The concept of Urban Freight Transport Projects durability and its assessment within the framework of a Freight Quality Partnership

Abstract

This article focuses on the role of Urban Freight Transport (UFT) projects in improving the life quality of city inhabitants. The main focus of the deliberations is the aspect of UFT projects' durability. The authors take an original approach to the definition of UFT project durability and also provide the results of a research study carried out in 2018. This made it possible to furnish an answer to the research questions that boiled down to the analysis of the current status of the relevant academic literature, to attempt to define the total durability of a UFT project, and to indicate the critical gaps in perception among the key stakeholders of the projects. In this study, particular attention is paid to the terminological synthesis and the conclusion resulting from adopting induction and deduction as the methods of solving research study problems. A novelty is the approach adopted in the project evaluation emphasising the mentioned durability aspect as one of the major success factors. This is particularly important for implementation of a Freight Quality Partnership as a solution enabling development of sustainable systems of urban logistics. The solution was treated as a specific implementation project for which the issue of key importance is the identification of success factors in the context of satisfying the needs of diverse groups of UFT stakeholders. It should be stressed that durability of projects in the area of UFT is critically important, even though there is a significant conceptual gap in that regard. The research study involved the originally developed concept of the Pyramid of Stakeholders Survey. By means of this concept, FQP durability was analysed on the example of the experience gained in the course of the solution functioning in Szczecin.