City baseline card: Funchal

Funchal’s city baseline card sets out the challenges of managing urban logistics in Funchal, a mid-sized European city where limited space, lack of enforcement, and the growth of micro-logistics place increasing strain on mobility and air quality. The document highlights how congestion is intensified by logistics vehicles, which account for around 9% of traffic entering the city centre.

Funchal’s case demonstrates the difficulty of modernising urban logistics in a compact urban fabric with scarce infrastructure and limited regulatory capacity. The absence of enforcement mechanisms and designated parking spaces for loading and unloading operations results in frequent illegal parking, while the lack of consolidation infrastructure reduces opportunities to improve efficiency.

Challenges faced

Insufficient enforcement capacity: limited police resources to control illegal parking in designated loading and unloading areas.
Lack of space for Urban Consolidation Centres (UCCs) and other supporting logistics infrastructure.
A high prevalence of micro-logistics operators, adding pressure to central areas.
Nine per cent of vehicles entering the city centre are logistics operators, contributing to congestion and deteriorating air quality.

Funchal’s ambitions
Funchal seeks to address these issues by:

Providing digital tools for freight operators to improve efficiency in the last-mile stage.
Strengthening cooperation between the city and freight operators to better manage demand.
Reducing illegal parking through improved monitoring and regulatory alignment.
Learning from best practice in other European cities, particularly Madrid, to compensate for local enforcement and space constraints.

Tools and approaches considered

Focus on the digitalisation of logistics processes in loading and unloading zones to reduce congestion, improve air quality, and support industry efficiency.ol.

Interest in the Madrid use case for managing loading and unloading zones under limited enforcement conditions.