Dynamic management of loading bays for energy efficient urban freight deliveries

A model for dynamic assignment of loading bays for urban last-mile deliveries has been developed. It aims to solve the problem of defining the most optimal number and location of loading bays and their management for energy efficient urban freight deliveries. Optimisation is based on fuzzy k-means clustering of receivers to dynamically select the best possible loading bay in combination with a routing algorithm. The model is tested on the actual data of deliveries in the historical city centre of Lucca, Italy. The results of simulations have demonstrated a significant savings of time and distance travelled by freight vehicles, as well as of CO2 and fuel, in comparison to the existing situation.