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Evaluating Distribution Costs and CO 2 -Emissions of a Two-Stage Distribution System with Cargo Bikes: A Case Study in the City of Innsbruck

Author

Listed:
  • Anne Büttgen

    (Department of Global Business and Trade, Vienna University of Economics and Business, 1020 Vienna, Austria)

  • Belma Turan

    (Department of Global Business and Trade, Vienna University of Economics and Business, 1020 Vienna, Austria)

  • Vera Hemmelmayr

    (Department of Global Business and Trade, Vienna University of Economics and Business, 1020 Vienna, Austria)

Abstract

During the last years, e-commerce has grown rapidly. As a result, the number of parcel deliveries in urban areas is increasing, which affects the inner-city traffic and leads to congestion and air pollution, thereby decreasing the quality of life in cities. City administrators and logistic service providers have been working on the optimization of parcel distribution in order to alleviate congestion and reduce the negative impact on the environment. One of the solutions for environmentally friendly parcel distribution are two-stage distribution systems with city hubs. City hubs are facilities located close to the delivery area which are used as an enabling infrastructure to store and consolidate the parcels. For the last mile delivery from the city hub to final customers, zero emission vehicles, such as cargo bikes, can be used. Many studies have been conducted on this topic in recent years. This paper contributes to this research area by evaluating the implementation of such a two-stage distribution system with a city hub and cargo bikes in Innsbruck, Austria. The goal is to determine the best location for a city hub and the composition of the delivery fleet by minimizing the total distribution and CO 2 -emission cost. E-vans are used for the first and cargo bikes for the second stage of the parcel delivery. The problem is modeled as a vehicle routing problem with multiple trips and is solved in ArcGIS Pro, using the built-in routing solver. The analysis shows that all hub candidates provide comparably good results, with one potential station, the main station, showing the highest improvement compared to the basic system, with delivery by conventional vans. Savings in distribution costs of up to 30% can be achieved. Furthermore, by taking into account both indirect and direct emissions with a well-to-wheel approach, CO 2 -emissions can be reduced by 96%.

Suggested Citation

  • Anne Büttgen & Belma Turan & Vera Hemmelmayr, 2021. "Evaluating Distribution Costs and CO 2 -Emissions of a Two-Stage Distribution System with Cargo Bikes: A Case Study in the City of Innsbruck," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(24), pages 1-19, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:24:p:13974-:d:704989
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. Alexandra Anderluh & Vera C. Hemmelmayr & Pamela C. Nolz, 2017. "Synchronizing vans and cargo bikes in a city distribution network," Central European Journal of Operations Research, Springer;Slovak Society for Operations Research;Hungarian Operational Research Society;Czech Society for Operations Research;Österr. Gesellschaft für Operations Research (ÖGOR);Slovenian Society Informatika - Section for Operational Research;Croatian Operational Research Society, vol. 25(2), pages 345-376, June.
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    Cited by:

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    2. Boggio-Marzet, Alessandra & Villa-Martínez, Rafael & Monzón, Andrés, 2023. "Selection of policy actions for e-commerce last-mile delivery in cities: An online multi-actor multi-criteria evaluation," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 15-27.

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