A method to reveal supply chains in order to set up effective and sustainable city logistics solutions

A current key challenge in the field of urban freight transport is creating value and business opportunities through city logistics. This requires an extensive knowledge of the composition of urban economic structure, organization and management of supply chains, and actors’ sensitivity to market signals. Within this context, the paper reports the findings of the LOGeco – LOGistica ecologica project. Within LOGeco, the authors developed a method to collect and analyze data in order to set up city logistics solutions based on existing supply chains, public-private cooperation and Business Opportunity Plans for the private sector. The method has been validated in a pedestrian area of the historic centre of Rome, the Renaissance district named «Tridente». The method consists of a survey technique which involves the following steps: a census of activities representing the sources of demand for urban freight transport and their characterization; sampling; web-based survey; database collection, analysis.