35 - Retailer's Distribution and Local Time Window Policies

Abstract

In spite of local authorities’ increasing use of time windows, knowledge about their effects on distribution, costs, and the environment is only limited. This paper presents a multiple case study of ten retail chains in order to examine the effects of time windows. In a scenario analysis, the study varies the length of time windows and the number of cities in which time windows are used. The findings show that time windows have a negative impact on retailers’ distribution costs and a negative environmental impact as well. These effects increase substantially as more cities are affected by time windows ad as the time windows get tighter. Retailers that make multiple drops per roundtrip are affected most by an increase in time window pressure. Gradually increasing time windows (in which the size of the window increases with a decrease in the city size), perform better than nation wide uniform time windows, for both the retailer and the environment.