Abstract
Widespread adoption of green vehicles in urban logistics may contribute to the alleviation of problems such as environmental pollution, global warming, and oil dependency. However, the current adoption of green vehicles in the last mile logistics is relatively low despite many actions taken by public authorities to overcome the negative externalities of distributing goods in cities. This paper presents a comprehensive literature review on studies investigating the adoption of green vehicles in urban freight transportation, paying specific attention to e-commerce. To shed light on the adoption of green vehicles in city logistics, the paper conducts a systematic review of the empirical literature on the topic. The 159 articles reviewed were classified into the following: (a) Optimization and scheduling (67 papers); (b) policy (55 papers); (c) sustainability (37 papers). Among the 159 articles, a further selection of 17 papers dealing with e-commerce, i.e., studies that highlight the most relevant aspects related to the integration of green vehicles in e-commerce urban logistics, was performed. Our findings indicate that green vehicles are competitive in urban deliveries characterized by frequent stop-and-go movements and low consolidation levels while incentives are still necessary for their adoption. The use of autonomous vehicles results the most promising and challenging solution for last-mile logistics.
Highlights
The demand for urban freight transportation has increased considerably owing to urbanization and demographic growth, along with the increased diffusion of e-commerce, new management principles, and the introduction of new pervasive technologies [1].The ever-increasing trade volumes of e-commerce, which still showed a worldwide growth rate of 23.3% in 2018 and have drastically increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, have led to huge parcel volumes that need to be delivered each day especially in large urban areas
This paper presents a comprehensive literature review on studies investigating the adoption of green vehicles in urban freight transportation, paying specific attention to e-commerce
This paper focuses on green vehicles adoption due to its relevance in a context where the increase in the e-commerce market and the rise of on-demand logistics imply poor efficiency and might cause additional negative environmental consequences
Summary
The demand for urban freight transportation has increased considerably owing to urbanization and demographic growth, along with the increased diffusion of e-commerce, new management principles (e.g., just-in-time), and the introduction of new pervasive technologies [1].The ever-increasing trade volumes of e-commerce, which still showed a worldwide growth rate of 23.3% in 2018 and have drastically increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, have led to huge parcel volumes that need to be delivered each day especially in large urban areas. The demand for urban freight transportation has increased considerably owing to urbanization and demographic growth, along with the increased diffusion of e-commerce, new management principles (e.g., just-in-time), and the introduction of new pervasive technologies [1]. As mentioned by Janjevic et al [3], urban logistics operations have a considerable impact on three different aspects of sustainability: Economic (e.g., efficiency and costs of deliveries), environmental (e.g., CO2 emissions), and social (e.g., congestion). To cope with this situation, city municipal administrations are implementing several sustainability initiatives such as urban consolidation centers, intelligent fleet management
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