The 4 A's of sustainable city distribution: Innovative solutions and challenges ahead

City distribution is considered to be unsustainable. Efforts to improve this condition are hindered by three challenges Local authorities implement restrictive measures, which do not fully take account of the interests of all stakeholders. sufficiently into account. As the demand for goods in urban areas increases further in the future, solutions are necessary. At the same time, many vehicles are inefficiently loaded, leading to the unnecessary presence of freight vehicles. In this paper, we propose a new classification of innovative concepts for sustainable city distribution called the 4 A's, which take into account these challenges. The 4 A's stand for Awareness, Avoidance, Act and shift, and Anticipation of new technologies. These concepts can be implemented by the one responsible for city distribution—the private sector. For each ‘A,’ an overview of possible concepts, and the most important characteristics and the gaps in the research are provided. Stakeholder involvement is stressed as the key and methods to involve multiple stakeholders are provided. By starting from this perspective and focusing additionally on other stakeholders, the likelihood that a concept becomes successful increases.