Chaos in urban freight policies

As mentioned in the European white paper of the OECD (OECD, 2003) the main policy objective to be tackled is the development of sustainable urban goods transport. Sustainable urban goods transport should facilitate a continuing economic growth and meanwhile protecting the environment and ensuring a better quality of life for future generations. In Netherlands various regulations have been implemented with the aim to maintain the urban living environment with sustainable qualities and to facilitate smooth and safe traffic flows. Most of these regulations have been widely implemented. However, the diversity of these regulations among municipalities can cause serious (planning) difficulties for logistics operators. A detailed evaluation of the measures gives us insight into how policy measures should be implemented in order to reach sustainable urban goods transport Therefore it is possible to get some idea what the impact of the OECD white paper is on municipalities in European countries.