Valerio Gatta

• Marcucci, Edoardo & Gatta, Valerio (2026). Weaving stories into policies: integrating storytelling in urban freight participatory planning. Transport Policy. ISSN 0967-070X. doi: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2026.104455. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Urban freight transport remains only partially integrated into Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans, despite its economic importance and growing environmental and social implications. Existing research points to methodological weaknesses, fragmented governance, and limited stakeholder engagement, but these problems have rarely been examined jointly through collective-action and narrative perspectives. This paper conceptualises urban freight as a collective-action problem shaped by coordination failures, conflicting incentives, and weak mutual assurance. Using a research-question-driven integrative conceptual methodology combining mobility planning, collective-action theory, and narrative studies, the paper develops a six-step narrative-based participatory planning framework. Storytelling is treated not as a stand-alone communication tool, but as a mechanism embedded in participatory governance and linked to diagnosis, deliberation, policy translation, implementation, and learning. The framework offers planners and policymakers a structured way to connect technical evidence with stakeholder cooperation while providing a basis for future empirical testing.

• Marcucci, Edoardo; Gatta, Valerio; Maltese, Ila; Pasquarelli, Giovanni & Balla, Bhavani Shankar (2026). The Invisible Riders: Platform Work, Labour Conditions and Sustainable Last-Mile Delivery in Rome. Transport Policy. ISSN 0967-070X. 189(December). doi: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2026.104420. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The rapid growth of platform-based food delivery has reconfigured urban freight transport by reshaping last-mile operations, labour conditions and sustainability challenges in cities. Research has only partially examined how social, environmental and economic outcomes interact within these platform-mediated delivery systems. This paper addresses this gap by analysing food-delivery riders through a Triple Bottom Line framework and drawing implications for sustainable urban freight policy. Using 402 rider interviews conducted in Rome, the study combines observable-group profiling and Latent Class Cluster Analysis to compare job satisfaction, perceived accident risk, fatigue, operational carbon dioxide emissions, earnings and tipping outcomes. Three motivational profiles emerge: Flexibility-First Freelancers, Necessity-Driven Breadwinners and Convenience-Adaptive Seekers. Results show that rider citizenship status, platform use and work motivation are associated with different sustainability outcomes. Riders with Italian citizenship report higher perceived accident risk and higher estimated operational carbon dioxide emissions. Multiple-platform riders report higher earnings and higher estimated operational emissions. Necessity-driven riders combine weaker welfare conditions with no statistically distinct earnings advantage. Convenience-Adaptive Seekers show lower estimated operational emissions and higher tip frequency. These findings suggest that sustainable urban freight policy should not focus only on operational efficiency and emissions reduction. It should also address labour conditions, safety and distributional inequalities in platform-based delivery markets. The paper contributes a rider-centred perspective and argues that sustainable last-mile policy begins by making the workers visible on whom the system depends.

• Gatta, Valerio; Iannaccone, Gabriele & Marcucci, Edoardo (2026). Combining quantitative and qualitative approaches in urban freight participatory planning. Transportation Research Procedia. 98, p. 108–114. doi: 10.1016/j.trpro.2026.04.111. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Urban freight transport is essential for ensuring the timely delivery of goods within cities. However, its operations generate significant environmental and societal costs due to private sector dominance, fragmented stakeholder groups, and conflicting objectives. Addressing these issues requires implementing long-term participatory planning frameworks capable of prioritizing effective and acceptable policies while balancing public and private interests. Stakeholder participation plays a pivotal role in overcoming these challenges by fostering collaboration, building consensus, and enhancing the effectiveness of planning processes. This paper systematically classifies and evaluates methods for policy prioritization. A comprehensive review highlights the strengths and limitations of both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The paper also discusses the potential of combining these approaches, providing actionable insights for policymakers and practitioners to develop robust urban freight participatory planning processes.

• Marazi, Naveed Farooz; Majumdar, Bandhan Bandhu; Sahu, Prasanta K.; Marcucci, Edoardo & Gatta, Valerio (2026). For whom the road tolls: perceived benefits, commuter segmentation, and congestion pricing acceptability in Hyderabad. Case Studies on Transport Policy. ISSN 2213-624X. 25. doi: 10.1016/j.cstp.2026.101904. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This paper investigates commuter perceptions of congestion pricing (CP) benefits in Hyderabad, India. Previous experience suggests that limited knowledge of how users perceive CP before implementation may undermine policy adoption. Identifying and examining car users’ perceived CP-related benefits constitutes a key research question. Based on a face-to-face survey yielding 435 complete responses, the study employs benefit-based commuter segmentation and Meta Ranking to identify and prioritize perceived advantages across heterogeneous user groups. Results show that, although travel-time minimization emerges as the most important perceived benefit overall, respondents are far from homogeneous, with four identified commuter segments prioritizing different benefit bundles. These findings underscore the need for a differentiated approach to policy design and communication, while also highlighting the role of stakeholder engagement and transparent revenue use to promote CP acceptability. The proposed methodology offers a scalable tool for context-specific policy analysis aimed at maximizing the ex-ante probability of acceptance.

• Marcucci, Edoardo; Lozzi, Riccardo & Gatta, Valerio (2026). Crafting Consensus in City Logistics: The Power of Storytelling in Stakeholder-Driven Freight Policy Design. Transportation Research Procedia. 98, p. 52–59. doi: 10.1016/j.trpro.2026.04.104. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This paper examines the role of storytelling in participatory planning for urban freight transport. Stakeholder engagement is universally recognized as fundamental to urban logistics governance, yet its practical implementation remains uncertain. The research explores how digital storytelling, integrated within the Living Lab environment through a purpose-built software, enhances dialogue, consensus-building, and policy acceptance. In particular, the study analyzes its application within the Sustainable Urban Logistics Plan of the Metropolitan City of Rome, using it as a case study to clarify the effectiveness of this tool. The results demonstrate that storytelling increases stakeholder satisfaction and engagement, supporting a more transparent and inclusive participatory planning process. Participants in the experiment were real urban freight stakeholders, such as shippers, receivers, and transport providers, engaged in the co-creation of actual metropolitan logistics policies. These findings advocate for broader adoption of storytelling in urban freight transport governance to improve stakeholder sense making and policy effectiveness.

• Cuccaro, Francesco; Tapia, Rodrigo; Gatta, Valerio & Marcucci, Edoardo (2026). Who Killed the Mobility Hub? Parking Pricing, Access Conditions, and Mode Choice at Rome Trastevere. Future Transportation. 6(4). doi: 10.3390/futuretransp6040133. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Mobility hubs promise to reduce car dependence and make multimodal travel work in practice, yet behavioural evidence remains limited when hub improvements coexist with easier car access. This article examines the tension at Rome Trastevere, an urban rail node that gradually acquires mobility-hub functions while facing improved parking access near Piazza della Radio. The empirical analysis combines a pilot survey of 83 users with an on-site stated preference survey of 204 valid respondents. The stated preference instrument uses a route-based feasible-choice design with nine choice sets per experiment: respondents evaluate alternatives among bikes, walking, e-scooters, e-mopeds, public transport, private cars, and shared cars under variations in travel time, travel cost, and search time. The paper estimates a multinomial logit model in Apollo and uses sample enumeration, supported by Monte Carlo simulation, to assess four parking and shared-mobility scenarios and produce confidence intervals around predicted probabilities. Results show that users respond to time, monetary cost, and search friction in coherent and policy-relevant ways. Setting the car parking search time to zero increases predicted car probability only marginally, by about 0.9% relative to the baseline. By contrast, a EUR 1/h increase in parking cost reduces predicted car probability by about 14.7%, while a EUR 1.5/h increase reduces it by about 22.4%. A coordinated scenario combining higher parking cost and lower shared-mode search time produces the lowest predicted car probability and strengthens e-scooter and e-moped alternatives, while public transport remains the dominant option. Findings indicate that parking pricing steers behaviour more clearly than parking convenience destabilizes it in the tested range. The paper shows that mobility-hub performance depends on coordinated access management, including parking regulation, shared-service reliability, and legible multimodal transfer.

• Marcucci, Edoardo; Gatta, Valerio; Ciucci, Cristiano & Cucina, Domenico (2026). When launch costs fall, do satellites shrink and constellations grow? The role of SpaceX in the SmallSat revolution. Research in Transportation Business and Management (RTBM). ISSN 2210-5395. 67(June). doi: 10.1016/j.rtbm.2026.101663. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The rapid growth of small satellites has transformed the structure of the global space sector, yet the extent to which declining launch costs have contributed to this transition remains underinvestigated. This paper examines the relationship between launch affordability and the proliferation of satellites with a mass below 500 kg using a comprehensive dataset covering all operational satellites launched between 2003 and 2022. Six linear regression models are estimated to assess whether reductions in average launch costs are associated with changes in payload composition and average satellite mass. Results indicate a strong statistical association between lower launch costs and both an increasing share of small satellites and a substantial decline in average satellite mass after 2013. When low-cost, high-cadence launch services are excluded from the analysis, the relationship weakens, indicating that recent changes in launch supply conditions have played a major role in shaping deployment patterns. Evidence suggests that declining launch costs significantly contributed to the transition toward a small satellite-dominated orbital environment, while also interacting with broader technological, organizational, and market developments. These results shed empirical light into how access-to-orbit economics influences system design choices, investment strategies, and competitive dynamics in the contemporary space economy.

• Iannaccone, Gabriele; Gatta, Valerio & Marcucci, Edoardo (2026). Policy prioritization in participatory planning: which approach to use, when and why? Transport Policy. ISSN 0967-070X. 182(July). doi: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2026.104090. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This paper addresses the critical challenge of policy prioritization within Urban Freight participatory planning. While the objectives and activities of such planning are generally defined, clear methodological guidance on selecting the most suitable approach, contingent on specific contextual factors, remains limited. This research systematically classifies and compares alternative approaches against key contextual factors. Jointly considering a comprehensive systematic scientific/grey literature review (64 articles and 11 items, respectively) and scenario analysis allows the study to evaluate both strengths and weaknesses of each approach across various hypothetical planning contexts. Results indicate that, while there is no best solution, Discrete Choice Models generally represent the most suitable approach across diverse scenarios, particularly when dealing with high stakeholder heterogeneity and controversial, monetary-focused policies. Conversely, Discuss and Deliberate methods, while effective for high complexity, are often time-consuming and less suitable when highly heterogeneous groups are key. This paper provides policymakers and practitioners with evidence-based recommendations for selecting context-appropriate participatory methodologies, thereby enhancing the efficiency and legitimacy of UFT policy design while mitigating the risks of delayed or blocked policymaking processes.

• Napoli, Giuseppe; Micari, Salvatore; Comi, Antonio; Idone, Ippolita; Polimeni, Antonio & Gatta, Valerio [Show all 7 contributors for this article] (2026). An Integrated Assessment of Battery and Hydrogen Electric Vehicles for Urban and Interurban Service Operations. Energies. 19(4). doi: 10.3390/en19041113. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Urban freight and service operations represent a critical challenge for cities, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions, congestion, and competition for curb space. In addition to parcel deliveries, many service trips combine transport with installation, maintenance, or packaging recovery, generating long vehicle dwell times and inefficient use of public space. This paper investigates alternative operational scenarios for such activities, evaluating technological and organizational options that can reduce their environmental and spatial impacts. The study compares a diesel LCV baseline with four zero-emission configurations: battery electric LCVs; battery electric LCVs integrated with micro-hubs and cargo e-bikes; hydrogen fuel cell LCVs for long-range operations, and hydrogen fuel cell LCVs combined with cargo e-bikes via micro-hubs. The methodological framework is based on a vehicle routing problem (VRP) formulation supported by empirical data from Rome. It integrates indicators of energy use, carbon emissions, and curb-side occupation, and it includes the spatial representation of routes on urban and inter-urban maps to highlight operational differences across the five scenarios. Results indicate that zero-emission vehicles can eliminate tailpipe emissions, while logistics reorganization through decoupling improves the use of public space and enables the recovery of packaging materials. Battery solutions appear best suited to short and medium distances, whereas hydrogen is advantageous for longer routes. Overall, the study shows that combining technological and organizational measures provides a robust pathway toward sustainable logistics and more efficient service operations in metropolitan contexts.

• Patella, Sergio Maria; Carrese, Filippo; Maltese, Ila; Gatta, Valerio & Marcucci, Edoardo (2026). Missing the forest for the trees: what road freight decarbonisation research overlooks. Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment. ISSN 1361-9209. 154. doi: 10.1016/j.trd.2025.105207. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Decarbonising road freight transport is a critical priority for achieving global climate targets. This paper investigates how academic research conceptualises and addresses decarbonisation pathways in road freight transport. It applies a two-step literature review, combining aggregate and disaggregate search strategies, distinguishing between road freight transport and city logistics. Using the Avoid–Shift–Improve framework as an analytical benchmark, findings show that most studies focus on isolated technological solutions, while demand-reduction and modal-shift strategies receive comparatively less attention. Crucially, only a marginal subset of the literature explicitly adopts a structured, integrated, and multidimensional perspective; the majority conducts fragmented and narrowly scoped analyses, limiting the capacity to inform systemic and potentially effective policy strategies. This paper identifies this critical research gap and advocates for a paradigm shift in academic inquiry. Future studies should employ conceptual frameworks that capture the interdependencies among policy measures, thereby supporting the design and implementation of successful freight transport decarbonisation pathways.

• Marcucci, Edoardo; Maltese, Ila & Gatta, Valerio (2025). Participatory planning. In Nelson, John D.; Mulley, Corinne & Ison, Stephen (Ed.), Elgar Encyclopedia of Transport and Society. Edward Elgar Publishing. ISSN 9781035330522. p. 264–265. doi: 10.4337/9781035330522-00136. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Facing the sustainability challenges posed by urban logistics is complex due to factors such as the heterogeneity of stakeholders, high competition among operators, lack of data and awareness, and conflicting objectives between public and private actors. Effective urban policies require stakeholder acceptability, which reduces conflicts and facilitates implementation. Participatory planning, recommended by European guidelines, ensures stakeholder engagement, better information, and co-creation of feasible solutions, enhancing urban quality of life and economic development. It is thus important to identify all stakeholders and to develop tools to actively involve them, which can result in greater efficiency and effectiveness of the solutions adopted.

• Gatta, Valerio; Maltese, Ila & Marcucci, Edoardo (2025). E-commerce. In Nelson, John D.; Mulley, Corinne & Ison, Stephen (Ed.), Elgar Encyclopedia of Transport and Society. Edward Elgar Publishing. ISSN 9781035330522. p. 130–131. doi: 10.4337/9781035330522-00069. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Since its emergence in the late 1990s, e-commerce has experienced rapid and significant growth, particularly with regard to business-to-consumer transactions. This has substantial implications for the environment and urban living conditions, primarily through increased CO2 emissions and urban congestion due to more frequent deliveries. This necessitates a comprehensive reassessment of urban logistics and transport requirements. Effective strategies require an in-depth analysis of the unique e-commerce transport demand and strong collaborations between the public and private sectors to enhance data collection and implement appropriate solutions capable of reconciling operational efficiency with environmental sustainability and urban quality of life.

• Erriu, Riccardo; Balla, Bhavani Shankar; Marcucci, Edoardo; Gatta, Valerio; Comi, Antonio & Napoli, Giuseppe [Show all 7 contributors for this article] (2025). Regulatory Enablers and Stakeholders’ Acceptance in Defining Eco-Friendly Vehicle Logistics Solutions for Rome. Future Transportation. 5(4). doi: 10.3390/futuretransp5040188. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Urban freight generates a disproportionate share of urban externalities, yet the large-scale integration of eco-friendly vehicles (EFVs) remains limited. Barriers include high capital costs, inadequate charging/refuelling infrastructure, and fragmented governance frameworks. This article examines how regulatory structures and stakeholder alignment shape EFV adoption in Rome, analysing two pilot solutions: (i) a shared hub for electric and hydrogen freight vehicles, and (ii) a cargo-bike programme combining service-trip separation with reverse logistics. The methodological approach integrates a structured review of recent scholarship—organised in line with PRISMA guidance and enriched with bibliometric analysis—with empirical insights from five Living Lab workshops involving logistics providers, energy firms, technology suppliers, and industry associations. The findings highlight that progress depends less on technological capability than on policy mixes matched to stakeholder incentives. For the hub, decisive factors include siting, governance, and scale, while for cargo-bikes, reliability of dispatch, remuneration models, and certified training are critical. The study concludes that Rome’s path to freight decarbonisation requires regulatory and financial packages continuously tailored to actors’ operational priorities and behavioural responses.

• Colonna, Lucia; Marcucci, Edoardo; Gatta, Valerio & Comi, Antonio (2025). Cargo bikes and van deliveries in Rome : a comparative analysis. Future Transportation. 5(4). doi: 10.3390/futuretransp5040145. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The rapid growth of e-commerce and the pandemic-driven surge in deliveries have intensified the challenges last-mile logistics poses to urban areas. Road transport, the predominant delivery mode, is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Despite a downward trend since 2008, emissions rose in 2022, reflecting an increased mobility demand. Light commercial vehicles and trucks impact air and noise pollution due to their high emissions and noise levels. Innovative solutions, such as cargo bikes (CBs), have emerged as sustainable alternatives to mitigate these effects. This paper reports a brief literature review on CBs and evaluates their environmental, economic, and social benefits by comparing real-life data from a shipping company operating with CBs in central Rome to simulated data for motorized delivery vehicles. By analyzing their potential to reduce emissions, improve urban livability, and lower operational costs, this study seeks to raise awareness on CBs’ sustainability as a viable alternative for last-mile logistics. Highlighting these advantages can support policymakers, businesses, and urban planners in fostering a transition to more sustainable urban mobility solutions.

• Nascimento, Carla De Oliveira Leite; Pira, Michela Le; Fazio, Martina; Marcucci, Edoardo; Gatta, Valerio & Pluchino, Alessandro (2025). Customers in action : involving crowdshippers in e-grocery deliveries. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice. ISSN 0965-8564. 199(September). doi: 10.1016/j.tra.2025.104582. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Improving last-mile deliveries in cities is fundamental to reconciling economic growth with sustainability, especially considering e-groceries’ role. This paper explores grocery system configurations, accounting for service efficiency and crowdshippers’ accessibility, by jointly considering customers’ channel choices, customers’ willingness to act as crowdshippers, alternative delivery options, and comparing a no-detour case and a with-detour alternative. The paper proposes an integrated and coordinated modelling approach to explore alternative e-grocery scenarios, including crowdshipping as a possible alternative delivery option. The key Performance Indicators the paper uses are kilometres driven, shopping time, channel choices, and the number of crowdshippers/receivers. Results indicate that crowdshipping can significantly reduce delivery vehicle Kms driven while improving delivery efficiency and accessibility, and this is greatest when customers take detours. The practical implementation of the solution suggests encouraging participation, ensuring reliability, promoting sustainable practices, and supporting policy integration.

• Lozzi, Riccardo; Marcucci, Edoardo & Gatta, Valerio (2025). Urban logistics facilities and storytelling : stakeholderengagement, participatory policy-planning and co-creation. Transportation planning and technology (Print). ISSN 0308-1060. 49(2026)(1), p. 121–143. doi: 10.1080/03081060.2025.2537084. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  City Logistics demand increase has relevant implications for vehicle movements and the environment. This depends not only on fleet composition and delivery strategies, but also on the positioning of logistics facilities currently characterised by two contrasting tendences: ‘proximity logistics’ and ‘logistics sprawl’. When stakeholders evaluate logistics facilities, they typically use three evaluation categories: economic, resource endowment, and policies regulations. This paper illustrates the use of storytelling as a stakeholder management tool for logistics facilities participatory planning, where it has never been used before. Storytelling promotes behavioural change since stories generate a sense of identity and community, thanks to their intrinsic transformative capabilities. This paper reports the case-study of the Metropolitan City of Rome where L-3D, a purposed built software, was used to develop a storytelling strategy with the intent of promoting stakeholder participation, fostering a better understanding, knowledge-sharing, and effective cooperation.

• Oliveira, Leise Kelli; Oliveira, Isabela Kopperschmidt; Nascimento, Carla De Oliveira Leite; Marcucci, Edoardo & Gatta, Valerio (2024). Mobility as a service for freight and passenger transport: Identifying a microhubs network to promote crowdshipping service. Case Studies on Transport Policy. ISSN 2213-624X. 19(2025)(March). doi: 10.1016/j.cstp.2024.101356. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Mobility as a service platform for freight and passenger transport can promote sustainable cities. However, most of the contributions in the literature on mobility as a service platform explicitly focus on passenger mobility only. This article describes the operational characteristics of a mobility as a service platform for freight and passenger transport operated by GoMoov in Joinville, Brazil. In addition, it also explores the setting up of a microhub network for parcel deliveries employing e-shared vehicles and a crowdshipping workforce. Findings indicate that ten microhubs are sufficient to cover the urban area of Joinville (98.96 % of the residents and 98.99 % of the dwellings). Mobility as a Service platform for freight and people transport generates non-negligible economic and environmental benefits. Appropriate marketing strategies and active engagement of the companies involved are crucial to its success.

• Erriu, Riccardo; Marcucci, Edoardo & Gatta, Valerio (2024). Facilitating a sustainable aviation fuel transition in Italy. Energies. 17(14). doi: 10.3390/en17143388. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Civil aviation significantly contributes to “hard-to-abate” emissions, responsible for 2% of global CO2 emissions. This paper examines the most effective policies to promote Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAFs) in Italy, using a multi-level policy analysis and a stakeholder-based case study approach. The policies reviewed comprise the international, European, and national level. The paper analyses at the international level, ICAO CORSIA and, at the European level, the Renewable Energy Directive (RED), ReFuel EU, and the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) for aviation. Italy has not yet implemented specific policies targeting SAF transition, which is challenging due to commercialization issues and policy inconsistencies. These include the price gap between SAF and conventional fuels, different definitions adopted, and environmental objectives pursued with respect to sustainable fuels by ICAO and the EU. Other challenges include double-counting risks and fuel tankering practices. This article contributes to Italy’s SAF policymaking by developing a stakeholder-based quantitative survey, whose results suggest that three measures are key: tax subsidies for technology and infrastructure users, tax credits for upgrading production infrastructure, and tax breaks for SAF-using companies, fuel handlers, and distributors.

• Maltese, Ila; Crotti, Daniele; Marcucci, Edoardo; Gatta, Valerio & Scaccia, Luisa (2024). Multimodality at destination: A focus on domestic tourism. Research in Transportation Business and Management (RTBM). ISSN 2210-5395. 58(2025)(January). doi: 10.1016/j.rtbm.2024.101249. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Transport externalities can strongly affect the attractiveness of tourist destinations. Tourists' multimodality at destination, reducing private motorised mobility, improves sustainability and city appeal. The paper explores tourists' intention to utilise multiple modes of transport via a survey of more than 1900 potential tourists in Italy. It reports ordered probit model results, indicating that transport mode towards destination, information, and tourists' age are crucial. The beneficiaries of the results this paper produces are: 1) public decision-makers who can exploit this information when defining transport service characteristics (e.g., efficiency and comfort); 2) tour operators who can fruitfully use these results when including transport services in their products, along with accommodation and catering; 3) tourism managers who can stimulate multimodality by targeting specific initiatives to different population groups.

• Marcucci, Edoardo; Gatta, Valerio; Nascimento, Carla De Oliveira Leite; Aziz, Soukaina; Ayagah, Prince & Montero, Tania (2024). The environmental impact of buying groceries online/offline pre and during COVID-19 : any changes? Transport Policy. ISSN 0967-070X. 149(April), p. 222–233. doi: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2024.01.028. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  COVID-19 has represented a watershed in people's lifestyle. One important consequence has been the change in how people buy groceries online/offline that represent the most frequent shopping-related trip any household performs. Since this has substantially different transport and environmental implications, it is crucial to investigate what are the COVID-19-induced variations. This paper estimates both travel and environmental impacts grocery channel choice implies by comparing, in a diachronic fashion, the pre and during COVID-19 situation in Norway, considering alternative scenarios describing different service configurations for each channel considered. Stated preferences are used to estimate market shares for grocery purchase distinguishing between different channels: in-store, home delivery and click&pick. The robust comparative analysis between the two time periods is guaranteed by the use of the same methodological approach in the same geographical context. Results show that total emissions are lower during the pandemic and adopting a free delivery strategy not only increases home delivery market shares but also produces the lowest level of CO2 emissions regardless of COVID-19. The results obtained are particularly relevant in the "new normal" the world is experiencing both from a public policymaking perspective, when promoting transport-related interventions to curb emissions, and from a private standpoint, when customising market strategies to increase sales and profits.

• Lozzi, Giacomo; Iannaccone, Gabriele; Maltese, Ila; Gatta, Valerio & Marcucci, Edoardo (2023). City Logistics landscape in the era of on-demand economy : challenges, trends and influencing factors. Transportation Research Procedia. 72, p. 3086–3093. doi: 10.1016/j.trpro.2023.11.858. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  To minimize the negative impact of on-demand logistics, the EU-funded LEAD project is creating Digital Twins in six cities, testing different innovative solutions for shared-connected and low-emission logistics operations via a Living Lab approach. This paper presents the results of a survey carried out among 125 qualified participants/experts, to identify the factors that most influence urban freight transport and on-demand deliveries, broken down and analyzed by type of respondent (i.e., public/private sector or academia). The survey provides insights about the different sensitivities of practitioners, operators and experts with respect to the mechanisms that govern urban freight transport. Among the six categories identified, new technologies, consumer requirements and economic and demographic elements were selected as the factors that most influence on-demand logistics.

• Nascimento, Carla De Oliveira Leite; Gatta, Valerio & Marcucci, Edoardo (2023). Green crowdshipping : critical factors from a business perspective. Research in Transportation Business and Management (RTBM). ISSN 2210-5395. 51(December). doi: 10.1016/j.rtbm.2023.101062. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Crowdshipping implies involving nonprofessional operators in transporting goods. While its financial benefits are easy to grasp, its environmental implications much depend on the transportation mode used and whether trips are dedicated or non-dedicated. One way of greening crowdshipping services is to use public transportation (less polluting) as a mode of transportation and commuters as bringers (non-dedicated trips). This, in fact, allows minimizing both pollution and congestion at the same time. While conceptually interesting and theoretically self-evident this is practically difficult to implement and much under-studied. A literature review and in-depth interviews are the methods used in sequence to tackle the issue discussed above. The added value this paper produces is a confirmation of already existing research foci, an extension of the research agenda thanks to the investigation of adjacent research fields (passenger and freight urban integration), an enlargement of the critical factors thanks to the practical knowledge deriving form crowdshipping operators.

• Gatta, Valerio; Marcucci, Edoardo & Pira, Michela Le (2023). E-commerce and urban logistics : trends, challenges, and opportunities. In Marcucci, Edoardo; Gatta, Valerio & Pira, Michela Le (Ed.), Handbook on city logistics and urban freight. Edward Elgar Publishing. ISSN 9781800370166. p. 422–443. doi: 10.4337/9781800370173.00033. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Providing an up-to-date and comprehensive overview of city logistics and urban freight research, this Handbook offers multidisciplinary insights on the key theories, themes and pressing issues common to urban and metropolitan landscapes.

• Pira, Michela Le; Marcucci, Edoardo; Gatta, Valerio; Ignaccolo, Matteo & Inturri, Giuseppe (2023). Participatory decision-support tools for stakeholder engagement in urban freight transport policy making. In Marcucci, Edoardo; Gatta, Valerio & Pira, Michela Le (Ed.), Handbook on city logistics and urban freight. Edward Elgar Publishing. ISSN 9781800370166. p. 327–345. doi: 10.4337/9781800370173.00027. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Providing an up-to-date and comprehensive overview of city logistics and urban freight research, this Handbook offers multidisciplinary insights on the key theories, themes and pressing issues common to urban and metropolitan landscapes.

• Marcucci, Edoardo; Gatta, Valerio; Simoni, Michele & Maltese, Ila (2023). Pricing in freight transport. In Tirachini, Alejandro; Hörcher, Daniel & Verhoef, Erik (Ed.), Handbook on Transport Pricing and Financing. Edward Elgar Publishing. ISSN 9781800375550. p. 229–251. doi: 10.4337/9781800375550.00019. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This chapter investigates freight transport pricing by analysing theoretical and practical issues pertaining to the road, rail, air, and maritime segments. It discusses both the internalisation of freight transport externalities and the pricing of freight transport services, providing useful insights into the different sector characteristics, geographical dimensions, and intermodal relationships. The most important peculiarity of freight transport pricing pertains to the relationship between transport and logistic elements where the former is just a (usually minor) component of the latter. Therefore, decisions made by stakeholders should always be studied with due consideration of the wider logistic picture to understand the overall rationality of the choices made, which might otherwise appear inconsistent. The chapter illustrates how freight transport pricing is a complex, heterogeneous, and articulated matter characterised by different hurdles to overcome when trying to provide a theoretically robust, comprehensive, and balanced account of the different issues that influence its current state and future evolutions.

• Maltese, Ila; Marcucci, Edoardo; Gatta, Valerio; Sciullo, Alessandro & Rye, Tom (2023). Challenges for public participation in sustainable urban logistics planning : the experience of Rome. In Hansson, Lisa; Sørensen, Claus Hedegaard & Rye, Tom (Ed.), Public participation in transport in times of change. Emerald Group Publishing Limited. ISSN 9781804550380. p. 77–95. doi: 10.1108/S2044-994120230000018007. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Public participation in policy-making can play a fundamental role in improving effectiveness via two mechanisms: strengthening the alignment between public needs and proposed measures, and increasing public consensus (and compliance) about them. It is, therefore, particularly relevant to foster public participation in sustainable mobility planning at the urban scale, as strongly recommended by the European Union, not only to avoid protests and resolve conflicts but also to find the best solutions for the city. Among many different tools and methodologies for implementing public participation, Living Labs have also shown great potential in enhancing the co-creation of strategies and measures for achieving sustainable mobility for both passengers and freight. Through the analysis of the participatory process carried out by the municipality of Rome to support the definition of the Sustainable Urban Mobility and Logistics Plans, this chapter explores different involvement levels, tools and strategies in this field, with a particular focus on the innovative Logistics Living Lab developed in this city. This also contributes to filling a gap in the literature on how and to what extent citizens could or should participate in city logistics planning. The results of the analysis highlight that, despite these efforts, citizen participation in planning urban logistics is still a challenge that deserves additional effort and resources to be properly enhanced and improved and that a Living Lab offers great potential to meet this challenge. In turn, this case study could help policy-makers to identify solutions for more effective and acceptable measures to addressing city logistics and the externalities it generates.

• Marcucci, Edoardo; Gatta, Valerio & Maltese, Ila (2023). Policy acceptability and implementation in urban logistics. In Monios, Jason; Budd, Lucy & Ison, Stephen (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of urban logistics. Routledge. ISSN 9781003241478. p. 267–281. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This chapter provides an overview of current knowledge on policy acceptability and implementation in urban logistics discussing three key elements, namely stakeholders’ engagement, stakeholders’ preferences, and process replicability. It describes the importance of the ex-ante acceptability of urban logistics policies. Urban logistics policy acceptability requires, not only, the collection of a large amount of, potentially sensitive, data, but also accurate analyses and methodologically correct estimates/predictions. Complex tools for participation that can be useful for evaluating policies for urban logistics have been gaining ground in recent years, also thanks to the spread of communication technologies available to individuals with great ease of use and affordability. The Freight Quality Partnership is one of the most important examples for setting up a formal working environment that helps stakeholders’ cooperation with clear roles and responsibilities. The Living Lab is a structured and replicable approach that can be useful for sustainable urban logistics plan.

• Lozzi, Giacomo; Iannaccone, Gabriele; Maltese, Ila; Gatta, Valerio; Marcucci, Edoardo & Lozzi, Riccardo (2022). On-Demand Logistics: Solutions, Barriers, and Enablers. Sustainability. 14(15), p. 1–21. doi: 10.3390/su14159465. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The urban freight sector provides an essential service by delivering goods that are required by shops, companies, and households at a specific place and time. However, the growth of e-commerce and the dawn of on-demand logistics (hereinafter ODL) have raised citizens’ expectations of logistics systems, further stressing them and thereby increasing their operational and environmental costs. To the authors’ best knowledge, there are no extensive literature reviews specifically on the topic of ODL and on suggestions for policy prioritisation for tackling its effects. This paper aims at addressing this issue by providing an extensive literature review of ODL and its enablers. This research, after a thorough explanation of the ODL rationale, its trends, and its effects, analyses possible solutions to its inefficiencies, focusing on enablers and barriers. Furthermore, it illustrates and clarifies the role of external factors in influencing ODL. Finally, it proposes a systematic evaluation approach by identifying knowledge gaps and consequently defining the subsequent actions needed, broken down by the individual influencing components, rendering these solutions compatible with the status quo and effective for solving the highlighted issues. View Full-Text Keywords: last-mile delivery, sustainable mobility, on-demand logistics, urban freight transport

• Scaccia, Luisa; Marcucci, Edoardo & Gatta, Valerio (2022). Prediction and confidence intervals of willingness-to-pay for mixed logit models. Transportation Research Part B: Methodological. ISSN 0191-2615. 167(January), p. 54–78. doi: 10.1016/j.trb.2022.11.007. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Heterogeneity in agents’ preferences is generally analysed through mixed logit models, which assume taste parameters are distributed in the population according to a certain mixing distribution. As a result, if the utility function is linear in attributes, the willingness to pay is the ratio of two random parameters and is itself random. This paper proposes a technique built on the Delta method, partly analytical and partly based on simulations, to obtain the sampling distribution of the willingness to pay, accounting for both heterogeneity and sampling error. The paper contributes to the literature by: (i) redressing some imprecisions in Bliemer and Rose (2013) that produce biased results; (ii) proposing a faster estimation process, compared to the Krinsky and Robb (1986, 1990) method that, relying on simulation only, proves computationally more demanding; (iii) comparing the performance of different methods using both synthetic and real data sets. The paper shows, via a Monte Carlo study, that the method we develop and the Krinsky and Robb one produce similar results, while outperforming that proposed by Bliemer and Rose. Keywords: willingness to pay, mixed logit, confidence intervals, prediction intervals, delta method, Krinsky and Robb method

• Aziz, Soukaina; Maltese, Ila; Marcucci, Edoardo; Gatta, Valerio; Benmoussa, Rachid & Irhirane, El Hassan (2022). Energy Consumption and Environmental Impact of E-Grocery: A Systematic Literature Review. Energies. 15(19), p. 1–19. doi: 10.3390/en15197289. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  E-grocery is fast growing worldwide and represents a relevant issue for city logistics. Although in almost all countries the percentage of food e-buyers was lower than those purchasing other commodity categories, due to the pandemic, they have increased significantly in the last two years, with consequences that are difficult to fathom and estimate. This phenomenon therefore deserves more attention, especially with respect to its environmental impact, mostly at the urban scale. This paper presents a systematic literature review (SLR) on how e-grocery impacts the environment through the CO2 emissions generated and the equivalent energy consumption. The methodology used for the review follows a standard approach, with different combinations of keywords used for the search performed in SCOPUS and the Web of Science databases. Emissions and energy consumption assessments were performed for all of the papers considered. The results point to two different findings: some studies consider online grocery as an environmentally friendly channel, while others note that the energy consumption of this emerging channel is higher than alternative ones. This paper contributes by suggesting future research directions to be explored on the relationship between e-grocery and energy use and provides some reflections that are useful not only to e-grocers and logistics operators, but also to policy makers with an interest in developing sustainable urban plans and promoting less environmentally impacting distributions/configurations of grocery delivery systems within city logistics. Keywords: e-grocery, energy consumption, environmental impact, city logistics, SLR

• Aziz, Soukaina; Gatta, Valerio; Marcucci, Edoardo; Benmoussa, Rachid & Irhirane, El Hassan (2022). E-grocery behavioural analysis for sustainable urban logistics in Morocco. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TRANSPORT ECONOMICS. ISSN 0303-5247. 49(1), p. 9–32. doi: 10.19272/202206701001. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Evaluating people behaviours towards online grocery channels is of great importance in sustainable urban mobility planning. This study uses stated preference methods to assess both Moroccans’ habits to buy groceries and potential behaviour change. A multinomial logit model is used to estimate parameters influencing consumers when purchasing goods in grocery stores or online (either via home delivery or click&pick). Results demonstrate that product price, product range, lead time and service cost for the two options are the main choice determinants. Market shares, travelled distances generated by groceries shopping, and CO/NOx emissions are calculated for different scenarios. The paper provides valuable insights for private and public stakeholders to develop their sustainable policies and reduce negative externalities on the environment at an urban scale. Keywords: e-groceries, stated preferences, urban logistics, home delivery, click & pick, environment

• Iannaccone, Gabriele; Marcucci, Edoardo & Gatta, Valerio (2021). What young e-consumers want? : forecasting parcel lockers choice in Rome. Logistics. 5(3), p. 1–16. doi: 10.3390/logistics5030057. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Surges in e-commerce sales represent a huge challenge for urban freight transport. Parcel lockers constitute a valid solution for addressing the challenges home deliveries imply. In fact, eliminating courier–consumer contact (also relevant for health-related issues, as made evident by the COVID-19 pandemic) and delivering in fewer predefined places might help coping mechanisms for missed deliveries substantially. Furthermore, this option enables consolidated shipping and reduced delivery trip costs. This paper analyses and compares consumer preferences for alternative collection strategies. It investigates home delivery vs. parcel locker use and forecasts their future market shares. This is performed based on both customer socio-economic variables and the attributes characterising these alternative logistic fulfilment strategies. The case study considered tests upon a stated preference survey deployed in the city of Rome. The investigation specifically targeted young people (i.e., population under 30 years) since they represent early adopters. Discrete choice models allow both quantifying the monetary value of parcel lockers attributes (i.e., willingness to pay measures) and estimating the potential demand for this innovative delivery scheme. Results show that distance and accessibility are the main choice determinants. Furthermore, there is an overall high propensity to adopt parcel lockers. This research can support policymakers when implementing such solutions. View Full-Text Keywords: parcel locker, last mile delivery, home delivery, city logistics, urban freight transport, stated preference, discrete choice modelling; consumer behavior, e-commerce, channel choice, collection points

• Maltese, Ila; Gatta, Valerio & Marcucci, Edoardo (2021). Active travel in sustainable urban mobility plans : an Italian overview. Research in Transportation Business and Management (RTBM). ISSN 2210-5395. 40(September), p. 1–16. doi: 10.1016/j.rtbm.2021.100621. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP) has been identified as the privileged tool for addressing economic, social, and environmental issues in transport policy at the urban scale from a long-term strategic perspective. Indeed, urban policymakers intend adopting measures to cope with the negative externalities generated by transport. The focus is on reducing traffic flows (number and length) of motorized-trips and minimize their related impact. Among these measures, together with electric vehicles promotion, active travel (AT) – including walking and cycling – represents an interesting strategy. This is especially true as local public transport (LPT) is progressively less attractive, also due to overcrowding and lower service quality, since the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic. AT, moreover, creates the preconditions for a healthier life. Within this context, it is interesting to investigate to what extent SUMPs promote AT as a solution for achieving sustainable mobility (SM) at the urban scale. The paper analyses, by looking at SUMPs adopted in major Italian cities, the AT measures undertaken. The Italian case is of particular interest since its motorization rate is second only to Luxembourg in the whole European Union. Specifically, the paper exploits a multiple case-study comparative approach allowing to identify the correlation between main SUMP characteristics and AT-related initiatives. The main findings of the paper show that infrastructural AT projects play the lion role thus casting a shadow on the likely effectiveness of AT promotion. In fact, a comprehensive package approach (e.g. citizens engagement, land-use planning, gamification, data collection, etc.) for AT promotion is still lacking. Keywords: SUMPActive travel, non-motorized transport, sustainable mobility, walking, cycling

• Pira, Michela Le; Marcucci, Edoardo & Gatta, Valerio (2021). Roman holiday : tourist heterogeneous preferences for walking path elements. Research in Transportation Economics. ISSN 0739-8859. 90(December), p. 1–11. doi: 10.1016/j.retrec.2021.101106. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This paper investigates tourists’ preferences in Rome (Italy) with respect to their “last mile” transport walking experience. Stated preference experiments and discrete choice models are used to estimate tourists’ preferences for alternative walking paths configurations, taking into account path characteristics and conditions (e.g. public services presence, interference with other modes of transport and thermal comfort). We estimate Multinomial logit (MNL) models on the base of 365 choice experiments. The most important attribute is cleanliness, followed by green spaces. The paper estimates both time elasticity and the “willingness to walk” with respect to different path attributes. Segmenting the sample and estimating different MNL models allows considering preference heterogeneity. Results show there are some differences within the sample. In fact, those who usually walk are willing to walk more than others given some improvements in the path. Besides, we also propose, on the base of the last walking path followed, a “tourist walking satisfaction index” linked to utility. This sheds light on tourists’ walking experience in different zones of the study area. In particular, adding restrooms along the paths increases tourist walking satisfaction the most. The paper provides useful information for policy-makers on how to plan, design and manage walking networks.

• Marcucci, Edoardo; Gatta, Valerio & Pira, Michela Le (2021). The economics and planning of urban freight transport. In Vickerman, Roger (Eds.), International Encyclopedia of Transportation. Elsevier. ISSN 9780081026717. p. 326–331. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-08-102671-7.10062-4. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This article will provide an overview of the economics of urban freight transport (UFT), focusing on the efficiency and sustainability of solutions, which can be guaranteed only via an appropriate planning and coordination between public and private interests. Standard economic theory also applies to UFT, however, its practical use is much hampered both by the level of heterogeneity, the complexity of relationships among actors and the role interaction effects play in this specific sector. This points to the need of a public intervention to regulate UFT, especially because of the negative externalities it produces at a city level. Private-public coordination, stakeholder engagement, technical and behavioural analyses are fundamental to foster sustainable and efficient UFT. Keywords: city logistics, cooperative logistics, economic efficiency, public private coordination, stakeholder involvement, supply chain, sustainability

• Pira, Michela Le; Gemma, Andrea; Gatta, Valerio; Carrese, Stefano & Marcucci, Edoardo (2021). Walking and sustainable tourism: “Streetsadvisor” : a stated preference GIS-based methodology for estimating tourist walking satisfaction in Rome. In Zamparini, Luca (Eds.), Sustainable transport and tourism destinations. Emerald Group Publishing Limited. ISSN 9781839091285. p. 45–58. doi: 10.1108/S2044-994120210000013007. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This chapter proposes a methodology to develop a tool aimed at helping tourists moving sustainably in Rome, focusing on the “last mile” of their transport experience, that is, walking trips. The methodology consists of the development of a stated preference survey, where tourists’ preferences are elicited with respect to alternative configurations of walking paths. This is performed by taking into consideration path accessibility, interference with other modes of transport, and thermal comfort aspects. Besides, georeferenced data are collected and systematized with the overall aim to create a geographical information system of the first municipality of Rome with useful information to evaluate the status of the walking network. The results of the analysis help to understand the relevant factors affecting tourists’ walking behavior. Additionally, the chapter provides the preliminary considerations needed for the definition of a “tourist walking satisfaction indicator” related to their walking experience with two aims: first, it provides useful information for policy-makers on how to design and manage walking networks; second, it provides a framework for a tourist traveler information system (a “StreetsAdvisor”) that can guide them in the city on the base of their heterogeneous preferences.

• Maltese, Ila; Pira, Michela Le; Marcucci, Edoardo; Gatta, Valerio & Evangelinos, Christos (2021). Grocery or @grocery : a stated preference investigation in Rome and Milan. Research in Transportation Economics. ISSN 0739-8859. 87(June), p. 1–12. doi: 10.1016/j.retrec.2021.101096. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Despite the huge growth in online purchases, e-grocery (i.e. ordering grocery online) was still limited in scope in Italy so far. More recently, its growth has been substantial and 2020 witnessed a huge increase due to COVID-19-related mobility restrictions. In principle, e-grocery could reduce the number of shopping trips, yet an exponential increase in shipping and deliveries could have a negative impact on the environment. In order to explore the willingness to e-grocery, and delivery preferences (self-delivery, home delivered grocery or collected in a specific place) - and estimate their market shares - a stated preference survey was carried in Rome and Milan. Respondents were asked about their grocery shopping habits and to choose among different shopping and delivery options. Discrete choice modelling allows investigating preference heterogeneity and estimating willingness to pay measures. Main results indicate that respondents, characterised by distinct socio-economic, attitudinal, and geographical elements, react differently to attribute variations for alternative grocery shopping channels. Scenario simulations can help in defining successful business-strategies and possible solutions to external costs. Under this respect, results suggest that the best strategy to increase e-grocery shares in the two cities should be non-monetary, but rather aimed at expanding the product range available online. Keywords: e-grocery, last mile delivery, home delivery, click&pick, city logistics, discrete Choice Models, multinomial, logit, consumer behaviour

• Marcucci, Edoardo; Gatta, Valerio & Pira, Michela Le (2021). Behavioral research in freight transport. In Vickerman, Roger (Eds.), International Encyclopedia of Transportation. Elsevier. ISSN 9780081026717. p. 242–246. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-08-102671-7.10252-0. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Freight transport is a complex world characterized by the presence of numerous actors with heterogeneous interests. Besides, given its high impacts at an urban level, appropriate solutions are needed toward sustainability and efficiency. However, policies are effective only if the impacted agents adopt them and change their behavior. To do this, a strong knowledge of behavioral underpinnings characterizing stakeholder choices is required. In the following, we will report on the international debate on freight behavioral research by focusing on the importance of behavior change and stakeholder engagement for policy-making. Additionally, this paper discusses ex-ante behavioral assessments of urban freight transport policies so as to guarantee their uptake and dispersion. New behavioral analyses are needed to complement technical analyses, by considering both solution feasibility and acceptability. Keywords: agent-based modeling, behavior change, City logistics, discrete choice modeling, econometric models, freight behavior research, stakeholder behavioral analysis, stakeholder involvement, stated preferenceUrban freight transport

• Patella, Sergio Maria; Grazieschi, Gianluca; Gatta, Valerio; Marcucci, Edoardo & Carrese, Stefano (2020). The adoption of green vehicles in last mile logistics : a systematic review. Sustainability. 13(1), p. 1–24. doi: 10.3390/su13010006. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Widespread adoption of green vehicles in urban logistics may contribute to the alleviation of problems such as environmental pollution, global warming, and oil dependency. However, the current adoption of green vehicles in the last mile logistics is relatively low despite many actions taken by public authorities to overcome the negative externalities of distributing goods in cities. This paper presents a comprehensive literature review on studies investigating the adoption of green vehicles in urban freight transportation, paying specific attention to e-commerce. To shed light on the adoption of green vehicles in city logistics, the paper conducts a systematic review of the empirical literature on the topic. The 159 articles reviewed were classified into the following: (a) Optimization and scheduling (67 papers); (b) policy (55 papers); (c) sustainability (37 papers). Among the 159 articles, a further selection of 17 papers dealing with e-commerce, i.e., studies that highlight the most relevant aspects related to the integration of green vehicles in e-commerce urban logistics, was performed. Our findings indicate that green vehicles are competitive in urban deliveries characterized by frequent stop-and-go movements and low consolidation levels while incentives are still necessary for their adoption. The use of autonomous vehicles results the most promising and challenging solution for last-mile logistics. Keywords: last mile logistics, green logistics, urban freight, e-commerce, green vehicles, drones, autonomous vehicles

• Marcucci, Edoardo; Gatta, Valerio; Pira, Michela Le; Chao, Ting & Li, Shengnan (2020). Bricks or clicks? : consumer channel choice and its transport and environmental implications for the grocery market in Norway. Cities: The International Journal of Urban Policy and Planning. ISSN 0264-2751. 110(March), p. 1–12. doi: 10.1016/j.cities.2020.103046. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  E-grocery is the fastest growing e-commerce segment, while still a niche market. Notwithstanding the channel choice when buying groceries might have relevant transport and environmental implications, little attention is paid to demand analysis. The paper fills this research gap, by using stated preferences to estimate market shares for e-grocery, distinguishing between home deliveries and click&pick, using the in-store option as a reference, and by considering a case study in Norway. It investigates the role of various purchase characteristics (i.e. product price, service cost, lead-time, time window, travel time and product range) when choosing which purchase channel to use. Results suggest that the most important characteristics for consumers are related to price, in particular product price, but there is also significant heterogeneity in preferences within the sample. Scenario simulations allow estimating transport and environmental impacts deriving from channel market share changes. This information can be useful for developing both managerial strategies to increase e-grocery market share and public policy interventions to minimize negative externalities. Keywords: : e-groceries, channel choice, stated preference, city logistics, e-commerce

• Marcucci, Edoardo; Gatta, Valerio; Pira, Michela Le; Hansson, Lisa & Bråthen, Svein (2020). Digital twins : a critical discussion on their potential for supporting policy‐making and planning in urban logistics. Sustainability. 12(24), p. 1–15. doi: 10.3390/su122410623. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Poor logistics efficiency, due to low load factors caused by high demand fragmentation, will have relevant negative consequences for cities in terms of pollution, congestion and overall city liveability. Policy-makers should equip themselves with appropriate tools to perform reliable, comprehensive and timely analyses of urban logistics scenarios, also considering upcoming (i) technological changes, (ii) business model evolutions and (iii) spatial-temporal changes these innovations will produce. This paper discusses the Digital Twin (DT) concept, illustrating the role it might play and clarifying how to properly conceive it with respect to urban freight transport policy-making and planning. The main message is that without a sound theory and knowledge with respect to the relationships linking contextual reality and choice/behaviour, it is not possible to make sense of what happens in the real world. Therefore, the joint use of behavioural and simulation models should characterise a DT within a Living Lab approach so to stimulate effective, well-informed and participated planning processes, but also to forecast both behaviour and reactions to structural changes and policy measures implementations. Keywords: digital twins, urban freight, living lab, behavioural models, policy, planning

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• Marcucci, Edoardo; Gatta, Valerio & Pira, Michela Le (2023). Handbook on city logistics and urban freight. Edward Elgar Publishing. ISBN 9781800370166. 520 p. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Providing an up-to-date and comprehensive overview of city logistics and urban freight research, this Handbook offers multidisciplinary insights on the key theories, themes and pressing issues common to urban and metropolitan landscapes.

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• Marcucci, Edoardo; Gatta, Valerio & Pira, Michela Le (2023). Introduction to the Handbook on City Logistics and Urban Freight. In Marcucci, Edoardo; Gatta, Valerio & Pira, Michela Le (Ed.), Handbook on city logistics and urban freight. Edward Elgar Publishing. ISSN 9781800370166. p. 1–10. doi: 10.4337/9781800370173.00007. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Providing an up-to-date and comprehensive overview of city logistics and urban freight research, this Handbook offers multidisciplinary insights on the key theories, themes and pressing issues common to urban and metropolitan landscapes.

• Maltese, Ila; Gatta, Valerio & Marcucci, Edoardo (2023). Transizione ecologica e digitale: la sfida della logistica urbana sostenibile. In Frattolillo, Oliviero (Eds.), La doppia sfida della transizione ambientale e digitale. Roma TrE-Press. ISSN 9791259772688. p. 111–119. doi: 10.13134/979-12-5977-268-8. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Le transizioni digitale ed ecologica costituiscono la risposta privilegiata alle sfide che la logistica urbana, i cui volumi di traffico sono aumentati a seguito della pandemia, pone alle città. La mobilità sostenibile delle merci, in particolare, punta su innovazioni tecnologiche che comportano, ad esempio, l’utilizzo di veicoli leggeri e meno inquinanti, una viabilità più sicura, un incremento del trasporto pubblico e condiviso, personalizzato, e comunque accessibile, oltre ad una massiccia e mirata rilevazione dei dati. La co-creazione, adozione e attuazione di tali misure richiede, infatti, la condivisione della conoscenza, della visione, degli obiettivi da parte di tutti gli stakeholders, sia pubblici sia privati, a livello locale, nazionale e comunitario, nonché del supporto attivo da parte degli operatori e dei cittadini. Questo capitolo esplora le più recenti innovazioni della logistica urbana, concentrandosi sui cambiamenti che è necessario indurre nel comportamento dei consumatori al fine di garantire la sostenibilità del sistema minacciata dalla rapida crescita dell’e-commerce. Si propone una panoramica con diverse misure potenzialmente adottabili discutendone il relativo impatto, in termini di sostenibilità, governance e management, per favorire un radicale mutamento nell’approccio alla pianificazione e alla gestione della logistica urbana che l’utilizzo delle nuove tecnologie rende ora possibile. Inoltre, sono criticamente analizzate anche le difficoltà che si possono verosimilmente incontrare nella diffusione di tali innovazioni, laddove, come nel caso dei veicoli automatizzati, l’accettabilità

• Gatta, Valerio; Maltese, Ila & Marcucci, Edoardo (2021). I Piani Urbani di Mobilità Sostenibile e le politiche d'intervento nel settore della distribuzione delle merci nelle città: il caso di Roma : (Introduzione; Piani Urbani della Mobilità Sostenibile; Piani Urbani della Logistica Sostenibile; Il caso di Roma; Conclusioni). In Marcucci, Edoardo & Magazzino, Cosimo (Ed.), Intorno alla politica economica : saggi per Gian Cesare Romagnoli. Edizioni FrancoAngeli. ISSN 9788835120803. Full text in Research Archive
• Marcucci, Edoardo; Gatta, Valerio & Bråthen, Svein (2021). Editorial: E-groceries, digitalization and sustainability. Research in Transportation Economics. ISSN 0739-8859. 87(June), p. 1–4. doi: 10.1016/j.retrec.2021.101097. Full text in Research Archive
• Sernicola, Filippo; Maltese, Ila; Gatta, Valerio; Iannaccone, Gabriele & Marcucci, Edoardo (2020). Impatto del lockdown sulla spesa degli italiani : quale futuro per l’e-grocery? Rivista di economia e politica dei trasporti (REPoT). p. 1–13. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  I decisori politici e gli operatori del settore si stanno impegnando in nuovi progetti volti a minimizzare l’impatto ambientale del trasporto merci dell’ultimo miglio. A questo scopo potrebbe risultare funzionale l’evoluzione verso la modalità di spesa online (e-grocery) laddove, grazie a un servizio pianificato di consegna delle merci, riuscisse a ridurre il numero di viaggi e/o di veicoli circolanti e, di conseguenza, le esternalità negative legate al settore del trasporto merci urbano. Il “lockdown di primavera”, imposto tra marzo e maggio del 2020 per contrastare il diffondersi della pandemia da SARS-Covid19, ha avuto un impatto importante su qualità e quantità degli spostamenti, che sono calati drasticamente per via delle restrizioni governative agli spostamenti vigenti sui vari territori nazionali. In questo lavoro si intende dunque esplorare se e in che misura le famiglie italiane abbiano modificato, durante il periodo di lockdown, le proprie abitudini nell’effettuare la spesa, eventualmente preferendo la modalità online. Inoltre si cerca di capire anche se tale modifica del comportamento potrebbe prolungarsi al termine del periodo di restrizioni. A questo scopo TRElab ha somministrato online un questionario su scala nazionale a più di 600 rispondenti. I risultati dello studio mostrano non solo che il lockdown ha contribuito, spesso per mancanza di alternative, a spingere le famiglie italiane verso nuove modalità di acquisto e ricezione della spesa, con un conseguente incremento del flusso di richieste per il comparto dell’e-grocery, ma evidenziano una propensione all’utilizzo del canale di vendita virtuale per la spesa anche in un prossimo futuro. Parole chiave: e-grocery, logistica urbana sostenibile, home delivery, click and pick, lockdown, Covid-19, pandemia

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