Evaluating supporting policies for an urban consolidation center considering retailer adoption

Urban Consolidation Centers (UCCs) have emerged as a promising solution to urban distribution challenges, but success depends on policy support and stakeholder adoption. To address gaps in current research, this paper assesses the impact of supporting policies and dynamic adoption of UCCs by stakeholders. An agent-based simulation model is developed to replicate retailers' selection of carriers based on generalized logistics costs (GLCs), and carriers' scheduling of truck operations in response to delivery demands. Three policy categories — operational subsidies, traffic regulations, and parking management — are evaluated. With an UCC serving clothing retailers in Shanghai's Wujiaochang CBD as the study case, data from various sources is used to model the agents. Results indicate that standalone UCCs implementation yields limited effectiveness. Operational subsidies exert the most significant impact, whereas traffic and parking policies provide moderate benefits. The optimal policy package includes a substantial, evenly distributed subsidy over the subsidy period, a delayed traffic restriction start time, and a 25 % parking fee discount for UCC trucks. This policy package produces a synergistic effect, significantly reducing vehicle kilometers traveled (by 21.19 %) and implicit logistics costs (by 50.38 %). These insights inform effective policy design and offer a valuable decision-support tool for cities considering UCCs implementations.