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How is own account transport well adapted to urban environments?
CRUZ, Cecilia

over restricted time windows. In fact, we observe that shipper-recipient relationships are
stronger among wholesalers who use own-account delivery: on average the annual number
of shipments sent between each origin/destination pair within a single urban area is 1086,
versus 173 for wholesalers who use third-party shipping under the same conditions¹⁴. The
median of the annual number of shipments sent between each origin/destination pair within a
single urban area is 250 shipments annually for wholesalers using own-account shipping for
the surveyed shipment, and 30 for wholesalers using third-party shipping¹⁵.

The difference between these two types of transport organisation increases with urban
density: for shipments within a single urban hub, the average client requested a maximum
delivery time of 1 day for wholesale shipments versus more than 3 days for third-party¹⁶. For
industry own-account shipments, the average is less than 4 days, versus 54 days for third-
party¹⁷. Spatial proximity is essential to satisfy this sort of demand. The figure helps us to
understand this: the left part link the production with the time and the consequences in terms
of uncertainty, the right part illustrates the phenomenon in spatial terms. As Rodrigue has
shown (Fig. 3), while increasing the number of links in logistic chains may reduce the higher
level of uncertainty and offer more proximity, it also implies an increase in inventory costs, as
discussed above. Differences are also visible with increasing density on a given shipper-
recipient link: for shipments within a single urban hub, the annual number of shipments is
higher for wholesalers using own-account shipping (1260) than for those relying on third
parties (217)¹⁸. The denser shipment links are, the more it is in a firm's best interest to carry
out transport on its own account.

Figure 3: The complexity of a logistic chain and its effects on uncertainty. Source: Rodrigue, 2006

In own-account organisation, client relationships are important, but recipients may be more
than just clients: for firms that use own-account transport for shipments within the same
urban area, the share of shipments that are destined for other sites of the shipper's parent

¹⁴ Source : Data from ECHO Survey-INRETS, 2004

¹⁵ Source : Data from ECHO Survey-INRETS, 2004

¹⁶ Source : Data from ECHO Survey-INRETS, 2004

¹⁷ Source : Data from ECHO Survey-INRETS, 2004

¹⁸ Source : Data from ECHO Survey-INRETS, 2004

12^th WCTR, July 11-15, 2010 - Lisbon, Portugal

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