Paper short abstract:

Research on good logistics mostly focuses on how goods are shipped around. It rarely puts on the front line the way they go in consumers' home through individual carrying behaviors. The presentation describes the ordinary behaviors of placing goods on one's body to displace them in two countries.

Paper long abstract:

Research on good logistics mostly focuses on how goods are shipped around through motorized means of transportation. It rarely puts on the front line the way goods go in consumers' home through their personal carrying behaviors. Nevertheless, the practice of displacing one's goods on the body is universal and pervasive in commercial and urban scenes. Moreover, such non motorized delivery techniques challenge sustainable development and urban politics.

Undertaking such research on consumer's logistics faces several difficulties: Most of these carrying practices do not imply a high level of reflexivity from carriers. Interviews would be an irrelevant method to catch such behaviors. An innovative protocol is requested: the video recording of urban and commercial scenes. Videos are excellent tools to view at a slow pace how people load their goods on their body and how they displace them.

Some of the chosen video spots are self-service rental bikes stations in city centers. These areas are key places of urban logistic since a large part of the users are shoppers carrying bags and goods. Moreover, at the stations, goods change from pedestrians to cyclists and vice versa. Therefore, they have to readjust their carrying techniques. An international comparison of behaviors at rental bike stations in France and Sweden has been adopted in order to access possible cultural trends.