Abstract
The current increase in e-commerce is generating growing problems in urban areas in terms of both traffic flow (increasing traffic, no parking spaces) and environmental issues (noise, atmospheric pollution, etc.). In parallel, an iconic element of historic districts is disappearing: more and more newspaper kiosks are closing their business as their work dwindles. In this scenario, the objective of this paper is to propose a model for last-mile parcel delivery that exploits the current available newspaper kiosk network by using them as parcel lockers. To demonstrate the benefits of this proposal, we map the kiosk network of the city of Valladolid (Spain), and compare the environmental impact of a traditional (door-to-door) delivery and the proposed model which reuses old kiosks as parcel lockers. The necessary steps to carry out simulations are described in detail so that experiments can be replicated in other cities that face the same issues.
Highlights
E-commerce sale volumes have grown continuously in the last few years
To demonstrate the benefits of this proposal, we offer a case study conducted in incorporating parcel lockers attached to each currently existing kiosk in the city (whether they are the city of Valladolid in has which we simulate and compare environmental impact of we traditional operational, or their (Spain)
E-commerce growth is leading to increasing courier company activity
Summary
E-commerce sale volumes have grown continuously in the last few years. a 20.7% global growth rate was forecast for 2020 [1], the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is leading to substantial changes in online consumption patterns that have accelerated e-commerce growth beyond any expectations [2].an increasing number of vehicles are needed in downtown areas to deliver this growing volume of goods, which leads to traffic-flow problems, and to negative health and environmental consequences (e.g., noise pollution, CO2 emissions) [3,4,5].In general, while the logistics associated with freight transport have significantly improved in recent years, this cannot be stated for last-mile distribution, which is considered one of the least efficient, the most polluting and the costliest segments along the entire logistics chain [6]. An increasing number of vehicles are needed in downtown areas to deliver this growing volume of goods, which leads to traffic-flow problems, and to negative health and environmental consequences (e.g., noise pollution, CO2 emissions) [3,4,5]. Goods are transported from their place of origin by different transportation means until they reach the courier’s local warehouse, which is usually located near the customer’s address. From this point with traditional last-mile delivery, goods are loaded on delivery vehicles that travel around the city in order to deliver the corresponding parcels to customer addresses
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