The center of Fukuoka City, "Tenjin," has a unique logistic system called "Yellow Bird." It was introduced to control the number of logistic vehicles coming into the center. The goods must be sorted outside the center and delivered with a limited number of trucks. The local government implemented the parking spaces designated for delivery trucks and widened the area in the regulation of obligation to have parking spaces in new buildings.
Yellow Bird (Tenjin Collaborative Delivery Trucks)
Traffic congestions influence the function and image negatively. Cities implement various approaches to keep smooth traffic flow, especially in the city center, where many vehicles come in. Here in Fukuoka, there are collaborative delivery trucks in the city center area, Tenjin.
It dates back to the late 70s, Fukuoka Metropolitan Area Transportation Advisory Council decided the implementation of collaborative logistics in Tenjin Area, which was growing significantly as a commercial center, and the traffic congestions were apparent, and also the major streets in the area would be affected by the subway construction. In 1978, the collaborative logistics in Tenjin Area started. Through the changes of company management system with the discussions of the stakeholders such as the national, city, and prefectural government, the police, the chamber of commerce, the area management entities, the present Tenjin Area collaborative logistic company was established in 1994 as the joint-venture of 29 logistic companies and three local banks.
The company operates 22 Yellow Bird trucks running between the Tenjin Area and its distribution center in Hakozaki, 7 km east of Tenjin. The Yellow Bird trucks run three times between 8:30 and 19:30, carrying general goods but do not carry chilled or frozen goods.
Joint logistics shows a good result on the trial calculation on social effect shows that decrease on many criteria. The number of trucks can be a 65-percent decrease, the mileage traveled is 69-percent decrease as a whole and 87 percent in the area. Twenty-nine companies’ trucks are consolidated to some can be very effective. However, some problems emerged in recent years, such as introducing the cargo tracking system, the whole building logistic system managed by one major company from Tokyo. Chilled and frozen food is not suitable for collective logistics either, which takes more time to deliver due to the sorting according to the area.
For the smooth loading and unloading of goods, the local government also implemented 73 parking meters solely for logistic vehicles in Tenjin Area. It widened the area in the regulation of obligation of proving car parks designated to logistic vehicles for newly built buildings.
The local community consensus must be made whether to tolerate some inconveniences to be an appealing area or take the convenience. The stakeholders must meet regularly and deepen the discussions.
[Case ID: Urban Transportation UT-06]
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