Location Planning of Small Consolidation Centers in the City of Volos

Abstract

As urbanization increases by the years the needs of the society, in terms of quantity of urban freight deliveries, become more demanding. Urban freight transport and goods distribution become the main challenges that a city has to address, owing to the impacts that such operations create to traffic, environment and economy. Decision makers and transport operators have to seek into implementing smart solutions towards alleviating traffic congestion, accidents and environmental deterioration, maintaining at the same time a good level of service. The establishment of small Urban Consolidation Centers (UCC) in strategically selected locations, along with the use of flexible and environmentally friendly vehicles for “last mile distribution” can contribute positively towards the city’s sustainable mobility. The paper studies the establishment of small UCCs in Volos city and assesses their performance, implementing facility location models and multi-criteria analysis and feasible location models for location/allocation problems. Results show that the operation of two small UCCs saves great costs per mile of freight distribution, while the operation of more than two is not profitable. © 2021, The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.