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This paper provides an extensive review of surveys and data-collection programmes focused on urban goods movement (UGM). Surveys investigating passenger urban travel have a decades-long tradition. The same is not true for UGM. The first specific UGM surveys appeared about 10 years ago in response to the rapid growth of car traffic, congestion, pollution and lack of space. Most of the time, these surveys have been carried out to resolve specific, local problems concerning traffic. Only a few of them have taken a global approach to urban logistics by including all logistics operators (own-account and carriers), all delivery vehicles (heavy and light vehicles), all deliveries and pickups (from express to full payload) and an entire metropolitan area and surroundings. Due to various European programmes, an inventory has been created to analyse urban goods data collection according to spatial level and methodology of capture. With this inventory, European urban freight indicators can be described, along with the units in which they are measured and their purposes. The relevance of urban goods transport surveys lies in their capacity to give decision-makers an account of urban freight transport functioning, ratios and data, so as to help in formulating planning, regulation and forecasting. It appears that focusing on the movement (delivery/pick-up), as the unit of analysis in establishment-driver surveys is the most efficient approach to describe the generation of vehicular flow in the city. This fact is revealed in the French UGM surveys, which take into account the complexity of urban logistics.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

Investigates and evaluates land use data and valuation in Sydney′s central area. Proposes that, in order to make informed investment decisions, there should be an understanding of the nature and functioning of the physical environment in which funds are to be committed. Investigates what things belong in an urban area. Concludes with data related to how land is used. States that lowest land value and floor level classes tend to be allocated to goods handling and destinations for mass gatherings of people; highest land value and floor‐level are allocated to business categories.

The problems of urban distribution and the need to confront them particularly at a time of escalating petrol costs, is one of the most urgent issues facing retailers and food suppliers today. Hence the conference held recently, organised by the National Materials Handling Centre, and entitled ‘Urban distribution — strategy for the future’. One of the major preoccupations was the conflict of interests which impedes progress; environmental lobbies, central and local planning, EEC legislation. However, this paper by Alan Rushton buries these differences beneath his overriding concern with the practical rather than the ideological aspect of the subject. His point of reference is a study which looked into the problems of high street delivery, producing a scale of importance for the various difficulties encountered, and assessing the likely success of the solutions available.

Coordination is the management of dependencies between activities. Given that supply chains represent the functional integration of many interdependent activities associated with the flow of goods, coordination theory offers a framework for understanding and designing supply chains. Supply chains are separated into two distinct substructures: physical (dealing with the flow and storage of goods) and information (dealing with information associated with those goods). Optimization that alters the storage and movement of information and incorporates the impact of information technology leads to a distinct set of node connections and configurations for each substructure. Our analysis uses transaction cost economics to contrast the differences between structures infused with information technology and traditional supply chains.