Abstract
Urban freight transport is of vital importance for every activity of cities and their inhabitants. Cities, in fact, must be continuously replenished in order to play their crucial role as places of production and consumption of goods and services, as well as development of social relationships. Urban freight transport has become more and more a key issue in the general concept of urban mobility as a factor of economic, social and environmental competitiveness of cities. The White Paper on Transport issued in 2011 by the European Commission identifies a number of actions to support the development of integrated city logistics systems. Likewise, the Italian National Plan for Logistics 2011-2020 identifies as a key priority the implementation of suitable measures for improving the management of urban freight transport. In the light of the mentioned European and national prescriptions, it is therefore necessary that Regions and Local Authorities must be led by the objective of defining a series of actions aimed at improving the management the of urban freight transport, making it more competitive and efficient. This paper provides an overview of the main city logistics practices suitable for dealing with the management of the freight transport, presenting a critical analysis of their main features and describing their scope of application through a series of best practices at a national and an international level.