In recent years, cities worldwide have grappled with last-mile logistics’ impact, particularly its contribution to urban traffic congestion and pollution. These dynamics have had significant environmental consequences, including noise, road safety concerns, and air pollution. As a result, both public and private sectors must adopt innovative solutions to mitigate the adverse effects of last-mile logistics and enhance operational efficiency.
A recent study aims to offer a systematic literature review on environmentally sustainable last-mile logistics. The main contributions of this paper are as follows: (1) examining and analyzing the existing literature on last-mile logistics, with a particular focus on sustainable measures implemented by companies, local governments, and supranational institutions; (2) categorizing the current studies into five themes (agents’ preferences and choices, shared logistics, stakeholders, vehicle studies, and policy and decision-making), and clarifying the implications from a public economics perspective; and (3) identifying gaps and limitations in the existing literature, while suggesting potential areas for future research.
The literature review reveals that most recent studies have been based on engineering and urban planning approaches. The costs and benefits of last-mile logistics are researched with a public economics focus, gathering details from different papers, from business studies to technology-oriented ones. This paper identifies key topics and policies discussed in the literature and offers recommendations for integrating them into developing new measures or revising existing ones.
While the initial pool of studies numbered 583, only 108 papers were selected for review, as public economics perspectives were underexplored. The results of this study highlight significant opportunities for further investigation into this area.