What should be the balance between free markets and a not so ‘Invisible Hand’ in urban freight regulation and land use: Dutch and Australian experiences

The delivery of goods in urban areas is the responsibility of private companies who order, and others who deliver the goods in the interest of the consumer. Traditionally, local governments are responsible for providing space and the right infrastructure. They are also responsible for minimizing the social costs that go with the use of this infrastructure.City Logistics, defined as “the process for totally optimizing the logistics and transport activities by private companies in urban areas while considering the traffic environment, the traffic congestion and energy consumption within the framework of a market economy”, focuses on the mutual responsibility of the public sector and private sector. How this mutual responsibility between the public sector and the private sector works cannot be subscribed beforehand. In the literature there are many different examples of government intervention in the area of urban delivery, from a strong directive approach, to leaving it all up to the free market. This paper discusses the power, reasoning and approaches to interventions in the urban freight network from the perspective of two countries, the Netherlands and Australia.