The impact of different cooperation strategies on the efficiency of rural parcel deliveries

Abstract

In rural areas, parcel deliveries are characterized by a lack of drop density and high-mileage delivery. As a result, rural areas are difficult to make profitable for each individual carrier company. The VIL project “Rural Parcel Delivery” investigates the effect of 2 cooperation strategies: (1) Parcel delivery outsourced to a neutral third party from a common distribution hub and (2) Setting up a shared network of collection points between carriers. MooV has developed a model of the parcel delivery chain to assess the impact of these cooperation strategies on the efficiency of parcel deliveries as well as the location of the common hub. Given the obtained input data for the Walloon region, joint delivery in rural areas results in a reduction in costs (-35%) and CO2 emissions (-60%). Large differences exist between carriers based on the type of their delivery network and parcel volume.