Abstract:

Relevant California state agencies and departments are working together to develop the California Sustainable Freight Strategy for a sustainable freight transport system that relies on zero and near-zero emission equipment powered by renewable energy sources. This equipment also meets multiple goals, including enhancing the economic competitiveness and efficiency of California’s logistics system, creating jobs, and increasing the safety and livability of freight corridors. As part of this effort, researchers from the National Center for Sustainable Transportation worked with representatives from state agencies, industry, non-governmental agencies, and academia to draft a series of five white papers that will examine broad-based approaches to increase the efficiency of the freight system.

The freight system is multi-faceted and there could be a myriad of potential strategies; however, the paper (Part II of a two-part series) focuses on those that could improve or help maximize asset utilization by fostering collaborative logistics (CL) practices and/or freight demand management (FDM). The strategies analyzed include: receiver-led consolidation; voluntary off-hour delivery programs; development of an integrated Chassis Pool of Pools; integrated system for dray services; load matching and maximizing capacity; improving Traffic Mitigation Fee programs; implementing advanced appointment and reservation systems; and relaxing vehicle size and weight restrictions. The paper discusses each strategy in terms of its nature (CL or FDM); the geographic scope of the inefficiency or implementation; the expected benefits; level of implementation effort/time/cost; the primary stakeholders targeted; the stakeholders’ role in the implementation/planning effort; the potential for unintended consequences; and barriers for implementation. The research shows that there is great variability in the level of data available (e.g., research reports, operational reports, implementation programs, pilot tests) to conduct detailed assessments, highlighting the need for additional efforts to be able to estimate the magnitude of the potential effects of each strategy to reduce inefficiencies (e.g., congestion/delays, environmental emissions, safety, and economic impacts, and costs, among others). However, stakeholder engagement during the research process allowed for a qualitative assessment based on empirical evidence from on-going efforts.