Capacity-sharing in logistics solutions: A new pathway towards sustainability

The sharing economy concept – an extension of the internet of things concept - has contributed to the emergence of a new paradigm of freight transportation, where the main players are puppet masters in controlling data and not only physical assets. This new economic model is based on the use of technology to allow companies, citizens and other actors to share and monetize the excess capacity of their assets (vehicles, houses, parking spaces, etc.). The potential effects of this model are difficult to quantify, but it has been ventured that this new economic relationship will yield greater efficiency to businesses across the world, especially in the supply chain and city logistics processes. Such prospect relies on the fact that it is based on the provision of opportunities to monetize resources that already exist, instead of creating additional infrastructures in order to meet the demand. In this context, the application of the shared economy model to logistics brings up concepts of logistics sharing capacity. Logistics sharing capacity assumes the access and sharing of operational capabilities, either by vehicle sharing, by vehicle capacity sharing, sharing warehousing or infrastructure sharing.