Parcel Delivery Service Research Articles

Multi-type facility location in printing and parcel delivery services

Multi-type facility location in printing and parcel delivery services

Genetic Algorithm Approach to Logistics Transportation and Distribution Problems: A Case Study of Parcel Delivery Services

Transportation and distribution activities require companies to have careful transportation planning to maintain resource efficiency. One form of planning in the transportation is planning the route and the number of vehicles. The research output is to get the best shipping route from each transportation in the form of the smallest shipping cost, delivery distance and shortest time. The approach used to determine the best route is the genetic algorithm (GA) method. In the application of GA in finding routes according to the objective, it gives the best results. From the results of the study, it was concluded that the GA algorithm was able to produce the best route effectiveness of 35.5% with a minimum distance of 76.4 km with the route 1-16-7-14-13-17-21-22-6-19-18 - 3-23-9-19-15-24-4-15-20-8-11-2-25-5-2 and a travel time of 4 hours 51 minutes and a fee of Rp. 213,000 with a delivery route on the test.

Light Electric Vehicles for Muscle–Battery Electric Mobility in Circular Economy: A Comprehensive Study

Light electric vehicles (LEVs) facilitate a significant reduction in global warming potential (GWP) and other environmental impacts related to specific transport performance due to their lightweight construction. Low-voltage systems in the drive engine, an open vehicle design and online vehicle data processing allow LEVs to be repaired by independent workshops, thus enabling long vehicle use as well as conversion or retrofitting for periods of use beyond 20 years. LEVs are not yet very common in everyday life in Western Europe. In order to support the acceptance of muscle power-supported LEVs in the EU L7e registration class by users, the vehicle design and construction specifically address requirements in the areas of last-mile parcel delivery and other transport services, including passenger transport. Life cycle assessment was used to investigate two construction methods for LEVs, mixed construction and fibre composite construction, in terms of the production, service life phase and end of life. A vehicle configuration was developed which, in addition to resource-saving production and long-life operation, enables easy access for users and maintenance of the LEV for various purposes. The resource efficiency of light electric vehicles was proven with regard to the ecological aspects. The vehicle design shown here shows high potential for LEVs in the circular economy.

Energy demand of parcel delivery services with a mixed fleet of electric vehicles

Drone logistics is considered as a disruptive business model reshaping logistics in the next decades. Most prominent potential advantages of drone delivery are cost savings, high speed, and high flexibility. Additionally, drones are also considered as a means of green transportation as they are electric vehicles which are potentially emission-free. To which extent these claimed potentials exist depends on the application scenario as well as the environmental and technological conditions. In this study a stationary drone delivery system is considered where parcels are delivered from a central depot to customers either by drone or electric truck. The minimal total energy consumption for serving all customers is determined when using only an electric truck or a mixed fleet of electric trucks and drones. In a simulation study the effects of structural characteristics (like numbers of customers and customer density) and environmental conditions (like wind speed and traffic conditions) on potential energy savings using drones are estimated. The results indicate that structural characteristics and environmental conditions heavily affect the energy saving potential of drones. In urban settings with high customer density, the energy saving potential is limited to at most 1% while in rural settings drones can help to save 5% of total energy. Under drone-favoring conditions like calm winds and heavy traffic, the energy saving potential can double.

Pressure-Sensitive Adhesive Combined with Paper Spray Mass Spectrometry for Low-Cost Collection and Analysis of Drug Residues.

Illicit drug use causes over half a million deaths worldwide every year. Drugs of abuse are commonly smuggled through customs and border checkpoints and, increasingly, through parcel delivery services. Improved methods for detection of trace drug residues from surfaces are needed. Such methods should be robust, fieldable, sensitive, and capable of detecting a wide range of drugs. In this work, commercially produced paper with a pressure-sensitive adhesive coating was utilized for the collection and analysis of trace drug residues by paper spray mass spectrometry (MS). This modified substrate was used to combine sample collection of drug residues from surfaces with rapid detection using a single paper spray ticket. The all-in-one ticket was used to probe different surfaces commonly encountered in forensic work including clothing, cardboard, glass, concrete, asphalt, and aluminum. A total of 10 drugs (acetyl fentanyl, fentanyl, clonazolam, cocaine, heroin, ketamine, methamphetamine, methylone, U-47700, and XLR-11) were evaluated and found to be detectable in the picogram range using a benchtop mass spectrometer and in the low nanogram range using a portable ion trap MS. The novel approach demonstrates a simple yet effective sampling strategy, allowing for rapid identification from difficult surfaces via paper spray mass spectrometry.

Third party risk modelling of Unmanned Aircraft System operations, with application to parcel delivery service

Commercial aviation distinguishes three indicators for third party risk (TPR): i) Expected number of ground fatalities per aircraft flight hour; ii) Individual risk; and iii) Societal risk. The latter two indicators stem from TPR posed to population by operation of hazardous installations. Literature on TPR of Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) operations have focused on the development of the first TPR indicator. However the expected increase of commercial UAS operations requires an improved understanding of third party risk (TPR). To support such improvement, this paper extends the existing TPR model for UAS operations with societal and individual risk indicators. The extension is developed both at modelling level and at assessment level. Subsequently the extended approach is applied to a hypothetical UAS based parcel delivery service in the city of Delft. The results obtained for the novel UAS TPR indicators show that this aligns commercial UAS operations with land use policies and standing TPR regulation for airports and hazardous facilities.

Last-mile delivery efficiency: en route transloading in the parcel delivery industry

ABSTRACT In the last few years, many consumers have shifted their shopping locations from traditional brick-and-mortar stores to online shopping sites to take advantage of larger product selections and convenient delivery services. This has forced parcel delivery service providers, such as UPS and FedEx, to handle large amounts of shipments with complex delivery needs in a time-efficient manner. Given this challenge, parcel delivery companies are looking for faster, more cost-efficient ways to distribute parcels. Based on expert opinions, obtained through a series of interviews with practitioners, this study presents a decision tool to improve the operational efficiency of last-mile delivery for parcel delivery companies. This decision tool extends previous works on Vehicle Routing Problem with Split Deliveries by allowing shipment transloading to take place between vehicles at select points (other than the depot) in the logistics network, within pre-specified time windows.

Analysis regarding Complaints of Courier Consumers and Workers in the Parcel Delivery Service by using Topic Model

Analysis regarding Complaints of Courier Consumers and Workers in the Parcel Delivery Service by using Topic Model

Assessing Overall Service Quality in the Parcel Delivery Services in Korea

COVID-19의 대유행 기간 동안 온라인 소매에 대한 전세계 수요가 증가하여 한국과 같은 국가에서도 택배 서비스에 대한 수요가 크게 증가했다. 이와 더불어 중국, 동아시아, CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States)에서 온 외국인의 증가에 따라 형성되는 시장 부문은 물류서비스업 입장에서 고객을 고려한 적절한 전략의 구축과 적용의 요구가 높아지고 있다. 물류서비스업이 성장하기 위해서는 서비스 품질 향상, 기업 평판 강화, 고객 만족도 향상, 충성 고객 확보, 재 구매율 향상, 그리고 매출 증가가 필요하다. 본 논문은 국내 택배 서비스 분야의 서비스 품질을 전반적으로 평가하고, 민족과 성별에 따른 소비자 집단이 소비자 행동에 명백한 차이를 보이는지를 검증하였다. 부분최소제곱 구조 방정식 모델링(pls-sem)과 다중집단분석이 사용되었으며, 중요도성과지도분석(IPMA)으로 재 구매 의도 (목표 구성 개념)의 성과를 개선하기 위한 전략을 제안하였다. 연구결과에 따르면 고객만족도가 재 구매 의도에 가장 중요하며, 기업 평판, 고객 충성도, 신뢰성, 차별화, 공감, 그리고 인프라 순으로 평가되었다. 다중 집단 분석의 결과 하위 그룹의 소비자 행동에는 큰 차이가 없는 것으로 나타났다. 이에 물류서비스기업은 고객의 민족이나 성별을 구분하지 않고 단일 관리 전략을 적용할 수 있는 것으로 판단된다. 택배 서비스 부문의 재구매 의도를 증가시키기 위해서는 특히 고객 충성도와 그 직접적인 선행 요인, 즉 신뢰성과 차별화의 서비스 품질 차원에 영향을 받는 고객 만족에 초점을 맞추는 전략이 가장 우선적이다. 모형의 실질적인 구현 측면에서 재구매 의도의 성과를 향상시키려는 물류서비스 회사는 고객들에게 정확한 추적 정보를 제공하고, 파손과 분실없이 지정된 장소와 시간에 배송함으로써 서비스의 신뢰성을 강화하는데 집중해야 할 것이다. 더불어 물류서비스 기업은 서로 다른 채널 (인터넷, 스마트 폰 앱, 전화 등)을 통한 접근, 차별화된 지리적 접근(무인 택배 서비스, 가장 가까운 조직의 배달 서비스 창구, 배달 서비스 창구, 여성용 안전박스 등), 그리고 소화물유형 (신선 식품, 콜드체인 서비스, 대량 및 중량 택배 배송 등)을 통한 차별화된 서비스를 제공해야한다.

Crowdsourcing mode evaluation for parcel delivery service platforms

The fast-growing practice of e-commerce implies a strong increase in the urban parcel delivery, which in turn creates significant pressure on last-mile city logistics. Because the crowdsourced delivery offers greater flexibility and requires less capital investment than traditional delivery methods, it has been playing a more crucial role when faced with the growing demand for the urban parcel delivery. With the increasing maturity of the crowdsourced delivery and the fierce competition among platforms, the evaluation of different crowdsourcing modes for the urban parcel delivery becomes important. This study proposes six mathematical models to evaluate different operation modes of the crowdsourced delivery in a quantitative way. Several realistic factors, such as the latest service time for each task, task cancellation rate and range distribution of tasks, are also analyzed in this paper. Numerical experiments are conducted to validate the effectiveness of the proposed models and to analyze the impact of different modes. Some managerial implications are also outlined on the basis of the numerical experiments and sensitivity analysis to help crowdsourced companies to make scientific decisions.

The Robust Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Window Assignments

In practice, there are several applications in which logistics service providers determine the service time windows at the customers, for example, in parcel delivery, retail, and repair services. These companies face uncertain travel times and service times that have to be taken into account when determining the time windows and routes prior to departure. The objective of the proposed robust vehicle routing problem with time window assignments (RVRP-TWA) is to simultaneously determine routes and time window assignments such that the expected travel time and the risk of violating the time windows are minimized. We assume that the travel time probability distributions are not completely known but that some statistics, such as the mean, minimum, and maximum, can be estimated. We extend the robust framework based on the requirements’ violation index, which was originally developed for the case where the specific requirements (time windows) are given as inputs, to the case where they are also part of the decisions. The subproblem of finding the optimal time window assignment for the customers in a given route is shown to be convex, and the subgradients can be derived. The RVRP-TWA is solved by iteratively generating subgradient cuts from the subproblem that are added in a branch-and-cut fashion. Experiments address the performance of the proposed solution approach and examine the trade-off between expected travel time and risk of violating the time windows.

Design of the Distribution Network for a “Collect-on- Delivery” Company in a Metropolitan Context using Simulated Annealing with Path Relinking

Parcel delivery service by collect-on-delivery (COD, a.k.a. cash-on-delivery) companies is a new distribution mode in China. The design of the distribution network of a COD company in urban areas is of great importance and a relatively new research direction. In this paper, we aim to model this distribution n etwork as a two-echelon location routing problem (2E-LRP) and propose a novel efficient optimization algorithm by combining simula ted annealing (SA) and path relinking (PR) to solve this NP combinatorial optimization problem. The experimental results are reported for 84 test problems from Nguyen's, Prodhon's, and Sterle 's benchmark. They indicate that the proposed SA-PR algorithm is competitive with other existing state-of-art algorithms for 2E-LRP from the perspectives of both quality of solution and computational time. Therefore, SA-PR is an effective metaheuristic to solve 2E-LRP problems, i.e., design distribution network of a COD company in a metropolitan context.

A New Truck-Drone Routing Problem for Parcel Delivery Services Aided by Parking Lots

Collaborative routing aided by drones in last-mile delivery (LMD) has been an extensively studied topic in recent years. In this article, a new optimization problem for collaborative routing with a truck and a fleet of drones in LMD is introduced. The problem proposes a new strategy to coordinate a truck and a fleet of drones to serve a given set of customers. The plan is based on identifying the locations where the truck can park and where the drones fly to serve the customers. A procedure to locate these parking lots conveniently is given. For the transportation network, which includes these points, a mixed linear integer programming formulation is provided, which aims to minimize the makespan of serving all the customers. Computational experiments on a set of problem instances were conducted to analyze the model solutions' characteristics and find their computational limits. The experiments showed that the proposed model could significantly improve the results obtained when only the truck delivers. Additionally, we propose a GRASP metaheuristic to solve instances of greater size. Its computational performance was studied when applied to a set of instances with different characteristics. The paper discusses some insights obtained from the computational experimentation and presents future research directions.

Pertanggungjawaban dan Penyelesaian Sengketa Konsumen Berkaitan Dengan Perdagangan Parsel

Abstrak—Perindungan konsumen ini adalah jaminan yang seharusnya di dapat oleh para konsumen atas setiap produk bahan makanan yang dibeli dari produsen atau pelaku usaha. Bagi pelaku usaha yang hanya selalu mementingkan bagaimana memperoleh keuntungan yang banyak tanpa memikirkan kepentingan konsumen. Dapatlah diajukan beberapa permasalahan yang akan merupakan pokok bahasan dari penelitian ini, permasalah tersebut yaitu: 1) Bagaimanakah bentuk pertanggungjawaban dalam hal terjadi kerugian pada konsumen akibat mengkonsumsi produk dalam parsel. 2) bagaimanakah mekanisme penyelesaian sengketa konsumen yang menimbulkan akibat kerugian mengkonsumsi produk dalam parsel. Penyajian ini menggunakan metode penelitian hukum empiris, pendekatan masalah secara sosiologis yaitu menggunakan pendekatan berdasarkan ketentuan hukum dan perkembangan hukum secara periodik. Pertanggungjawaban dalam hal terjadinya kerugian pada konsumen akibat mengkonsumsi produk dalam parsel adalah pihak – pihak yang melakukan kesalahan dan menyebabkan terjadinya kerugian. Pihak – pihak itu adalah produsen, pelaku usaha parsel dan jasa pengiriman. Sanksi menurut hukum perdata yaitu ganti rugi atau sanksi administratif dan menurut hukum pidana yaitu sanksi pidana kurungan 5 tahun penjara. Mekanisme penyelesaian sengketa konsumen yang menimbulkan kerugian akibat mengkonsumsi produk dalam parsel dapat dilakukan secara litigasi atau non litigasi. Dalam perdagangan parsel diharapkan semua pihak mengetahui tentang tanggung jawabnya masing-masing sehingga tidak akan timbul kerugian terhadap konsumen yang mengkonsumsi parsel.

Covid‐19 and Our Understanding of Risk, Emergencies, and Crises

Covid‐19 and Our Understanding of Risk, Emergencies, and Crises

The Study on the Development of Electronic Information Standard for the Diversification of Parcel Delivery Service

The Study on the Development of Electronic Information Standard for the Diversification of Parcel Delivery Service

Potential of Private Autonomous Vehicles for Parcel Delivery

Using the same vehicles for both passenger and freight transport, to increase vehicle occupancy and decrease their number, is an idea that drives transport planners and is also being addressed by manufacturers. This paper proposes a methodology to simulate the behavior of such vehicles within an urban traffic system and evaluate their performance. The aim is to investigate the impacts of resignation from fleet ownership by a transport service company (TSC) operating on a city-wide scale. In the simulation, the service provider hires private autonomous cars for tour performance. Based on assumptions concerning the operation of such vehicles and TSCs, the software Multi-Agent Transport Simulation (MATSim) is extended to model vehicle and operator behavior. The proposed framework is applied to a case study of a parcel delivery service in Berlin serving a synthetic parcel demand. Results suggest that the vehicle miles traveled for freight purposes increase because of additional access and egress trips. Moreover, the number of vehicles en route is higher throughout the day. The lowering of driver costs can reduce the costs of the operator by approximately 74.5%. If the service provider additionally considers the resignation from fleet ownership, it might lower the operation cost by another 10%, not taking into account the costs of system transfer or risks like vehicle non-availability. From an economic perspective, the reduction of the overall number of vehicles in the system seems to be beneficial.

국내 택배용 딸기의 적정 완충포장 시스템 개발

Due to the rapid increase in cyber shopping mall of agricultural products, the parcel delivery service industry also increased, making it necessary to design an optimum packaging for agricultural products. And Due to the recent increase in strawberry consumption, there is also a need for a packaging system for parcel delivery service. In order to establish the criteria for optimum cushioning packaging design of strawberries, the bioyield strength of strawberries by storage time was measured through the ASABE test standards, and the peak acceleration in the resonance frequency and resonance frequency bands of strawberries was measured through the vibration test regulated in the ASTM test specifications. Tray cup pad and corrugated fiberboard box of delivery strawberries were designed using FEM theoretical analysis of contact stress and resonant frequency. In addition, an optimum packaging system was developed with a cushioning and vibration design considering the impact characteristics when distributing agricultural products. Through the performance evaluation and on-site evaluation of the optimum packaging system of strawberries for parcel delivery service, the random PSD test results of the delivery showed a 74% reduction in the acceleration level, and the actual distribution test of the delivery showed that the damage rate of strawberries was not more than 6.7%, indicating that it was possible to use the optimum packaging of strawberries for delivery.

전자상거래기반 택배물류서비스에서의 재사용 순환물류포장 적용성 연구

The volume of parcel delivery is steadily increasing with the rapid growth of the global online e-commerce market. However, a large amount of packaging materials used for these parcel delivery is finally causing environmental problems as waste. In this study, we have taken a pilot test on the returnable parcel delivery packaging & service, which is one of various ways to reduce the generation of the distribution packaging waste raised by e-commerce-based parcel delivery. For the purpose of this project, we made 300 boxes of returnable & foldable delivery packaging(415 mm × 280 mm × 160 mm) and have cooperated with e-commerce company(CJ ENM) & logistics company(LogisAll). Consequently, about 50% of the delivered packages was returned because of the lack of consumer’s understanding on the returnable packaging system. We finally have suggested the policy strategy to get over problems derived from the experiment, like the retrieval rate and cost of the returnable packaging, economic efficiency and so on.

Measure of accessibility to postal services in France: A potential spatial accessibility approach applied in an urban region

AbstractIn a context where the demand and supply of mail and parcel delivery services are undergoing major changes due to the widespread use of the Internet and digital communications, this paper focuses on the accessibility of postal services through the physical retail network. The accessibility constraints applied to the outlets network of Le Groupe La Poste (the French postal operator responsible for the universal postal service and three other services of general economic interest) are based on a “simplified” approach that considers accessibility only in terms of time or distance‐time. This paper proposes to measure potential spatial accessibility by applying postal supply and potential demand dimensions using a two‐step floating catchment area (2SFCA) analysis. Based on an equilibrium between supply and demand through distance function, this method, which is often used in studies of the accessibility of health services, is transposed and adapted into the field of postal activities. It aims to measure accessibility by taking into account the population and population/provider ratio, considering standard postal services provided at service points. While until recently the 2SFCA methods were mostly applied in healthcare contexts, some applications have been developed in non‐health‐related services over the last decade. This paper proposes an original contribution to analysing variations in the accessibility of postal services. Referring to the “primary postal services” (sales of stamps, letters or parcels postage, remittance of postal items, and so on), it outlines the conditions that activities (or services) must satisfy in order to use the floating catchment area method.