In response to the weak apparent performance of own account transport, government policy, with a view to promoting sustainable development, are pushing for a transfer from own account to third party transport. This raises the question as to why own account transport is so prevalent in urban areas and what specific role it plays there.
The aim of this paper is to answer this question. It presents the functional characteristics of own account transport, reveals the market niches in which it is essential, and seeks to define the conditions and limits of its transfer towards professional transport. The FRETURB model, developed by LET from data collected in the surveys, is used to simulate the effects that a transfer from one management mode to another have on vehicle flows and road occupancy by delivery vehicles (Routhier, 2001).
After outlining the general context, the paper continues in two parts:
- a quantitative analysis based on processing of the survey data,
- a quantitative analysis based on interviews with logistics operators in sectors in which products are most commonly traded in towns and cities.