Application of the HARMONY tactical freight simulator to a case study for zero emission zones in Rotterdam

As part of a broader vision for emission-free city logistics, the city of Rotterdam plans to introduce a zero-emission zone in combination with consolidation hubs at the outskirt of the city to generate a shift to zero-emission vehicles. For the design of this zero-emission zone many research questions arise that require a systematic analysis of the impacts of the transition scenarios on the freight demand patterns, the use and market shares of new (zero-emission) vehicles, and the impacts of truck flow and emissions. As a case study we implemented heterogenous transition scenarios for each logistic segment into the Tactical Freight Simulator from the project HARMONY and analyses the system wide impacts. This model is multi-agent, empirical and shipment based and simulates long term tactical choices (distribution channel choice, shipment size and vehicle type choice, sourcing) and short-term tactical choices (tour formation, delivery times).
Results shows that the impact of UCCs is not trivial: we can see a small increase in vehicle kilometers travelled (VKT) overall: +0.25% which can be attributed to the rerouting of shipments through the UCCs. Calculations confirm that emissions are reduced dramatically, by 90%, inside the ZEZ. At the city scale this corresponds to a reduction of almost 10%, as most freight related traffic is generated by the port and involves long haul HGV transport that do not enter the city center. At regional level the reduction of impacts is very small. More measures are needed of more ambitious reductions in emissions are to be achieved.