PARCEL DELIVERY AND URBAN LOGISTICS- CHANGES IN URBAN COURIER, EXPRESS AND PARCEL SERVICES: THE FRENCH CASE

Urban freight transport takes an increasingly important place in the urban mobility strategy. Experiments to optimize the movement of goods inside the city do not miss. Many relate to traditional goods, without being concerned with an activity in particular, others on the contrary target a precise sector i.e. fresh products, spare parts, etc. Since few years, new actors based on innovative scheme of distribution for the last-miles are merging, in the urban parcel distribution in particular. The whole actors and theirs strategies are changing to be nearer to the customer demand, shaping new logistic organisations. The purpose of this paper is to give an updated overview of the urban parcel delivery sector in France and some elements to discuss about the changes and new opportunities in this particular sector