How Cities Leverage Off-Peak Deliveries for Efficiency and Sustainability

Building on years of experimentation and policy development, these initiatives aim to shift freight movements from busy daytime periods to late evening or early morning hours—a strategy increasingly recognized as a practical way to ease pressure on dense urban streets. In both New York City and Stockholm, off-peak delivery programs have demonstrated that adjusting delivery schedules can significantly reduce conflicts between freight vehicles, commuters, and local residents, while creating conditions for cleaner air and more livable neighborhoods.

Shared Benefits and Key Challenges

While Off-Peak delivery is not a "one-size-fits-all" solution, particularly for sectors outside food and beverage, the shared benefits are compelling:

Key benefits of off-peak deliveries

• Higher efficiency: More efficient utilization of trucks and terminals, leading to reduced delivery costs.
• Reduced stress: Less stress for both drivers (less traffic) and receivers (goods are stocked before opening).
• Improved punctuality: More predictable arrival times and shorter service times at the delivery location.
• Decreased congestion: Reduces urban traffic during peak hours, contributing to cleaner air and safer streets.
• Promotes electrification: In Stockholm, permits are leveraged to increase the adoption of electric vehicles.

Challenges of off-peak deliveries

• Noise management: Handling noise (e.g., from roll cages and manual unloading) is the most frequent source of community complaints, requiring quiet equipment and clear conduct rules.
• Incentives: Businesses require financial support or incentives to cover the initial costs of transition and potential new staffing requirements.
• Unattended access, lease restrictions and liability concerns: Difficulty securing approval from property owners/landlords and establishing trust for secure, unattended deliveries.

Recommendations for cities to begin exploring the potential of off-hours delivery

• Engage both transporters and receivers: Successfully implementing off-peak delivery requires buy-in from the entire supply chain, though receivers have historically been the primary focus because they often manage delivery schedules and vendor communication. Receivers are also on the front line of off-peak delivery challenges like staffing and security, so clearly communicating the benefits and available resources is crucial for their participation. Transporters often recognize the direct benefits of off-peak deliveries, such as; increasing vehicle utilization, lower fuel costs, reduced time per delivery, and streamlining logistics, making them strong advocates.
• Off-hour deliveries are not a one-size-fits-all strategy: Off-hour deliveries may not be appropriate for all sectors and commodities. Conduct multi-stakeholder engagement, build internal and external relationships, and promote your program widely to understand target business categories.
• Consistent and sustained resourcing to manage and promote an off-peak program is critical: A self-sustaining program can require dedicated staff, inter-departmental coordination, multi-stakeholder engagement, and funding to get a program off the ground. Begin with a pilot study to test your strategy and develop an evidence base to inform future program expansion.

Offering incentives to businesses can help offset costs often cited by businesses as barriers to participation: 

Small businesses, especially, have particular challenges in transitioning their deliveries to off-peak, such as difficulty with staffing and noise concerns from local residents. Consider a dedicated fund to help offer solutions such as; low-noise equipment for delivery vehicles (such as newer hand pallet trucks and backup alarms), building security retrofits to enable unattended deliveries, and safety equipment such as security cameras.

New York City's Strategy: From Pilot to Major Incentive Program

The New York City Off-Hour Deliveries (OHD) program launched in 2007 as a U.S. Department of Transportation-funded pilot. The program has since been made permanent and has expanded to approximately 1,100 participating locations, with a target of reaching 5,000 locations by 2040.

Katrina Carey, Freight Efficiency Program Lead at the New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT), highlighted that the OHD program has resulted in reduced congestion, reduced delivery times and greater access to the curb. She also stated that initially, the focus of the pilot was on vertically integrated chains, which proved to be the easiest target for incorporating off-hour deliveries. The majority of current partners who are involved in the OHD program are from the food, beverage, and hospitality sectors.

For over a decade, NYCDOT has expanded the OHD program, providing technical support, tailored implementation guides, matchmaking, and curb access where possible. They have also increased outreach and marketing, creating how-to guides for receivers and transporters to help address common challenges,  as well as launching a dedicated OHD website. 

The city identified that one of the key barriers for businesses to begin with off-hours delivery operations has been the costs associated with making the transition. To address these common barriers to adoption, NYCDOT’s new OHD Incentives Program, funded in part by revenue generated by the city’s recently established Central Business District Tolling Program, will fund tools and strategies to make overnight deliveries feasible for transporters and receivers of all sizes. This can include the installation of low-noise equipment for delivery vehicles (such as newer hand pallet trucks and backup alarms), building security retrofits to enable unattended deliveries, and safety equipment such as security cameras.  Alongside the success of the program, non-financial hurdles still remain, such as; building lease stipulations restricting delivery times, difficulty convincing receivers to change operations, and concern from local communities about noise in residential areas.

Explore the NYC DOT’s website here, filled with benefits, how-to-guides and more: https://ohdnyc.com/home 

Read the presentation that was presented during the webinar here:

Stockholm’s Perspective: Silence, Electrification, and Collaboration

Stockholm has been working with off-peak initiatives since 2014, viewing off-peak delivery as a key tool for achieving the city's ambitious goal of 100% electrified freight transport by 2030. The strategy emphasizes finding collaborative solutions.

 “For us, our main strategy has always been to find these win-win cases and situations together with the business community” – Anja Quester, Off-peak Project Leader, City of Stockholm

A primary hurdle in Stockholm is the local traffic regulation, which bans heavy vehicles between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. due to noise concerns. To manage this, the city issues function-based permits, granted almost exclusively to electric vehicles, thus directly linking off-peak delivery to electrification. They also utilize geofencing to remind drivers of quiet working methods.

Andreas Säfström & Anja Quester, Off-peak Project Leaders, City of Stockholm, stressed the importance of moving beyond testing: “Just don't get stuck in tests because we know that off-peak has very many advantages and we know the challenges.” The city reported remarkably few noise complaints: out of over 100 delivery points, only one required a permanent halt of night deliveries.

Take part of the presentation that was presented during the webinar here:

The Carrier’s View: Martin & Servera on Business Benefits

Martin & Servera, a leading Swedish wholesaler for the hotel, restaurant, and café sector, has participated in Stockholm’s off-peak project since 2016 and currently handles about 100 deliveries per night. 

For Martin & Servera, off-peak transportation was part of their strategy to become independent from fossil fuels. The move to zero-emission vehicles might seem prohibitively expensive - an electric truck can cost twice as much upfront as a diesel model, presenting a substantial financial hurdle. However, Martin & Servera found the solution by leveraging the unclogged streets of the off-peak hours.

By delivering when city traffic is minimal, the company requires only one-quarter of the trucks to move the same volume of goods, all while realizing a 50% reduction in operational costs. This efficiency gain fundamentally changed the financial equation, making the expensive transition to electric vehicles economically viable.

This combination of off-peak scheduling and electrification has accelerated Martin & Servera's sustainability goals. The company has essentially eliminated its fossil fuel consumption, dropping from using 100,000 liters of fossil fuels annually to zero today.

Håkan Ekmyr, the company’s Fleet Manager, explained in the webinar how their motivation has now shifted:

 “But today when we normally talk about off peak, it’s more or less only we only talk about the work environment.”

Off-peak deliveries offer significant benefits, notably improved vehicle utilization and, crucially, less stress for both drivers and restaurant staff, as goods are already in place when they arrive in the morning.

The biggest practical challenge is the noise during night time deliveries, but the noise doesn’t come from the trucks since they are electric, it’s the delivery cages that are the problem.

“I mean, the thing that makes the most noise during nighttime deliveries is the cages we are delivering in.” 

Essential conditions for their highly efficient, unattended delivery model include secured access to the premises and, critically, to coolers and freezers to guarantee cold chain integrity.

Learn more about Marin & Servera’s work within urban logistics and urban transport:

Take part of Martin & Serveras presentation from the webinar:

Watch the recorded version of the webinar and access the full insights from the presenters

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