This paper analyzes the effectiveness of comprehensive policies—aimed at fostering a switch of truck traffic from the peak to the off-peak hours—targeting receivers and carriers of goods in urban areas. This paper is also based on the fundamental premise that truck traffic in congested urban areas could move to the off-peak hours, if and only if, the receivers of the cargoes are willing to accept off-peak deliveries. The paper provides a conceptual description, based on game theory, of the fundamental interactions between receivers and carriers and discusses empirical data that confirms the basic findings from the game theoretical analyses. The policy analyses are based on stated preference data that was analyzed using discrete choice models. The data considers different policy scenarios targeting both receivers and carriers. The receiver centered policies considered include tax deductions and shipping cost discounts to companies willing to accept off-peak deliveries; while the carrier centered policies include: a request from receivers to do off-peak deliveries; a request from receivers to do off-peak deliveries combined with toll savings for trucks traveling during the off-peak hours; and a request from receivers to do off-peak deliveries combined with financial rewards for trucks traveling during the off-peak hours. This is the first paper in a series providing insight into possible public policies aimed at encouraging receivers to accept off-peak deliveries. This paper focuses on providing the overall description of the research process, and on describing the results corresponding to receiver centered scenarios that encourage off-peak deliveries. In addition to analyzing the overall effectiveness of comprehensive receiver-carrier policies, the paper discusses the special cases of large traffic generators and neighborhoods with high truck traffic as potential targets of specific off-peak delivery initiatives. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2007Road pricing, Congestion pricing, Time of day pricing, Freight pricing, Receiver and carrier behavior,

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Road pricing, Congestion pricing, Time of day pricing, Freight pricing, Receiver and carrier behavior,

This paper summarizes research conducted on private-sector stakeholders’ perceptions of the challenges and potential of off-peak deliveries to congested urban areas. Information is presented from a comprehensive outreach program that involved focus groups, in-depth interviews, and Internet surveys. On the basis of the insights gained into the dynamic interactions among stakeholders, the corresponding policy implications and chief conclusions of the research are discussed.

The New York City Off-Hour Delivery (NYC OHD) program is the work of a private-public-academic partnership—a collaborative effort of leading private-sector groups and companies, public-sector agencies led by the New York City Department of Transportation, and research partners led by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The efforts of this partnership have induced more than 400 commercial establishments in NYC to accept OHD without supervision. The economic benefits are considerable: the carriers have reduced operational costs and parking fines by 45 percent; the receivers enjoy more reliable deliveries, enabling them to reduce inventory levels; the truck drivers have less stress, shorter work hours, and easier deliveries and parking; the delivery trucks produce 55–67 percent less emissions than they would during regular-hour deliveries, for a net reduction of 2.5 million tons of CO2 per year; and citizens’ quality of life increases as a result of reduced conflicts between delivery trucks, cars, bicycles, and pedestrians, and through the use of low-noise delivery practices and technologies that minimize the impacts of noise. The total economic benefits exceed $20 million per year. The success of the OHD program is due largely to the policy design at its core, made possible with the behavioral microsimulation. This unique optimization-simulation system incorporates the research conducted into an operations research/management science tool that assesses the effectiveness of alternative policy designs. This enabled the successful implementation of the project within the most complex urban environment in the United States.