Dates Set for International Freight Conference

The International Urban Freight Conference, formerly known as the National Urban Freight Conference, is scheduled for Oct. 8-10, 2013 at The Westin Long Beach Hotel in downtown Long Beach, California.

The event, known as I-NUF, brings together researchers and practitioners from throughout the world to share emerging, multi-disciplinary research on all aspects of freight in metropolitan areas. Panels, presentations and speakers from throughout the United States and 16 countries are scheduled to be part of this year’s fifth annual event.

Session topics include: environmental impacts and responses; the economics of urban trucking; port operations; emerging trends in consumption, production, and spatial organization; security and vulnerability; and best practices.

Also part of the schedule: optional site visits to a Ralphs Grocery Distribution Center and the Alameda Corridor.

The keynote speaker for the Wed., Oct. 9 luncheon is Chuck Holland, Vice President of Engineering at UPS, who will offer perspectives on emerging trends in local package delivery including the impacts of e-commerce and home shopping on the urban freight business.

Scheduled to be featured in a spotlight luncheon interview on Tues., Oct. 8 is Jake Racker, Regional Logistics Director at Kroger Co., who’ll discuss recent changes in distribution for the grocery industry especially in the area of automation.

The event is organized by METRANS Transportation Center, a joint partnership between the University of Southern California and California State University, Long Beach.

Registration and conference information is available at www.metrans.org, or by calling (562) 985-2876.

Transport Center Seeks Freight Management Ideas

The METRANS Transportation Center, a joint partnership between the University of California and California State University Long Beach, is accepting abstract submissions on freight issues for its 2013 METRANS International Urban Freight Conference (INUF).

The purpose of the conference is to provide a forum for sharing emerging, multi-disciplinary research on all aspects of freight in metropolitan areas. Its organizers are soliciting abstracts for conference presentations as well as papers.

The call for abstracts is being coordinated with a call for submissions for a volume issue in Research in Transportation Business and Management titled, “Managing Freight in Urban Areas.”

All abstracts for paper submissions will be considered for both presentation at INUF and publication in RTBM.

Abstracts must be submitted by June 15, 2013, are limited to 500 words and must include a statement of the research, methodology and data, and a brief summary of results and conclusions. The format for abstracts is as follows: title, topic area, author's name and full contact information, whether you plan to submit a paper or only give a presentation, and the abstract text.

Abstracts for papers to be submitted for possible publication in the RTBM volume are solicited in the following topic areas: local/last mile pickup and delivery; environmental impacts and responses; freight in urban modeling and planning; emerging trends in consumption, production and spatial organization; economics of urban trucking; and hubs and city interactions.

Additional topics of interest for INUF presentations include: port operations; ITS applications in urban freight; security and vulnerability; best practices; and important dates.

Abstracts can be submitted via email to giuliano@price.usc.edu.

They will be reviewed and authors notified of acceptance by July 1, 2013. Authors of abstracts could be invited to submit for presentation at INUF, publication in RTBM, or both.