challenges facing express delivery services in canada's urban centres

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Institute of Housing & Mobility Challenges facing the EDS industry in Canada's urban centres particular, in order to be better prepared for regulating mixed modes of traffic in large urban centres in Canada. 2. The municipal transport agencies should include freight and logistics planning as part of their mandates, requiring transport planners to conduct studies focusing on freight and logistics as well as express deliveries. 3. Since no explicit infrastructure is provided for couriers and same-day messengers to park their vehicles, municipal transport planning authorities should consider undertaking studies to provide dedicated parking facilities, examples of which have been presented in this report. Parking bays similar to the ones provided for buses in downtowns across Canada should be considered for couriers and same-day messengers as their vehicles stop for short periods. 4. The methodology of issuing parking tickets to couriers and same-day messengers and the resulting administrative costs incurred by both the couriers and the city should be reviewed. The ultimate objective is to reduce the administrative costs for issuing and administering tickets for both parties. Alternatives should be investigated including but not limited to dedicated parking facilities, potentially supported by user fees or adjustment by streamlining the existing rescinding program. The planning authorities should not treat couriers and same-day messengers as merely traffic violators but instead treat the EDS industry as value-added service providers. 5. Technological solutions exist today where Canadian companies have come up with advanced GPS solutions that not only facilitate route guidance, but could also serve to implement a completely automated system of enforcing user fees. The proposed system would use GPS-enabled vehicles to automatically account for user fees for parking in designated spots within the downtown and automatically transfer fees to the municipal authorities using state-of-the-art wireless communications. Such advanced systems would help reduce cost of administering parking as well as improving efficiencies and productivity for the city. These user fee regimes could be designed to be demand responsive to encourage couriers to pay less by parking on streets with less traffic volume during off peak periods. 6. Couriers and same-day messengers should encourage drivers to park in designated spots whenever they are available. 7. Buildings to be encouraged to offer reasonable drop off and loading facilities. The buildings are the indirect beneficiaries of efficient deliveries. This could be applied to older buildings as well, given criteria and time for implementation. All new buildings should conform to loading bay and drop off regulations. There may be several ideas that will blend together a workable solution. For example rescinding plus registered courier companies with signed vehicles. In addition a longer term solution with the building owners, could be an efficient method, since infrastructure costs will have to be borne by the commercial enterprises and their tenants Page 56
Institute of Housing & Mobility Challenges facing the EDS industry in Canada's urban centres APPENDICES Appendix 1: Literature review of Urban Logistics strategies This section reviews issues associated with urban freight in urban centres. In some Canadian urban areas commercial vehicles are estimated to account for approximately 15% of all vehicular activity. Therefore a review of strategies to improve the flow of commercial vehicles and reduce their impact on traffic and environment is of great value. (Hunt and Stefan, 2007). It is also important to note that cities across the world are struggling with traffic congestion, which has worsened over the years and, if left unaddressed, is unlikely to fix itself. While research suggests that freight characteristics do not vary greatly in different urban centres (Dablanc, 2007), other factors such as road geometry and local governance make it impossible to find one solution that will be appropriate for all cities. Regrettably, the most common action taken by cities is strict regulation or ban on large truck traffic, leading to the frustration of freight companies (Dablanc, 2007). These companies are rarely consulted when such policies are developed or put into practice leaving freight operators and logistic companies to work around regulations and find their own solutions, which could hardly be regarded as effective transport planning. While LTL freight is destined for loading docks, courier and same day messenger vehicles have to deliver packages, parcels, and letters to businesses in downtowns, and hence are often forced to park on roads as dedicated parking spots are not provided for the industry. In 2006 alone, three major express delivery companies (FedEx, United Parcel Service and Purolator) were awarded 34,000 parking tickets amounting to approximately $1.5 million in fine (Chung, 2007). Currently these fines are included in the cost of doing business, however a solution is needed where couriers and same day messengers can work with municipal governments to develop solutions to remedy the situation. Defining Urban Freight Urban freight can be defined as the movement of goods within a city. This comprises both the freight that must be distributed once it arrives into a city and the deliveries made between locations in the same city. Urban freight can be further broken down into two sub categories: LTL freight carriers and couriers and same day messengers. Couriers and express delivery companies often face different challenges than those dealing with LTL freight. Couriers and express delivery logistics Express delivery companies most often transport letters, parcels, and packages to and from city centres. The intercity modes employed by these companies, such as the cargo planes used by FedEx and UPS, are not analyzed here. Instead the focus is on the urban part of the trip. For deliveries, couriers often employ small trucks or vans since they require less capacity to carry the relatively small parcels and letters that are often delivered by these couriers. Page 57
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