by Walther Ploos van Amstel
The growth in e-commerce that our society has faced in recent years is changing the view companies have on last-mile logistics due to its increasing impact on the whole supply chain. In addition, new technologies are raising users’ expectations with the need to develop customized delivery experiences; moreover, increasing pressure on supply chains has also …
Forecast growth in e-commerce home-delivery demand provides retailers with opportunities for expansion and increased levels of investment. To maximize these growth opportunities, retailers face operational and logistical challenges related to order fulfillment and the last mile. In contrast to other sectors, many grocers operate a store-based delivery model rather than a separate distribution channel. Researchers …
In most dense urban environments in emerging markets, retail deliveries are fragmented to thousands of nano stores. It is not uncommon for a delivery route to include more than 60 stops. As a result, unloading bays are often blocked by regular traffic. Due to the complex urban environment, estimating the benefits of making unloading bays …
Due to high congestion in cities and growing demand for last-mile delivery services, several companies have been implementing two-echelon distribution strategies over the past few years. Notably, the installation of urban transshipment points has gained increasing attention, used by logistics operators to transfer goods from large freight trucks to smaller and more agile vehicles for …
The UK investment in transport decarbonization is more than £27B from the government for incentivizing zero-emission vehicles as part of an urgent response to decarbonize the transport sector. The investments made must facilitate a transition to a long-term solution. The success relies on coordinating and testing the evolution of both the energy and transport systems. …
Urban deliveries of goods have become a rising challenge due to the increase of online shopping and the traditional business-to-business (B2B) dynamics. To maintain a satisfactory level of service, carriers must conduct delivery operations under restrictive environments, creating undesirable externalities such as congestion and pollution. Urban micro-consolidation centers (UMCs) are defined as on-street or off-street …
Construction traffic, garbage, and other deliveries could be run on water in Swedish large cities. But market mechanisms, regulations, technology, problems with quays and old habits stand in the way. This is shown by a pre-study carried out within the Swedish Transport Administration’s industry program Sustainable Shipping, which Lighthouse runs. “The threshold is high for …
Due to population growth in cities, the demand for transport is rising, and therefore an increase in transport movements by trucks and vans can be observed. These movements hurt air quality, liveability, noise, and safety. LEFVs (Light Electric Freight Vehicles) can be a good solution for last-mile deliveries. Today one can observe a lot of …
Autonomous deliveries are being tested on university campuses worldwide, but the impact of such technology on the business models of freight service providers is poorly understood. Through interviews, workshops, and site visits, a new paper by Jon Williamsson explores the potential impact of autonomous deliveries on the business model of a campus-based freight services provider …
An Urban Consolidation Centre (UCC) can decrease the number of freight vehicles and their mileage in urban areas. In practice, however, UCCs often rely on subsidies and seldom make it past their starting period. Understanding how UCCs affect urban freight transport is mostly based on mathematical models and on the opinions of stakeholders who do …