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GoodMobility: A new perspective on city logistics

GoodMobility: A new perspective on city logistics
© Koc University

[Koc University] – Current trends of city logistics focus mostly on the business aspect of mobility and fail to tackle the concept as a social need. With his project called “GoodMobility: A New Perspective on City Logistics: Concepts, Theory, and Models for Designing and Managing Logistics as a Service” Asst. Prof. Barış Yıldız from Koç University brings a new perspective. With this first European Research Council (ERC) project focusing on logistics, Barış Yıldız recently received a Starting Grant of 1.5 million euros.

Our ways of coming together and transporting goods and services are changing drastically with huge implications for cities, their residents, and the environment day by day. But even so, the current city logistics (CL) paradigm does not consider the mobility of goods a social need but a business problem. Current trends therefore limit our capacity to understand and respond to the challenges and opportunities brought by this profound change.

Asst. Prof. Barış Yıldız from Koç University Department of Industrial Engineering recently received a Starting Grant of EUR 1.5 million from the European Research Council (ERC) for his project tackling the issue with a new perspective. It is the first ERC project focused on logistics.

“GoodMobility: A New Perspective on City Logistics: Concepts, Theory, and Models for Designing and Managing Logistics as a Service” proposes to replace techno-business-centric smart thinking with network-centric wise logistics. While designing the future of urban logistics, the project will consider public value as its priority and follow three main objectives.

  1. Firstly, the public value will be constructed as a measurement system to assess and guide CL planning and management.
  2. Principles, models, and tools for logistics as a service (LaaS) infrastructure design will be developed as a second step.
  3. The third objective will be to develop a theoretical framework and models for the operating procedures of LaaS, introducing the logistics markets to ensure efficiency and reliability and secure public value in matching logistics demand and supply.

GoodMobility envisions laying the foundations of a new theory of CL with significant scientific and practical implications. It aims to realize new transportation technologies and business models that have not been considered before, in a way that will maximize social benefit, with public-private partnerships.

The project aims to deliver products and services that will increase the innovation capacity and quality of life of cities to the residents in a much faster, more economical, and environmentally friendly manner. The novel ideas, concepts, and methodologies will open new research perspectives in transport and logistics with far-reaching social, economic, and environmental consequences.