Determine Criteria of Assessment to Prioritize Problems of Urban Freight Transport Using a Decision-making and Average Weighted Method (Case Study: Tehran City)

The problems of urban freight transport have become an important issue in urban management in recent years. Surveys of different groups involved in urban freight transportation, in addition to receiving various opinions and understanding their problems and concerns, will find appropriate implementation methods for management. This paper aims to analyze urban freight problems from the perspective of different groups. For this purpose, 478 questionnaires were collected in the form of face-to-face and online interviews from different groups in Tehran. More than 90% of citizens consider air pollution and accidents as the most important problems of urban freight transport, while more than 40% of freight operators considered low fare and improper handling of goods as the most important. The main problems for drivers were the high maintenance costs and the lack of a union to defend their rights. Two statistical methods of weighted average responses and concordance analysis were used to prioritize the problem from the point of view of managers, experts and citizens. Results of both methods similarly showed that environmental protection, increasing safety and providing municipal revenue from sustainable sources are the most important priorities of managers and experts. From the citizens' point of view, maintaining the quality of cargo has replaced the provision of municipal revenue from sustainable sources. Results show differences in the main concerns of different groups. For instance, the goal of providing municipal revenue from sustainable sources is the least important from the citizens' point of view, while the lack of stable revenue has caused Tehran Municipality to receive tolls to cover the current expenses of the city with the uneven sprawl of the city. This issue is considered very important by experts because of the awareness of the consequences of unsustainable urban development compared to citizens.