Shared Logistics—Literature Review

Abstract

In the face of the energy crisis and the ever-increasing earth’s temperature, one of the ways to deal with these two challenges is to make better use of the existing resources, decoupling, and the circular economy. The solution for the full use of resources is in sharing them, and also in logistics. We decided to review the existing research and concepts in the area of shared logistics to summarize where science is on this subject, what is already known, what is missing, and what is worth supplementing. This paper summarizes the scientific achievements in shared logistics in the 2017–2021 period. Our goal was to create a literature review that would serve as a benchmark for future researchers about what has been achieved and what has not been achieved on the topic, which approaches have already been tried, and what the results have been. For readers other than researchers, our review will provide an important context about where science and practice are in the area of shared logistics. Desk analysis, visual analysis, and benchmark datasets of approaches have been reviewed and discussed to show possible aspects of shared logistics and the advantages it offers to supply chains across many industries. Our analysis showed that the most commonly discussed topics in the area of shared logistics are modeling the potential of sharing in logistics, and digitalization of processes. The last popular topic among researchers is fleet sharing and shared packaging, as well as barriers to implementation and data security. Our paper is a summary of current knowledge on shared logistics, and it highlights areas that require further research.