A New Indicator for Measuring Efficiency in Urban Freight Transportation: Defining and Implementing the OEEM (Overall Equipment Effectiveness for Mobility)

Featured Application: This work defines a KPI for the measurement of efficiency in urban freight transportation. It also develops a methodology that explains how to obtain data in real-time and the development of the programming language for the calculation of the previously defined KPI to, finally, visualize it in a control panel. This work serves as a basis for several companies to apply this methodology to the measurement of efficiency in their urban freight transportation activities. Urban freight transportation is the activity that has the greatest impact on urban areas in terms of sustainability and livability, and it is, therefore, necessary to reduce its impact. Currently, there is a lack of methodologies to validate the methods proposed by companies to reduce their impacts. The proposed methodology presents the implementation of a KPI (Key Performance Indicator) based on the triple bottom line approach: economic, social and environmental, since a company with good results on the “triple bottom line” will experience an increase in its economic profitability and its environmental commitment while reducing the impacts that generate negative perceptions of it. This KPI is the OEEM (Overall Equipment Effectiveness for Mobility), a redesign of the well-known OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness), but adapted to the needs of urban freight transportation since this indicator provides a quick overview of the efficiency or performance of the activity according to five components: quality of deliveries, vehicle utilization, availability of the vehicle–driver tandem and efficiency (result of traffic and efficiency of delivery stops). The methodology developed will be implemented in a case study where the KPI will be calculated on the basis of real-time data and visualized on a control panel; thanks to this KPI, the company will be able to validate whether the measures taken have a positive or negative impact.