The paper presents a case study of applying crowdsourcing to library deliveries. The trial was conducted in the city of Jyvaskyla in Finland as part of the Resource Wise Communities program funded by The Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra. The city has a population of 120 000 inhabitants and is facing the shut-down of half of the public libraries in order to adapt its economy to lowered revenues and compulsory cost savings. The assumption was that the level of service for customers not able to settle for e-books would be lowered and/or customers would have to travel longer distances. However, a research pilot was carried out where –instead of lowering the level of service in the area– books and other library media were delivered to customers' homes by utilizing a novel crowdsourced delivery service called PiggyBaggy. Crowdsourced delivery means that citizens deliver goods to each other along their way. Ideally, the deliveries would be made with minimal detour, along the way, thus maximizing the reduction in natural resource use and related environmental impacts from the transport. However, the transport fuel forms only one part of the overall footprint and in practice rebound effects such as drivers traveling longer distances motivated by monetary compensation, can reduce the targeted environmental improvement. The objective of our study was to investigate whether an existing consumer service, in this case the library public service, can adopt crowdsourced deliveries quickly from scratch, and to whether consumers participate in the deliveries in a way that has real sustainability benefits. Despite prevailing regulative challenges, the study found that existing library deliveries can be successfully crowdsourced. Each crowdsourced delivery reduced an average of 1.6 km driven by car, despite 80 per cent of the deliveries being made within less than a 5-km distance. Mobility related footprint reduction potential for Finland is also estimated.
In urban logistics, the last-mile delivery from the warehouse to the consumer’s home has become more and more challenging with the continuous growth of E-commerce. It requires elaborate planning and scheduling to minimize the global traveling cost, but often results in unattended delivery as most consumers are away from home. In this paper, we propose an effective large-scale mobile crowd-tasking model in which a large pool of citizen workers are used to perform the last-mile delivery. To efficiently solve the model, we formulate it as a network min-cost flow problem and propose various pruning techniques that can dramatically reduce the network size. Comprehensive experiments were conducted with Singapore and Beijing datasets. The results show that our solution can support real-time delivery optimization in the large-scale mobile crowd-sourcing problem.
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The distribution of goods in urban areas, together with private traffic flows, are among the main sources of energy consumption, air pollution and noise. As a consequence, in the 2000s, several EU cities started to implement logistical solutions for the sustainable city. In this context, this study addresses the implementation of a new eco-logistic system, which serves multiple adjacent cities by using electric vehicles to deliver goods of any type within their urban areas. This paper describes the results of a project developed in the province of Vicenza (northern Italy) and covering the main cities (Bassano del Grappa, Thiene, Schio and Valdagno) in the foothills (the so-called Pedemontana Veneta zone). The eco-logistic system aims to cover the last 50 miles of distribution (typical area of an Italian province) with a centralised platform that performs green deliveries with electric vehicles from/to the downtown areas. A preliminary and extensive “on field” analysis by means of door-to-door questionnaires was conducted to identify the performance required by the eco-logistic system. Therefore, the design of such a distribution system is performed to assess and define the conditions that make this solution profitable from both the economic and the environmental perspective.
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Last mile deliveries are one of the major effectors of heavy traffic of commercial vehicles in the whole city area. Due to e-commerce's generic specificity, its functioning on B2C market is based on home deliveries. In recent years very interesting and popular solution became the parcel lockers as the efficient last mile delivery system. This paper is focused on the analysis of usability and efficiency of this measure based on the example of Polish InPost Company system. It introduces the results of pilot survey realized in Szczecin (Poland), as well as the general expectations regarding the efficient utilization of this kind of solution.
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Last mile deliveries are one of the major effectors of heavy traffic of commercial vehicles in the whole city area. Due to e-commerce's generic specificity, its functioning on B2C market is based on home deliveries. In recent years very interesting and popular solution became the parcel lockers as the efficient last mile delivery system. This paper is focused on the analysis of usability and efficiency of this measure based on the example of Polish InPost Company system. It introduces the results of pilot survey realized in Szczecin (Poland), as well as the general expectations regarding the efficient utilization of this kind of solution.
Rapid increases in courier, express, and parcel (CEP) delivery demand have made environment- and traffic-related issues important in metropolitan areas. This study analytically formulates CEP delivery behaviors in last-mile networks to estimate the effects of logistics collaboration for apartment complexes. Reflecting courier delivery behavior, the CEP delivery problem was divided into horizontal and vertical routing problems. Optimization methodologies commonly utilized in the operations research area were employed for the analytical modeling of these two routing behaviors. The proposed methodologies were applied to apartment complexes in Seoul, Korea. It was found that the financial feasibility of CEP collaboration is guaranteed when the number of households in an apartment complex exceeds about 900. From the financial perspective, CEP collaboration is applicable to 9.1–19.4% of the apartment households in Seoul. In addition, CEP collaboration was analyzed to provide a meaningful amount of social cost savings, implying its economic feasibility. The public sector's roles in stimulating CEP collaboration are discussed from financial and legislative perspectives.
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Urban freight and city logistics are central to the UK economy, but face a number of economic and environmental challenges. This paper contributes to a new body of research that investigates the potential of cargo cycles to make city logistics more sustainable and explores ways to encourage their diffusion. The paper makes three key contributions. First, it develops a typology of cycle logistics based on a literature review and expert interviews in order to clarify definitions and terminology. Second, it identifies perception issues, lack of awareness and regulations as major barriers to wider implementation at city level based on snap-shot case studies. Third, it suggests a sustainable city logistics framework for urban governance, logistic operations and future research, to harness the potential of using cargo cycles for sustainable urban freight transport. The paper argues that local authorities have a key role to play in creating conditions that incentivise large logistic companies such as DHL, Hermes and TNT to integrate cargo cycles into their supply chain and hence drive a long-term modal shift. The findings of the paper are of interest to policy makers, urban logistic operators, research institutions and citizens as potential customers.
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Urban freight transport is important because efficient flow of goods is essential for the effective functioning of the urban economy and sustaining existing lifestyles. In Indian cities, urban freight transport research has received limited attention from policymakers. Using the case study of Ahmedabad, this paper attempts to understand the characteristics of freight transport movements in the city and identify the main freight generating centres within the city. By linking property tax data with cordon survey data the main freight generating centres were identified and functionally categorised as warehouse clusters, wholesale markets and industrial areas. Field visits were conducted at 3 prominent clusters in the city to assess surrounding land use and transport infrastructure as well as identify main issues affecting access and evacuation of goods vehicles to these important freight generating centres. The main issues identified were outdated zoning and rent control regulations, conflicting land use mix, time and access restrictions on heavy goods vehicles and severe lack of adequate parking facilities around freight generating areas. The paper concludes with recommendations of a set of interventions based on successful replication in other cities.
Cycle rickshaw trolley (CRT) is a widely used non-motorised mode of intra-city freight transport in Delhi. While a number of studies are available for non-motorised passenger rickshaws, role of CRT in urban goods movement has not been studied adequately. This paper presents findings from a survey of 2000 CRT drivers in Delhi in 2011. The paper highlights the contribution of CRT in city goods movement, savings in fuel and emissions and benefits to CRT drivers. If CRT s are replaced by motorised vehicles, CO2 emissions from vehicular traffic will increase by over 3% and hydrocarbon emissions will increase by over 8% and six to seven hundred thousand people will have to find alternate employment. The findings have a direct impact on various urban freight policies and welfare policies for the poor.
In France, e-commerce has experienced steady growth over the past decade. A striking aspect is that it is now widespread among different segments of the population, including suburban and rural households. This growth has generated significant demand for dedicated delivery services to end consumers. Pickup points (PP) represent a fast-growing alternative to home delivery, accounting for about 20% of parcel deliveries to households. The article focuses on the strategy of PP network operators. Our results are threefold. We have documented the recent development of alternative parcel delivery services to e-shoppers in Europe, and especially in France. We have described how the operators have decided to organize their PP network, identifying main variables and constraints. We have provided an analysis of the spatial distribution of PPs in France. The paper shows that at the French national level, PPs are now a well established alternative to home deliveries and their presence covers urban, suburban and rural areas. While PP density in remote areas decreases faster than population density, rural e-consumers' accessibility to PP sites has reached a viable level. Furthermore, PP delivery services generate new types of B2B freight trips that are not yet included in current urban freight models.
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