On April 21, 2004, in Italy a service called “Cityporto Padowa” was launched, the aim of which was to provide
regulations for the rationalization of freight transport and distribution in the city of Padua aiming to reduce air
pollution in urban areas (http://www.cityporto.it, 30.03.2014). Service was created on the basis of an agreement between
the Municipality, the Province and the Chamber of Commerce of Padova, the local Public Transport Company (APS
Mobilità), and Interporto di Padova SPA (the company managing the logistics center). This project covered goods
delivery to customers in the city center. “Cityporto Padowa” relies on a very simple scheme. Logistics operators,
freight forwarders and other suppliers of goods to companies operating in the center of Padua deliver the goods to a
distribution center located in the logistics center of Interporto Padowa. After being accepted to the warehouse, goods
are sorted and next selected packages are loaded into environmentally friendly cars. The vehicles distribute the
goods in the city, under the so called “last mile” service, which may be just the limited traffic zones or the entire city
centre. Figure 4 shows a schematic functioning of the system.