority of orders through them.