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SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS IN URBAN LOGISTICS
In recent years, urban logistics has been one of the most dynamically developing
areas of logistics activity. Considerations concerning urban logistics and its various
aspects have been carried out for more than a dozen years in the countries of Western
Europe and the USA, and there has been an increasing interest in Poland, too. The
interest in urban logistics is primarily due to the spatial growth of cities, the increase
in population density, the increasing number of institutions and companies, and the
emerging problems related to the provision of appropriate standards of living for the
inhabitants as well as the maintenance of the functionality of cities. Although the issues of
urban logistics and its various aspects have been explored for several years, the concept of
urban logistics is variously defined and interpreted. One definition states that these are all
actions that optimise the flow of goods, people and information within the social system
of the city. Another definition points to freight transport, including storage, supplies of
water, gas, electricity and heat, telecommunication network organisation, individual,
urban and suburban passenger transport, waste transportation, up to the development of
transport links in agglomeration with regional, national or even global logistics system.
Here, it might be worth quoting two definitions. The first concerns the city
itself. According to the definition given by the European Charter for the Safeguarding
of Human Rights in the City adopting the stance of the European Chapter of Local
Autonomy, “a city is a shared space belonging to its community which has the right to
be ensured conditions for political, social and ecological fulfilment, while assuming the
duty of solidarity”. The latter defines city logistics as “the general processes of formation/
creation of flows of people, goods and information within the logistics system of the city,
in accordance with the needs and objectives of the development of the city, with respect to
the protection of the environment, taking into account the fact that the city is a social
organisation (sic.) whose primary objective is to satisfy the needs of its users”. [14]
The essence of city logistics is to optimise all logistics acts and activities, in
particular transport, especially in the aspect of creating mobility, in urban areas
supported by modern information systems and other new technologies, taking into
account the concept of sustainable development. Its interests include a wide variety of
systems for the transportation of goods and people, public logistics terminals, cargo
control, underground transport systems and modern information and telematics
systems. The primary objective of its activities, in addition to the aspects of optimisation
and reduction of costs and negative environmental effects, is to raise the quality of life
of city inhabitants.
To define it as briefly as possible, city logistics covers logistics systems located in
urban areas, while its purpose is to appropriately organise the activities of all participants
operating in the city so as to reduce the global operational costs and increase customer
satisfaction, where customers are the inhabitants of cities. In addition, city logistics is
the prerequisite for further processes of opening cities to the diffusion of innovation or
the functioning of the cities in the network.
In recent years more and more attention has been paid to environmental and
ecological issues in areas of diverse human activities. Some arguments have been raised