Locating collection and delivery points for goods’ last-mile travel: A case study in New Zealand

Abstract

Collection and Delivery Points (CDPs) have been proved to be efficient in terms of decreasing the occurrence of first-time failed deliveries and delivery costs of goods bought online in European countries. However, CDPs have only recently been introduced in New Zealand, and service providers are trialling with a few CDPs established in larger cities, such as Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. Selection of CDP locations on an ad-hoc basis is likely to be expensive for service providers and the adopted location configuration may not be able to attract the desired consumer patronage. Thus, selection of locations and the density of CDPs needs to be done on the basis of considering factors, such as consumers’ distribution pattern and accessibility to potential CDP locations. This study aimed to identify the optimal density and locations for establishing CDPs, using Christchurch as a case study. A set-covering problem approach to locating facilities was adopted, taking city demographics and travel distances between population centres and potential facility locations into consideration. Non-conventional CDPs, such as dairies and supermarkets were found to be more accessible, and thus may well prove to be efficient for locating CDPs than traditional post shops. The results also suggest the spatial location of facilities forming an optimal configuration of CDPs.