Impacts of environmental access restrictions on freight delivery activities, the example of Low Emission Zones in Europe

The aim of this paper is to identify the position of goods vehicles in European Low Emission Zones and to analyze the impact of the access restrictions on transport and logistics firms and on their logistics activities. Low Emission Zones (LEZ) are delimited areas of a city or metropolitan area from which the vehicles that pollute the most are banned. Targeted vehicles are often freight vehicles as a result of the high levels of pollution emitted by today's urban delivery fleets. Through literature review, interviews and two specific surveys in London and Berlin, we analyzed LEZ impacts on the urban freight industry. We showed that the creation of a LEZ reduces the number of firms making urban deliveries, and that this reduction has probably benefited the urban freight market by compelling both public and private stakeholders to finds ways to promote more efficient activities. Such modernization is necessary as the urban freight market is dysfunctional in many respects: environmentally because of the old vehicles used until now, and socially because of the large number of small firms which find it difficult to maintain a sufficient level of business activity without breaking the sector's labor laws and safety standards.