Urban freight

Data collection and modeling

Lynette Cheah
Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD)

Fang Zhao
Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology,
Future of Urban Mobility (SMART FM)

Urban Logistics: E-Commerce & Sustainability Symposium, Nov 28, 2014

Challenges in urban freight

A complex socio-technical problem,

impacting:

urban and transport system planning

efficiency, cost of supply chains

environment and safety

Freight accounts for 35% of world transport energy use

Quarter of transport-related CO2 in European cities
Road freight expected to grow 60+% between 2000-2050
Source: DaBlanc 2010

Urban Logistics: E-Commerce & Sustainability Symposium, Nov 28, 2014

Complexity of urban freight

Different for every city

Fragmented industry: 90% of trucks in Asia owned by individuals

Diversity of commodity flow and transport implications

chemicals: pick-drop-drop-drop

materials, e.g. cement: hub & spoke

fast moving consumer goods (fmcg), food: fixed schedule,

subject to delivery time constraints

heavy equipment: dynamic based on job portfolio

Urban Logistics: E-Commerce & Sustainability Symposium, Nov 28, 2014

Hurdles to understanding urban freight

Lack of knowledge and data on freight flows in cities

In Singapore, no counterpart of Household Interview Travel Survey

A few uncoordinated studies, limited geographical and commodity

coverage

Absence of freight models for policy and governance

Systematic data collection is the initial step

measure what we want to manage

Urban Logistics: E-Commerce & Sustainability Symposium, Nov 28, 2014

Urban freight data of interest

Commodity flows

production-consumption flows
Truck movements

pickup/delivery operations

truck tours/routing characteristics (including fuel consumption

and engine performances)

truck drivers behaviour

Interactions amongst agents

suppliers, carriers, logistics providers, retailers

Urban Logistics: E-Commerce & Sustainability Symposium, Nov 28, 2014

Data collection approaches (ongoing)

Commodity flow surveys

Retailer surveys

Truck traffic counts

Truck surveys

SMART Future Mobility Survey

Urban Logistics: E-Commerce & Sustainability Symposium, Nov 28, 2014

Traffic counts

Exploring use of traffic image processing techniques

LTA expressway and intersection traffic monitoring cameras

(widely placed across island) are potential data sources

Urban Logistics: E-Commerce & Sustainability Symposium, Nov 28, 2014

Why truck surveys?

Fleet and driver monitoring

eco- or safe-driving

anti-idling

Optimize routing with known truck tours/trajectories

Carbon footprint and fuel use assessment

Urban Logistics: E-Commerce & Sustainability Symposium, Nov 28, 2014

Future Mobility Survey

Next-generation freight data collection
- leverage pervasive smartphone, GPS loggers and OBD
devices, advanced sensing and communication technologies
and machine learning architecture
- deliver previously unobtainable range of data reflecting what
shippers and carriers do, not what they say they did

Urban Logistics: E-Commerce & Sustainability Symposium, Nov 28, 2014

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Problem and Opportunity

Increasingly difficult to conduct reliable surveys via traditional

approaches
-

Response rates are low

Non-representative samples based on convenience and

intercept sampling

Short respondent attention span and limited ability to accurately

recall information

Smartphones, GPS loggers, OBD devices and RFID tags

unobtrusively collect a wealth of valuable information
-

Better quality and quantity of data, especially when combined

with information from shippers and carriers

Urban Logistics: E-Commerce & Sustainability Symposium, Nov 28, 2014

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FMS Solution

Future Mobility Sensing (FMS): technology developed to

innovate travel behavior surveys

Machine learning algorithms combined with web-based

user input to extend and validate smartphone sensing data

Urban Logistics: E-Commerce & Sustainability Symposium, Nov 28, 2014

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FMS

Underlying technology has been developed, tested and

proven effective

Field test with LTA HITS 2012

-

Yields more detailed and varied data than traditional

travel survey approaches

US inter-city truck driver survey

-

significant variability in driver tour patterns and route

choice behavior

Urban Logistics: E-Commerce & Sustainability Symposium, Nov 28, 2014

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Challenges

Adaptation of the US truck driver survey (inter-city) to

urban freight environment
- Track a variety of commercial vehicles
- More frequent stops
- More diverse activities

Challenges
- Lower GPS data quality
- Shorter stop durations
- Denser road network
- Large number of origins and destinations

Urban Logistics: E-Commerce & Sustainability Symposium, Nov 28, 2014

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Solutions
Enhance questionnaires
augment pre-survey with frequent stops, routes, trips,
activity types etc. to capture repetitive behavior
modify stop questions to include more diverse activities
Improvements to stop/activity detection algorithms
extend period of observation
enhance machine learning algorithms to include user
history and Points of Interest (POI) data

Urban Logistics: E-Commerce & Sustainability Symposium, Nov 28, 2014

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Progress

System setup for data collection in Singapore

New questionnaires designed and implemented for pre-survey
and activity diary

Urban Logistics: E-Commerce & Sustainability Symposium, Nov 28, 2014

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Next steps

Enhance machine learning algorithms to include user history and

Points of Interest (POI) data
Implement new pre-survey and activity diary questions
Incorporate stated preferences questions
Testing

Urban Logistics: E-Commerce & Sustainability Symposium, Nov 28, 2014

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Thank you!
lynette@sutd.edu.sg

fang.zhao@smart.mit.edu

Urban Logistics: E-Commerce & Sustainability Symposium, Nov 28, 2014

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