Freight demand modeling for green and digital logistics

Abstract

Freight transport demand modelling (FTDM) from dispatch logs and partial observations play a key role in providing realistic expectations of freight transport needs and in assessing the environmental impacts of new policies. Shaping freight transport to answer the current challenges of green logistics – decarbonization, energy consumption optimization, intelligent and sustainable management – requires a continuous assessment and adaptation of the whole logistic system. Demand-centric models may support these ends. Understanding advances in freight modelling is thus crucial to overcoming FTDM challenges, including data scarcity. This paper provides two major contributions: i) a review of the state-of-the-art models on freight transport demand modelling, and ii) an integrated overview of how these models can support decision-making aligned with sustainability goals towards green (zero emissions) and digital logistics.