Abstract
Freight carriers, receivers and citizens in the inner-city area suffer the most from issues impacting last mile delivery due to exacerbated traffic congestion, limited parking and unsustainable delivery vehicles. Freight consolidation policies offer a sustainable solution to address these problems. The freight vehicles used in the consolidated deliveries could play a significant role in the sustainability and success of these policies. This paper applies a multi-stakeholder decision support approach to evaluate the suitability and potential of various delivery fleet configurations in addressing the perspectives and requirements of all stakeholders involved in last mile delivery to perform the consolidated delivery in the inner-city area. The Multi-Actor Multi-Criteria Analysis (MAMCA) framework was utilised to assess and rank various delivery configurations involving a combination of eco-friendly delivery vans, trucks and cargobikes based on the objectives of the stakeholders. The weight allocation of the criteria was determined through the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (F-AHP) method using responses collected from key actors representing all stakeholder groups in Melbourne, Australia. The multi-stakeholder analysis, which was performed using the Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluation (PROMETHEE) method, suggested that the consolidated delivery should be performed using a combination of eco-friendly delivery vans and cargobikes to incorporate the concerns of the societal stakeholders and operational requirements of the business stakeholders. The mono-actor analysis revealed the heterogeneity of the stakeholders’ preferences and clashing views regarding the optimal delivery fleet. This highlights the importance of incorporating a multi-stakeholder perspective in the planning and selection of suitable urban freight policies. Accordingly, a suitable implementation plan for the consolidated delivery fleet was proposed to reflect the perspectives and requirements of these stakeholders.
Highlights
City centres still represent a major freight destination that attracts and generates significant levels of freight movements with very limited supply of available and affordable commercial and industrial lands to establish and operate logistics facilities
The significant vehicle-km that freight vehicles travel between distribution centres in suburban areas to receivers inside the city centre in addition to the often necessity to circulate around to find parking result in an additional fuel consumption and traffic congestion [2,3]. This is further complicated by inefficient on-street loading and parking infrastructure, which deteriorates the efficiency of last mile delivery [4]
Using responses collected from key stakeholders in Melbourne, Australia, the Multi-Actor Multi-Criteria Analysis (MAMCA) framework was applied to assess and select the most optimal and sustainable consolidated delivery fleet for the consolidated delivery in the inner-city area
Summary
City centres still represent a major freight destination that attracts and generates significant levels of freight movements with very limited supply of available and affordable commercial and industrial lands to establish and operate logistics facilities. The significant vehicle-km that freight vehicles travel between distribution centres in suburban areas to receivers inside the city centre in addition to the often necessity to circulate around to find parking result in an additional fuel consumption and traffic congestion [2,3]. This is further complicated by inefficient on-street loading and parking infrastructure, which deteriorates the efficiency of last mile delivery [4]. It is estimated that a delivery van conducting last mile delivery would generate on average 21.7 kg of CO2 for an 80 km delivery trip [10]
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