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Abstract :
[en] Urban low-emission zones (LEZs) are increasingly used to improve air quality, yet their system-wide effects on freight logistics (costs, fleet composition, and environmental performance) remain poorly understood. We develop a three-echelon location-routing model integrating candidate micro-depots, heterogeneous fleets, and explicit LEZ access constraints. The framework jointly optimizes micro-depot siting, multi-product flows, and vehicle routing under alternative regulatory and demand conditions.
The model is applied to two Belgian instances: a Brussels case and a four-city network, each tested across 18 scenarios spanning No-LEZ, Mild-LEZ, and Full-LEZ settings, with and without mandatory consolidation. Results show that Mild-LEZ restrictions may be non-binding, whereas Full-LEZ drives fleet substitution toward electric vehicles and under low demand with consolidation, cargo bikes. Eliminating in-LEZ tailpipe emissions does not necessarily reduce life-cycle impacts: replacing with EVs can generate upstream emissions that offset the zero-tailpipe gains, exposing the limits of tailpipe-only evaluation.
Satellite infrastructure costs outweigh vehicle operating expenses, making LEZ compliance only marginally viable at low-to-moderate demand without public co-financing. While consolidation and LEZ stringency can support similar goals, policy complementarity appears only at high demand, where Full-LEZ with consolidation is the only configuration that reduces all life-cycle indicators. Single-city analyses, therefore, miss these demand-dependent, network-scale dynamics.
The framework supports evidence-based LEZ design and compliance assessment and argues for integrating life-cycle metrics alongside tailpipe measures in transport policy evaluation.
