Assessing Contract Logistics facilities: results from a survey in Italy

E-commerce and retailing companies have recently been experiencing a rise in their revenues. This has led to the search for new logistics facilities compliant with their needs. Such research of new spaces and top-quality facilities has driven the logistics real estate industry to an unexpected rebirth after the slowdown caused by the last economic crisis. Some examples of assessment models for industrial buildings are reported in literature, but they mainly evaluate warehouses from a sustainability perspective. Conversely, the measurement of quality and functionality has scarcely been addressed thus far. The paper aims to fill this gap by describing the state of the art of contract logistics warehousing in Italy using an original model to assess logistics buildings. The model allows for identifying, structuring and rating the most significant features for two main types of logistics buildings, namely warehouses and cross-docking platforms. The proposed model builds on previous literature and integrates the practitioners’ perspective. It is structured into four sections, each representing the most important features for the evaluation of logistics buildings: location, external spaces, technical characteristics, and internal areas. Each sub-section contains multiple-choice questions. The significance of each section is given by specific percentage weights defined by the experts involved during multiple semi-structured interviews. Finally, the rating model was validated by pilot tests. The model was applied extensively on 65 contract logistics facilities located in Italy, ranging from 2,000 to 150,000 square metres