by Walther Ploos van Amstel
With the emergence of e-commerce in grocery retail, the food supply chain faces new challenges. In a new paper Shenle Pan et. al. of MINES ParisTech focus on such a challenge regarding the successful delivery of on line grocery orders.
Customer involvement is regarded as a new way to increase last mile efficiency. Improved delivery designs call for customer involvement although it is not clear how customers can be involved and what the consequences are for organizations and customers involved in the last mile.
Regulatory policies aim at reducing the negative effects of urban freight transportation, especially those related to traffic, emissions and noise. Nonetheless, stakeholders in city logistics often have divergent objectives, which lead to difficulties upon defining the best possible choices regarding regulation. A new paper on HoReCa deliveries in Paris by MINES ParisTech presents a multi-agent …
Several indicators have been established to monitor and evaluate the sustainability of cities. Urban freight and related transportation activities are under represented in these established frameworks despite the substantial negative impact of urban freight on the environment, society and economy. The result is the lack of an understanding of freight flows’ impact on the liveability of …
Many narrow or crowded downtown streets operate informally as shared streets during rush hour or at lunchtime, but are not regulated as such. A commercial shared street environment should be considered in places where pedestrian activity is high and vehicle volumes are either low or discouraged. Commercial shared streets can be designed for narrow or …
A new set of competitors, on-demand urban delivery providers, has recently entered the B2C delivery market. These start-ups, including Deliveroo and Foodora in Europe, as well as DoorDash and Postmates in the United States, offer a different form of service: they integrate demand aggregation via their own mobile platforms with dedicated in-house operations to enable …
The advent of new technologies in last mile deliveries is about to cause a disruption in the traditional business model applied in city logistics. In this context, identifying new business and operations models and vehicles that could be applied for last mile deliveries in urban areas becomes crucial
The light commercial vehicle, or delivery van, is the workhorse of both companies and the self-employed in the Dutch economy. And with good reason: it is a multifunctional and flexible mode of transport and compared to (smaller) trucks and cars it is also cheap to buy and use. Moreover, a ‘lighter’ drivers license B is sufficient to …
Growth in e-commerce has led to increasing use of light goods vehicles for parcel deliveries in urban areas. A new paper by UK researchers provides an insight into the reasons behind this growth and the resulting effort required to meet the exacting parcel services offered by e-retailers which often lead to poor vehicle utilisation in the …
Since the amount and complexity of urban shipments is increasing drastically, cities are facing new challenges such as illegal parking and more emissions. Common logistic practices need to be reconsidered by all participants to foster smarter urban logistic solutions.