This work provides a review of simulation techniques applied to urban logistics with a focus on practical applications. Several techniques and tools have been proposed to simulate different systems in urban logistics. In most cases, simulation choices depend on the objective of the simulation, the role of the decision maker and the type of problem. The paper offers a state of the art in which we analyse the existing simulation solutions for a given problem and/or a given stakeholder. As a result, it offers a practical reference for urban logistics researchers and practitioners who wish to use simulation in order to study the behaviour and performance of their systems. We propose an analytical framework allowing an easy overview of advantages and drawbacks of each technique, output criteria and examples.

Regulatory policies aim at reducing the negative effects of urban freight transportation, especially those related to traffic, emissions and noise. Nonetheless, stakeholders in city logistics often have divergent objectives, which lead to difficulties upon defining the best possible choices regarding regulation. This paper presents a multi-agent and discrete-event based simulation of urban deliveries that aims at evaluating the impacts of regulatory policies. Restrictions regarding vehicle weights and time windows are considered in order to measure the impacts on deliveries based on total distances, number of vehicles, loading rates and air pollutant emissions. The simulation framework is applied to the delivery services for restaurants, in which 4 scenarios of regulation are evaluated in the city of Paris. One originality of the proposed approach is to use real data for the instantiation of agents and the GIS in the simulation.