Monitoring, measurement and statistical analysis-based methodology for improving city logistics of shopping malls in Budapest

Abstract

Urban freight transport poses significant problems in cities around the world: trucks play a major role in congestion, environmental and noise pollution and damage the roads. Shopping centres are problematic, in particular, as they concentrate a large number of retail stores in a relatively small space. There are 18 shopping malls in Budapest alone, each containing 180 stores on average, therefore there is great potential in streamlining their deliveries. The most effective solution is a cooperative city-logistics system, a freight consolidation scheme. However, there is a shortage of available data regarding the logistical operations and freight quantities of shopping malls, so it is inescapable to develop a methodology by which the logistical characteristics of any shopping centre can be obtained. After testing our methodology, we concluded that it is capable of serving as the basis of such systems. This paper presents the development, structure and testing of this methodology.