News and Announcements

APRIL 8, 2021 — General Motors Company subsidiary BrightDrop is teaming up with the Urban Freight Lab to host a Research Challenge, providing students an opportunity to utilize their design and engineering skills and formulate recommendations and use cases on a new product: a next-generation self-propelled electric pallet (EP1) that can drive itself onto and off of a vehicle and follow a delivery worker around a neighborhood delivering packages, increasing efficiency and sustainability and reduc…

March 10, 2021 — Urban Freight Lab Research Assistant and Student Research Group Manager Haena Kim (Ph.D. Transportation Engineering '21) defended her dissertation today, completing her graduate studies and earning her doctorate degree. Kim now joins Nike's commercial analytics team as a Data Scientist.

March 16, 2021 — The Supply Chain Transportation and Logistics Master's degree program at the University of Washington is hiring for an Affiliate Instructor to design and teach a new online course on Data Analysis in Supply Chain.   The ability to collect, manipulate, analyze, and make informed decisions based on large data sets is becoming an important skill for professionals aspiring to senior supply chain & logistics roles.

February 22, 2021 — To assist in the strengthening of urban freight practices, the Urban Freight Lab (UFL) is launching a six-month Technical Assistance Program for cities, government agencies and nonprofits from outside of the Puget Sound region. We are inviting agencies and organizations who share the same passion and vision for solving urban freight challenges with UFL, to apply for the program.

February 10, 2020 — The Urban Freight Lab (UFL) is pleased to announce the addition of new member Coaster Cycles. Coaster Cycles designs and manufactures innovative eco-friendly transportation solutions for last mile, cargo, and passenger needs, all made at Coaster’s 24,000 sq. ft. facility near Missoula, Montana, and shipped across the world.

January 25, 2021 — Urban Freight Lab researchers Giacomo Dalla Chiara, Fiete Krutein, Anne Goodchild, and Andisheh Ranjbari were awarded the Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting Urban Freight Commitee (AT025) Best Practical Implications Paper award for "Commercial Vehicle Driver Behaviors and Decision Making: Lessons Learned from Urban Ridealongs".   "We are very excited and grateful to the Committee for the recognition," said Dalla Chiara, Urban Freight Lab Research Associate.

December 7, 2020 — OnRout, a real-time bidding platform for shipping carriers, has been named the grand prize winner of the Urban Freight Lab's (UFL) fourth annual Tech Day: Last-Mile Delivery in the New Normal pitch competition for early- and mid-stage start-ups around the world working to improve the final 50 feet of the delivery process. "We're honored to be invited, and to be recognized as the winner by this group of industry experts is thrilling," said OnRout founder Jonathan Hessney.

November 17, 2020 — The Urban Freight Lab (UFL) at the University of Washington announces the selection of four semi-finalists for our fourth annual Tech Day pitch competition, focused on Last Mile-Delivery in the New Normal.

October 20, 2020 — The Urban Freight Lab (UFL) is pleased to announce UPS as our 2020 Member of the Year. A founding member of the UFL, UPS has been integral to our success since we launched in 2016, dedicating time, effort, and resources to advance our research program.

October 12, 2020 — The Urban Freight Lab has developed an Urban Goods Delivery Toolkit, designed as a one-stop-shop for cities and transportation researchers across the U.S. to improve functionality in the Final 50 Feet segment, improving both load/unload parking space productivity and reducing failed first delivery attempts.

September 30, 2020 — The Urban Freight Lab (UFL) at the University of Washington is now accepting proposals for its fourth annual Tech Day event, a pitch competition for innovators designing solutions for the last mile of the urban goods delivery system. This year's theme is focused on "Last-Mile Delivery in the New Normal". Proposals will be accepted until 5 p.m. Pacific time on Monday, October 26.

September 18, 2020 — The Urban Freight Lab, Seattle Department of Transportation, and IoT providers Fybr and Lacuna Technologies installed sensors today under the pavement of 274 commercial vehicle load zones in the 10-block Belltown case study area in efforts to improve goods delivery sustainability and efficiency.

August 20, 2020 — The University of Washington’s Urban Freight Lab (UFL), in conjunction with smart locker provider Parcel Pending by Quadient and parking magnate REEF, this week launched an open-network smart locker system in Seattle’s Belltown, offering the neighborhood free, accessible, safe, contact-free package pick-up. The open network locker system — smart lockers that can receive packages from all retailers and delivery companies — is a part of a U.S.

July 20, 2020 — The Supply Chain Transportation & Logistics Center is pleased to announce Amazon as the newest member of our Urban Freight Lab (UFL), an innovative public-private partnership working collaboratively across sectors to design and test improvements to the urban goods delivery system.

July 16, 2020 — During the COVID-19 pandemic logistics has became more important than ever in guaranteeing the uninterrupted flow of goods to city residents. At the same time, the same supply chain providing the goods experienced profound disruptions. Documenting the impacts the COVID-19 outbreak had on individual organizations and their responses is an important research effort to better understand the resiliency of the supply chain.