Context memo

Date: 11/22/2019
To: ENGW 3302 Fall 2019
CC: Cecelia Musselman
From: Carter Rose
RE: Rose_P2_FD

Below find explanations for terms explored in my first draft of the project 2 literature review.

Last Mile Delivery: The transportation of goods from a centralized distribution hub to individual
customers

Environmental Impact: Refers not only to the impact to the natural world but also in terms of the
nuisance it poses to the surrounding community

Congestion: Congestion in the context of this paper specifically refers to traffic congestion

Light Delivery Van: Small vans typically used for parcel delivery or human transport

Light Goods Vehicle: See light delivery van above

Omni Channel: The process of goods delivery where customers go look at a product in a
showroom or store, and then have it shipped to their house, combining both traditional retail and
e-commerce.

Model: Refers exclusively to mathematical models

This review (including citations) was modeled after the following literature review. This
resource was retrieved using ILLiad and therefore is not readily available online. You will find a
copy attached to the same thread as my Project 2 on Blackboard:
Yu, Y., Wang, X., Zhong, R., and Huang, G.Q. “E-commerce Logistics in Supply Chain
Management- Implementations and Future Perspective in Furniture Industry”
 Carter Rose
11/22/2019
ENGW 3302
Project 2: Literature Review
2175 ​Words
Citations Matched To Style of Sample Lit Review

Last Mile Delivery Solutions and Considerations

A review of proposed implementations in urban settings from 2018-2019

Abstract
E-commerce combined with urbanization has lead to high demand for home deliveries,
especially in cities. In each of the sources evaluated, environmental and economic considerations
were two major limiting factors for last mile delivery solutions. To reduce emissions and lower
costs from freight transportation vehicles, several papers presented electric vehicles of various
forms as a more environmentally friendly and economical solution. While there are certainly
environmental and economic benefits to using electric vehicles in last mile delivery of freight,
researchers in five studies did not consider the alternatives to their proposed solution. In the
future it may prove useful to build models that can compare technology across multiple cities
and forms of transportation. This review compares different technologies that have been
proposed to meet the environmental and economic challenges posed by last mile delivery in
urban areas.

1. Introduction
E-commerce combined with urbanization has lead to high demand for home deliveries in
urban settings [4]. This effect has been explored in European cities such as Rome, London, and
Turin, Italy, and also cities such as Rio de Janeiro, Brazil [1][3][4][6]. Several problems with this
increased demand for freight delivery have been explored in these cities including:
environmental considerations, costs and expenses for both shippers and consumers, traffic
congestion in cities, and energy efficiency. Researchers have proposed seven technological
solutions to these problems. This review investigates seven papers which propose solutions for
the problems identified and comment on its efficacy compared to other methods, as well as
highlight any limitations or inconsistencies between or within research.
2. Methods
The articles in this review were found by passing the criteria “last mile” “freight” and
“e-commerce” through the “Engineering Village” database which Northeastern University
subscribes to, and filtering the results for peer reviewed journal articles. These articles were then
checked for currency and relevance to the topic. All of the articles reviewed were produced in
2017, 2018 or 2019 and appeared in peer reviewed journals

3. Challenges
The studies reviewed identified three major challenges in last mile delivery:
environmental [1-7], economic [1][2], and resource utilization [1-4].

3.1 Impact to environment

Environmental considerations are major limiting factors for last mile delivery solutions.
Potential causes for concern were carbon dioxide and other gas emissions [1-7], congestion in
city centers [1-7], and energy consumption [3][4][5][6]. Congestion is one particular place where
researchers saw opportunities for improvement with one study citing that 95% of the stops that a
delivery vehicle makes are on the side of the road making it difficult for traffic to pass [1]. Each
paper posed slightly different reasons for these factors increasing, but common reasons included:
increasing in business to consumer (B2C) e-commerce [1][2], same day delivery services [2],
and continuing population growth in urban settings [2][3][4].

3.2 Cost of delivery

In addition to environmental factors, last mile delivery costs are increasing to the point
where shippers are facing difficulty in continuing to be profitable [1]. One study reported that up
to 50% of the total shipping cost comes from last mile delivery [2]. 70% of the papers reviewed
cited reducing shipping cost as part of their objective.

3.3 Underutilized resources

Beyond cost and environmental impact, other papers pointed to the fact that the potential
last mile shipping industry is currently underutilized. Articles point to potential factors such as:
multiple shipping companies operating in the same geographic area [1], ride sharing services
which often transport only one person at a time [2], and underutilization of already available
resources such as public transportation [3][4].
4. Proposed Solutions
The studies proposed three solutions for combating these challenges: electric vehicles
[1][3][7], crowdshipping [1-4], and shipping to centralized locations [1][2][6].

4.1 Electric vehicles in various design

To reduce the emissions from freight transportation vehicles, three papers presented
electric vehicles of various forms as a more environmentally friendly solution [1][3][7]. In a case
study on Rio de Janeiro Brazil, one paper compared two types of electric vehicles for moving
freight to delivery locations: an electric tricycle and electric light delivery vans (LDV) [3]. In
their scenario, mail carriers would use the tricycle or van to deliver packages to a centralized
location near the houses where the packages were to be delivered. They would then carry out the
last part of the delivery on foot.
In another study, researchers assessed the feasibility of using a new electric vehicle called
FURBOT [7]. This study looked at the challenges of load analysis for many different size and
weight distributions of packages [7]. In their study researchers found that electric vehicles posed
unique challenges as the vehicle itself had to be light, while also being able to carry bulky or
heavy cargo [7]. Their research showed challenges in implementing electric vehicles, but also
how models can be used to assess proposed design solutions [7].
In a case study on London, researchers studied existing services in which freight is
delivered to a central depot, and then delivered by electric light goods vehicles (LGVs) [1].
While using the tricycle in the study on Rio could potentially reduce congestion, and having
goods delivered to a central location as suggested in the London study, electric vehicles do not
address all of the environmental concerns.

4.2 Crowdshipping
Another proposed method is the use of “crowdshipping” where individuals deliver
packages to locations along their route [1][2][4]. In one paper, the authors mention the use of
crowshipping to reduce both energy consumption and congestion by leveraging people such as
taxi drivers or delivery personnel who are already traveling towards the package’s destination
[1]. However, as the authors point out, if crowdshippers make these deliveries without a shared
purpose, it will not necessarily reduce congestion [1].
One proposed solution gets around this by integrating both passenger and freight
transport into vehicles so that packages and people traveling the same direction only take up one
vehicle rather than two [2]. As pointed out in this study, ride sharing trips are often only
transport one person which leaves unused space that could be filled by packages [2].
Additionally there are times of peak demand versus limited demand meaning vehicles are
underutilized at certain points in the day [2]. The researchers found that using combined freight
and passenger transport could save 11% of the cost to shipping companies and also reduce the
amount of congestion by ensuring that vehicles were more full at any given time [2].
In another study, researchers instead proposed crowdshipping via public transportation. In their
example individuals would pick up packages from drop locations located near public
transportation stations and bring them to other stations during the trips which they were already
planning on taking [3]. The authors examine this solution not only as a method to reduce
emissions but also to lower congestion and increase utilization of the city's public transportation
systems [3].

4.3 Shipping to centralized location rather than homes

Studies also considered shipping to central locations such as businesses, lockers, or
collection points [1][2]. Interestingly researchers found that while shipping to central locations
such as lockers combined with other delivery techniques was effective in lower volume
applications, but vans and bikes proved to be superior in economic and environmental impact
when applied to high volume applications [6].

5. Examination and Limitations

These solutions will now be evaluated and examined for potential limitations in the research.

5.1 Environmental Impact

While there are certainly environmental benefit to using electric vehicles in last mile
delivery of freight, researchers in five studies did not consider the alternatives to their proposed
solution. In fact, in one study researchers found that the total energy consumption from
traditional retail was actually greater than that of e-commerce [5]. What they discovered is that
while e-commerce companies use 12% more energy in packaging and 10% more in freight
transportation, customer travel to stores used 52% more energy in traditional retail, products sold
in stores used 4% more energy when considering unsold products and product returns, and that
store buildings tend to use 4% more energy than centralized warehouses [5]. In the age of
e-commerce, fewer people going to stores could also reduce congestion. Interesting to note
however is that energy use in customer travel is only 52% higher for traditional retail meaning
that many online customers are utilizing “omni channels” where they look at something in a
store and then have it delivered to their house [5].

5.2 Design requirements for alternative vehicles

Also interesting to note is the difficulty of transporting heavy or oversized parcels. As the
authors of the article regarding public transportation bring up, their solution would only work for
smaller parcels that can be carried by one person [4]. In the Rio example, their model prefers
tricycles for their energy efficiency and ability to be pulled to the side of the road, but delivery is
conducted by foot [3]. This would make it difficult to deliver large parcels. Additionally, many
of the solutions are predicated on the invention of new electric vehicles to carry freight. As
shown in the FURBOT example, analysis has to be conducted for varying load profiles [7]. This
could limit the immediate adoption of the techniques presented.

5.3 Combination of different transportation methods

70% of the studies examined only considered one delivery method while the other 30%
only considered a limited number of alternatives. As applied to Rio, tricycles were better than
electric vans [3], but there were no other alternatives studied such as centralized drop off
locations, or crowdshipping. Furthermore, In the example applied to Turin, Italy, showed that
depending on freight traffic, the combination of delivery methods can change [6]. This means
that researchers must understand the interaction between multiple shipping methods as well as
how each one contributes to solving the problems posed by last mile delivery [6].

5.4 Studies applied to individual situations

57% of the articles studied were only applied to one city or scenario. This makes it
difficult to adopt their suggestions to be applied on a broader scale. In the crowdshipping
example using public transportation, their results were applied to Rome which has a subway
network [3]. In cities without good public transportation, researchers may not find
crowdshipping via subway feasible. Similarly in the example regarding shared freight and
passenger transport the researchers acknowledge that their conclusion of 11% cost savings is
highly dependant on the assumptions they made when building the model which could vary
depending on where the solution is implemented [2].

6. Opportunities for further research and practical application

In future studies, researchers will need to look into creating models which can be applied
generally, rather than to just one city and also include empirical data from actual
implementations.

6.1 Creating models which can be applied generally

It may prove useful to build models that can compare technology across multiple cities
and forms of transportation. Researchers building the model for Turin, Italy created a model that
was more accurate because it took in empirical data as well as simulated data [6], but it could
only use it to model to optimize the current state in Turin, not predict what other forms of
transportation could be implemented to increase efficiency or other places where this model
would hold true. If there were a model that showed the interaction between different forms of
transportation, perhaps it could then be applied across many cities rather than in specific
examples. Similarly if the model for shared freight and passenger vehicles could be tuned to
individual cities needs, it would provide shippers better information on whether to develop and
deploy this technique in individual cities.
6.2 Studies on implementation in cities
Most of these studies only considered potential deployments, but not what has already
been done. By studying cities that have large last mile delivery demand, but little congestion
perhaps researchers could apply these findings to other cities. If none exist, it would be
interesting to study why these solutions are not being adopted and perhaps tailor them to be more
attractive to both shippers and governments.

7. Conclusions
This review compared different technologies that have been proposed to meet the
environmental and economic challenges posed by last mile delivery in urban areas. In current
studies, researchers are using simulated, data to propose solutions for individual cities. Electric
vehicles appearing in three of seven reviews studied suggests that they may be part of a future
solution in last mile delivery. However, the lack of empirical data across a variety of cities needs
to be studied and understood before full adoption of any method. Future research needs to be
done on building models that can be applied to many cities as well as incorporating empirical
evidence based on real-world implementations. Important to note is that the sources reviewed
were from the last two years indicating that this field is being actively studied for
implementation. Electric vehicle technology as well as modeling their efficacy and impact will
likely play a part in the future of e-commerce.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my peer reviewers Takezo Johnson and Zachary Feigelson for helping me
enhance the flow of the review and rework the conclusions section
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