Current barriers to maintaining economies of scale for delivery include far distances of the depots from customers, road usage restrictions, customers' delivery requests, and social, environmental, and economic costs. In many developed and developing countries, the effects of urbanization have increased city population. Such migration to cities is also attracting more movement of commodities into the city center. This research aimed to study the effectiveness and viability of urban distribution centers from a tactical viewpoint of planning for city logistics. A multiagent modeling approach with geographical information system support was used to test an urban distribution center (UDC) in Osaka City, Japan. The key findings from this research concluded that the UDC has potential for emissions reduction, but sustainability of the UDC is reliant on the UDC charges and carriers' sensitivity to the rate of charges.
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