Institutional Influences on the Development of Urban Freight Transport Policies by Local Authorities

Urban freight transport (UFT) provides the last mile delivery of goods, return of unwanted or recyclable goods and the removal of waste. Despite such benefits, freight vehicles often cause adverse impacts on the economy, environment and society such as air pollution, reduced mobility, congestion and road casualties. Local authorities implement various regulations and initiatives to mitigate the problems caused by freight vehicles and to decrease conflicts between various road users. The aim of this chapter is to investigate how institutional influences on local authorities determine urban freight transport policy, paying particular attention to three pressure factors (coercive, normative and mimetic) that cause institutional isomorphism. The empirical study compares three countries (Scotland, England and Sweden) based on data collected from 11 cities, each exhibiting different levels of intervention in terms of UFT policy. Our findings showed that the impact of normative and mimetic factors on local authorities is more intense than the impact of coercive factors, with social pressure generally being stronger than national government mandate. The case cities in England and particularly Scotland demonstrated a limited vision when incorporating urban freight in their local transport planning, being reluctant to enforce restrictions on users in order to meet urban freight goals. By contrast, evidence from Sweden suggests that a better relationship between public and private stakeholders makes it easier to implement freight policies in partnership.