IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2020i17p7213-d408386.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Mobile Access Hub Deployment for Urban Parcel Logistics

Author

Listed:
  • Louis Faugère

    (Physical Internet Center, School of Industrial & Systems Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, lGA 30332, USA)

  • Chelsea White

    (Supply Chain & Logistics Institute, School of Industrial & Systems Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA
    Schneider National Chair in Transportation and Logistics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA)

  • Benoit Montreuil

    (Physical Internet Center, School of Industrial & Systems Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, lGA 30332, USA
    Supply Chain & Logistics Institute, School of Industrial & Systems Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA
    Coca-Cola Material Handling & Distribution Chair, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA)

Abstract

Last-mile logistics is an essential yet highly expensive component of city logistics responsible for many nuisances in urban areas. Mobile access hubs are flexible consolidation and transshipment points aiming at creating more sustainable city logistics systems by dynamically using urban space as logistics facilities. In this paper, we examine the potential of mobile access hub deployments for urban parcel logistics by identifying the impact of design parameters on economic and environmental performance. We propose a mathematical modeling framework and an integer program to assess the performance of mobile access hub deployments, and study the impact of a set of design parameters through synthetic cases and an illustrative case inspired from a large parcel express carrier’s operations. Results indicate design flexibility relative to the location of hubs and pronounced advantages in highly variable environments. The illustrative case shows significant savings potential in terms of cost and time efficiency as well as environmental sustainability. It emphasizes a trade-off between operational efficiency and environmental sustainability that can be balanced to achieve global sustainability goals while being economically sound.

Suggested Citation

  • Louis Faugère & Chelsea White & Benoit Montreuil, 2020. "Mobile Access Hub Deployment for Urban Parcel Logistics," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-22, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:17:p:7213-:d:408386
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/17/7213/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/17/7213/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Janjevic, Milena & Winkenbach, Matthias & Merchán, Daniel, 2019. "Integrating collection-and-delivery points in the strategic design of urban last-mile e-commerce distribution networks," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 37-67.
    2. G. Guastaroba & M. G. Speranza & D. Vigo, 2016. "Intermediate Facilities in Freight Transportation Planning: A Survey," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 50(3), pages 763-789, August.
    3. Tom Assmann & Sebastian Lang & Florian Müller & Michael Schenk, 2020. "Impact Assessment Model for the Implementation of Cargo Bike Transshipment Points in Urban Districts," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-19, May.
    4. Simona Mancini, 2013. "Multi-echelon distribution systems in city logistics," European Transport \ Trasporti Europei, ISTIEE, Institute for the Study of Transport within the European Economic Integration, issue 54, pages 1-2.
    5. Holguín-Veras, José & Amaya Leal, Johanna & Sanchez-Diaz, Ivan & Browne, Michael & Wojtowicz, Jeffrey, 2020. "State of the art and practice of urban freight management Part II: Financial approaches, logistics, and demand management," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 383-410.
    6. Daganzo, Carlos F., 1984. "The length of tours in zones of different shapes," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 135-145, April.
    7. Wanjie Hu & Jianjun Dong & Bon-gang Hwang & Rui Ren & Zhilong Chen, 2019. "A Scientometrics Review on City Logistics Literature: Research Trends, Advanced Theory and Practice," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-27, May.
    8. H. J. (Hans) Quak & M. (René) B. M. de Koster, 2009. "Delivering Goods in Urban Areas: How to Deal with Urban Policy Restrictions and the Environment," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 43(2), pages 211-227, May.
    9. Carlos F. Daganzo, 2005. "Logistics Systems Analysis," Springer Books, Springer, edition 0, number 978-3-540-27516-9, February.
    10. Ansari, Sina & Başdere, Mehmet & Li, Xiaopeng & Ouyang, Yanfeng & Smilowitz, Karen, 2018. "Advancements in continuous approximation models for logistics and transportation systems: 1996–2016," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 229-252.
    11. Matthias Winkenbach & Paul R. Kleindorfer & Stefan Spinler, 2016. "Enabling Urban Logistics Services at La Poste through Multi-Echelon Location-Routing," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 50(2), pages 520-540, May.
    12. Holguín-Veras, José & Amaya Leal, Johanna & Sánchez-Diaz, Iván & Browne, Michael & Wojtowicz, Jeffrey, 2020. "State of the art and practice of urban freight management," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 360-382.
    13. Michael Browne & Julian Allen & Toshinori Nemoto & Danièle Patier & Johan Visser, 2012. "Reducing Social and Environmental Impacts of Urban Freight Transport: A Review of Some Major Cities," Post-Print halshs-01078143, HAL.
    14. Cintia Machado de Oliveira & Renata Albergaria De Mello Bandeira & George Vasconcelos Goes & Daniel Neves Schmitz Gonçalves & Márcio De Almeida D’Agosto, 2017. "Sustainable Vehicles-Based Alternatives in Last Mile Distribution of Urban Freight Transport: A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-15, July.
    15. Martin Savelsbergh & Tom Van Woensel, 2016. "50th Anniversary Invited Article—City Logistics: Challenges and Opportunities," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 50(2), pages 579-590, May.
    16. Luigi Ranieri & Salvatore Digiesi & Bartolomeo Silvestri & Michele Roccotelli, 2018. "A Review of Last Mile Logistics Innovations in an Externalities Cost Reduction Vision," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-18, March.
    17. Serban Raicu & Dorinela Costescu & Stefan Burciu, 2020. "Distribution System with Flow Consolidation at the Boundary of Urban Congested Areas," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-17, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Milovan Kovač & Snežana Tadić & Mladen Krstić & Miloš Veljović, 2023. "A Methodology for Planning City Logistics Concepts Based on City-Dry Port Micro-Consolidation Centres," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(15), pages 1-21, July.
    2. Riharsono Prastyantoro & Heru Purboyo Hidayat Putro & Gatot Yudoko & Puspita Dirgahayani, 2022. "E-Commerce Parcel Distribution in Urban Areas with Sustainable Performance Indicators," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-23, December.
    3. Tássia Faria de Assis & Victor Hugo Souza de Abreu & Mariane Gonzalez da Costa & Marcio de Almeida D’Agosto, 2022. "Methodology for Prioritizing Best Practices Applied to the Sustainable Last Mile—The Case of a Brazilian Parcel Delivery Service Company," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-24, March.
    4. Peter C. Schuur & Christopher N. Kellersmann, 2022. "Improving Transport Logistics by Aligning Long Combination Vehicles via Mobile Hub & Spoke Systems," Logistics, MDPI, vol. 6(1), pages 1-18, February.
    5. Sören Lauenstein & Christoph Schank, 2022. "Design of a Sustainable Last Mile in Urban Logistics—A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-14, May.
    6. Dae-Ho Byun & Han-Na Yang & Dong-Seop Chung, 2020. "Evaluation of Mobile Applications Usability of Logistics in Life Startups," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-17, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Faugère, Louis & Klibi, Walid & White, Chelsea & Montreuil, Benoit, 2022. "Dynamic pooled capacity deployment for urban parcel logistics," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 303(2), pages 650-667.
    2. Janjevic, Milena & Merchán, Daniel & Winkenbach, Matthias, 2021. "Designing multi-tier, multi-service-level, and multi-modal last-mile distribution networks for omni-channel operations," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 294(3), pages 1059-1077.
    3. Nils Boysen & Stefan Fedtke & Stefan Schwerdfeger, 2021. "Last-mile delivery concepts: a survey from an operational research perspective," OR Spectrum: Quantitative Approaches in Management, Springer;Gesellschaft für Operations Research e.V., vol. 43(1), pages 1-58, March.
    4. Bergmann, Felix M. & Wagner, Stephan M. & Winkenbach, Matthias, 2020. "Integrating first-mile pickup and last-mile delivery on shared vehicle routes for efficient urban e-commerce distribution," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 26-62.
    5. Merchán, Daniel & Winkenbach, Matthias & Snoeck, André, 2020. "Quantifying the impact of urban road networks on the efficiency of local trips," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 38-62.
    6. Snoeck, André & Winkenbach, Matthias, 2020. "The value of physical distribution flexibility in serving dense and uncertain urban markets," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 151-177.
    7. Marta Viu-Roig & Eduard J. Alvarez-Palau, 2020. "The Impact of E-Commerce-Related Last-Mile Logistics on Cities: A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(16), pages 1-19, August.
    8. Sergio Maria Patella & Gianluca Grazieschi & Valerio Gatta & Edoardo Marcucci & Stefano Carrese, 2020. "The Adoption of Green Vehicles in Last Mile Logistics: A Systematic Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-29, December.
    9. Kokkinou, Alinda & Quak, Hans & Mitas, Ondrej & Mandemakers, Albert, 2024. "Should I wait or should I go? Encouraging customers to make the more sustainable delivery choice," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    10. Magdalena Mucowska, 2021. "Trends of Environmentally Sustainable Solutions of Urban Last-Mile Deliveries on the E-Commerce Market—A Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-26, May.
    11. Lei, Chao & Ouyang, Yanfeng, 2018. "Continuous approximation for demand balancing in solving large-scale one-commodity pickup and delivery problems," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 90-109.
    12. Gleb V. Savin, 2021. "The smart city transport and logistics system: Theory, methodology and practice," Upravlenets, Ural State University of Economics, vol. 12(6), pages 67-86, October.
    13. Patrick Klein & Bastian Popp, 2022. "Last-Mile Delivery Methods in E-Commerce: Does Perceived Sustainability Matter for Consumer Acceptance and Usage?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-27, December.
    14. Hao Jiang & Eric Ballot & Shenle Pan, 2019. "Modeling and analysis of alternative distribution and Physical Internet schemes in urban area [Modélisation et analyse de systèmes de distribution alternative et d'Internet physique en zone urbaine," Post-Print hal-02172073, HAL.
    15. Pahwa, Anmol & Jaller, Miguel, 2022. "A cost-based comparative analysis of different last-mile strategies for e-commerce delivery," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    16. Ben Mohamed, Imen & Klibi, Walid & Sadykov, Ruslan & Şen, Halil & Vanderbeck, François, 2023. "The two-echelon stochastic multi-period capacitated location-routing problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 306(2), pages 645-667.
    17. Asma Troudi & Sid-Ali Addouche & Sofiene Dellagi & Abderrahman El Mhamedi, 2018. "Sizing of the Drone Delivery Fleet Considering Energy Autonomy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-17, September.
    18. Cleophas, Catherine & Cottrill, Caitlin & Ehmke, Jan Fabian & Tierney, Kevin, 2019. "Collaborative urban transportation: Recent advances in theory and practice," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 273(3), pages 801-816.
    19. Cesar Eduardo Leite & Sérgio Ronaldo Granemann & Ari Melo Mariano & Leise Kelli de Oliveira, 2022. "Opinion of Residents about the Freight Transport and Its Influence on the Quality of Life: An Analysis for Brasília (Brazil)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-14, April.
    20. Lemardelé, Clément & Estrada, Miquel & Pagès, Laia & Bachofner, Mónika, 2021. "Potentialities of drones and ground autonomous delivery devices for last-mile logistics," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:17:p:7213-:d:408386. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.