Category «Research»

CodeZERO: CO-design of e-commerce last-mile DElivery and return options with ZERO-emissions

CodeZERO is a transformative three-year initiative to create sustainable, zero-emission, last-mile delivery and return e-commerce solutions. The mission is to make these solutions attractive and viable for retailers, logistics service providers, and consumers. However, this poses a significant challenge for retailers and logistics providers striving to meet these demands while minimizing environmental impact. To create a …

What can Edge AI bring to the last mile?

Last-mile delivery is crucial but often plagued by inefficiencies and high costs due to its complexity. Recent advancements in Edge AI or Edge Intelligence (EI) present promising solutions to these challenges. Edge Intelligence or Edge AI Edge Intelligence or Edge AI moves AI computing from the cloud to edge devices, where data is generated. This …

The logistification of service trips: implications for urban mobility

Despite being a significant component of urban traffic, service trips are often overlooked in academic literature. These trips are primarily undertaken to perform various services, with the transportation of necessary goods being an integral part of the process. As a result, professionals use commercial vehicles for these tasks. A recent paper employs a combination of …

Using E-fulfilment centers for direct last-mile parcel delivery: an activity cost-based analysis

In recent years, online shopping has been rapidly increasing. Optimizing the sorting processes in e-fulfillment centers, combined with direct parcel delivery from these centers to nearby customers, has not been widely studied quantitatively. The primary objective of a recent paper is to determine whether e-fulfillment centers can reduce parcel delivery costs: ‘To what extent is …

New publication: City Logistics 2023

The proceedings of the 12th International Conference on City Logistics have been published. The conference focused on urban freight transport issues, models, evaluation methods, and planning approaches. The proceedings present 55 articles. The results of the conference were: Urban freight transport has become a significant issue in city planning due to challenges such as traffic …

Review: decoding cargo bikes’ potential to be a sustainable last-mile delivery mode

Cargo bikes may be recognized as a cost-effective and adaptable solution for last-mile goods transportation. However, few studies have examined the factors essential for their sustainable operation and effectiveness as the final segment of a green, efficient, and socially beneficial supply chain. To address this gap, the authors of a recent paper systematically collected and …

City logistics: experiences with hubs and decoupling inner and outer urban transport

The focus must extend beyond merely reducing emissions to achieve a more sustainable city logistics system. Alongside adopting zero-emission vehicles, it is crucial to decrease urban logistics trips due to various urban, environmental, and economic challenges. To optimize city logistics, a new paper emphasizes the role of hubs and decoupling points, which separate the logistics …

A review of city-wide 30 km/h speed limit benefits in Europe

European cities increasingly implement 30 km/h speed limits across street networks. A new paper aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of such speed limits in Europe. Quantitative methods and qualitative assessments were used to condense research findings. The study examined the impact of city-wide 30 km/h speed limits on safety, the environment, energy consumption, traffic, livability, …

Research opportunities for integrated network design with first and last mile

Supply chain management includes strategic, tactical, and operational decisions for long, medium, and short-term planning. Strategic decisions, such as network design, and operational decisions, such as last-mile routing, have mutual implications. Therefore, modeling them separately can lead to sub-optimal solutions. Integrated modeling of these decisions has been addressed as a location routing problem (LRP). A …