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Various research efforts are undertaken to reduce the ill-effects of urban freight transport on the city’s environment. Replacing conventional freight vehicles with electric commercial vehicles (ECVs) is considered as the most effective solution; however, this transition is facing several technological and infrastructural challenges. In developing countries, where cities are already struggling to manage with their present infrastructure, they would find it even more difficult. This paper highlights the opportunity for sharing of in-use freight vehicles as an immediate solution to reduce vehicular emissions. Case study of Surat city, India is taken to assess the use of small-sized commercial vehicles for urban freight transport. A detailed study has been carried out to determine the extent of under-utilized or unutilized capacities of these vehicles. Reductions in emissions due to the sharing of trips are estimated. Propositions are made to strategize and develop policies that promote sharing of urban freight trips.

Most of the cities in developing countries are found to have non-uniform distribution of urban space, complex land use patterns, mixed traffic conditions, extensive use of non-motorized vehicles and lack of traffic discipline. In comparision to the developed countries, it is more complicated to manage urban freight transport in developing countries due to the lack of sufficient infrastructure, wide socio-economic gaps between urban and non-urban areas and haphazard peripheral developments. Therefore the methods and strategies used to manage urban freight transport in developed countries cannot be directly used for cities in developing countries. It is necessary to devise distinctive solutions to improve the efficieny of urban freight transport in these cities, which may otherwise, inhibit the economic growth of these cities as well as hamper the overall momentum of country’s GDP growth gathered over decades. In recent years some studies focussing on urban freight transport are carried out in India, China and Brazil. This paper reviews urban freight studies carried out for Indian cities. India, world’s second most populous country to China, has 39 cities with a million plus population. Most of its cities are facing problems like congestion and air quality degradation due to inefficient freight movement practices. Review of urban freight studies is carried out based on different parameters influencing efficiency of freight movement. Various challenges and limitations faced by the researchers and administrators are discussed. Based on the review results, suggestions and future scope for research in different aspects of urban freight are presented in the paper.

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