Browsing by Author "Nebyi, Gebremariam"

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    Optimizing of Freight Transport and City Logistics Activities in Addis Ababa
    (AAU, 2011-09) Nebyi, Gebremariam; Girma, Gebresenbet (PhD)
    Though goods distribution is an important part of activity in urban life as it plays a vital role in urban economy in terms of income generation and employment opportunities, nowadays urban freight distribution is creating many challenges like environmental pollution, congestion and traffic accident in the growing cities in developing nations. ABSTRACT Thus, this research paper aim is to optimize freight transport and city logistics activities in the city of Addis Ababa so that goods can be distributed to the city center, without jeopardizing the lives of city dwellers, depleting environment and also enabling a good economic efficiency of freight transport and maximized profit for stakeholders. According to the traffic data collected from field survey and the historical traffic data collected from ERA, on average 19,088 and 18,428 freight vehicles per day enter and leave the city of Addis Ababa respectively out of which, 66.6%, 19.6%, 6.59%, 4.33% and 2.93% enters through gate of Debrezeit, Jimma, Gojjam, Debrebrhan and Ambo respectively where, 27.94%, 27.83%, 23.67% and 20.56% were Medium Trucks, Heavy Trucks, Small Trucks and Truck Trailers Respectively and similarly 67.43%, 16.30%, 8.24%, 4.06% and 3.97% exits through the gate of Debrezeit, Jimma, Gojjam, Debrebrhan and Ambo respectively accounting 27.74%, 27.59%, 23.07% and 21.60% Medium Trucks, Heavy Trucks, Small Trucks and Truck Trailers Respectively . Future prospects from the study reveal that freight traffic entering to the city and leaving the city will grow at an average rate of 10.03% and 9.63% respectively and as a result the entering and leaving freight traffic will raise to 90,633 and 86,124 respectively by 2015. Out of the total vehicles driven within the city, only 7.53% were freight transporting vehicles accounting the least share and 36.61% were cars taking the largest share. In view of load factor which is in terms of weight, it was found that due to limited application of city logistics measures within the city freight transporting vehicles operate at an average load factor of 53% which leads to increased transport cost. Within the city more than 146 warehouses and 1 freight terminal are available where 59% of the warehouses are located within the main city center and major sub-centers of the city attracting huge freight vehicles and operating at a poor level of service. Regarding to the terminal delay, it was found that terminals cause vehicles to delay for about 120 days. According to the study, commodity type, season and transparency of the customers, capacity of custom officers and transitors and capacity of the terminal were the basic factors that affect delay of terminals. To minimize the negative impacts, five optimum freight terminal locations were selected with the help of factor rating method and this newly selected terminals are expected to minimize the negative impacts of the freight distribution as they minimize entry of freight vehicles to the city center and terminal delay. It is perceived that, high increase in the road freight transport coupled with the little awareness of city logistics measures and concepts within the city and the country in general are the main reasons that are causing problem within the city. Hence, strengthening freight transport data base management system, creation of awareness regarding the concept of city logistics with its advantages and environmental impacts among stakeholders and further researches on possibility cooperative freight delivery system, coordinated goods movement and investigation of the possibility to use other ports other than port of Djibouti for import and export activities should be the task of researchers and concerned authorities before the problems get worse.