Potential for Off-Peak Freight Deliveries to Congested Urban Areas (TIRC Project C-02-15)

The key objectives of this project were to: define the set of policies and programs that would induce a shift in deliveries to off-peak hours; quantify the effectiveness of these initiatives; quantify extra costs to stakeholders so that compensation schemes could be implemented should off-peak deliveries be found to be economically beneficial to society at large; and conduct the analyses using advanced statistical and econometric techniques to minimize the risk of biased results. The project only considered policies and programs based on the voluntary participation of businesses. The project started in March 2003, with the original focus on off-peak deliveries in Manhattan. In May 2005, the project was extended to include a second phase focusing on off-peak deliveries in Brooklyn. This report describes the findings of the research conducted for both phases.