Selecting the location of minihubs for freight delivery in congested downtown areas

The delivery of freight in urban areas has to face many restrictions and regulations that constrain the efficient flow of goods. One of the most common regulations in medium and large cities is the establishment of access time windows, whereby delivery vehicles can only access the most central and congested areas of the city during a pre-specified period of the day. To avoid the costs imposed on carriers by this regulation while maintaining the social and environmental sustainability benefits, we propose here the establishment of a system of mini-hubs where delivery vehicles may park for the final deliveries to be completed on foot. Given that the optimal location of these mini-hubs is essential for the operation of the system, we formulate a location model and apply a computational process based on genetic algorithms to optimize it. We apply this procedure to a case study in the Spanish city of Seville, showing the effect of mini-hubs on the costs of the overall delivery system.

► Freight delivery in congested urban areas requires innovative initiatives to guarantee minimum external costs.
► Mini-hubs would allow delivery vehicles to park and stay at any time so that deliveries to the final destinations can be carried out on foot or using handcarts.
► We have developed a location model and a genetic-algorithm based approach to locate mini-hubs in downtown areas.
► There are no costs associated to the implementation of mini-hubs. The number of mini-hubs to set up in a given city is a decision that corresponds to the local authorities.