E-Commerce Parcel Distribution in Urban Areas with Sustainable Performance Indicators

Abstract

E-commerce transactions have increased during the pandemic as people living in urban areas turn to buy goods online rather than offline. A two-echelon distribution system using parcel mobile hubs (PMHs) with small vehicles can increase operational cost efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The originality of this study is in building and testing a conceptual framework for selecting PMH locations with three variables (parcel distribution, internet quota for e-commerce, and center of e-buyer) and two constraints (space availability and traffic flow). Spatial analysis is used as a method to test the conceptual framework with a parcel distribution database from Bandung. As a city whose profile represents urban areas in developing countries well, Bandung is chosen as a case study. The proportion of distance to variables and the outermost point of each cluster is less than 10%, which proves that the three variables are correlated. This study proves that the selection of PMH locations based on this conceptual framework results in better sustainable performance compared to existing conditions. Using PMHs combined with city freighters can reduce operational costs by 19.7% and prevent 3.4 tons of CO2 emissions per year with conventional motorcycles and 7.2 tons of CO2 emissions per year with electric motorcycles or scooters.