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A Managerial Analysis of Urban Parcel Delivery: A Lean Business Approach

Author

Listed:
  • Luce Brotcorne

    (INRIA Lille—Nord Europe, Parc scientifique de la Haute Borne 40, av. Halley-Bât A, 59650 Villeneuve d’Ascq, France)

  • Guido Perboli

    (ICT for City Logistics and Enterprises Center, Politecnico di Torino, 10129 Turin, Italy
    CARS@Polito, Politecnico di Torino, 10129 Turin, Italy
    CIRRELT, Pavillon André-Aisenstadt, Montreal, QC H3T 1J4, Canada)

  • Mariangela Rosano

    (ICT for City Logistics and Enterprises Center, Politecnico di Torino, 10129 Turin, Italy
    CARS@Polito, Politecnico di Torino, 10129 Turin, Italy)

  • Qu Wei

    (ICT for City Logistics and Enterprises Center, Politecnico di Torino, 10129 Turin, Italy)

Abstract

The improper integration of traditional transportation modes with low emissions vehicles can generate a price war that reduces the service quality, undermining the efficiency and the profitability of parcel delivery operators. This paper aims to provide managerial insights to design a win-win strategy for the co-existence of traditional and green business models. In doing so, we adopt a multi-disciplinary approach that integrates a qualitative analysis through a Lean Business methodology, named GUEST, with a quantitative analysis based on simulation-optimisation techniques. This kind of holistic vision has received little attention in the literature. The first analysis investigates the parcel delivery industry with an emphasis on the main business models involved, their costs and revenues structures, while the quantitative part aims to simulate the system and extract sustainable policies. In particular, results highlight that in deploying mixed-fleet policies, the decision-makers have to focus both on the environmental sustainability that benefits from the adoption of low-emission vehicles, and on the operational feasibility and economic sustainability of the two services. In this direction, the paper suggests some managerial insights concerning the split of the customer demand between traditional and green operators, according to the classes of parcels and geographical areas of the city.

Suggested Citation

  • Luce Brotcorne & Guido Perboli & Mariangela Rosano & Qu Wei, 2019. "A Managerial Analysis of Urban Parcel Delivery: A Lean Business Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-23, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:12:p:3439-:d:242183
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    8. Riccardo Giusti & Chiara Iorfida & Yuanyuan Li & Daniele Manerba & Stefano Musso & Guido Perboli & Roberto Tadei & Shuai Yuan, 2019. "Sustainable and De-Stressed International Supply-Chains Through the SYNCHRO-NET Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-26, February.
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    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.
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    6. Mühlbauer, Ferdinand & Fontaine, Pirmin, 2021. "A parallelised large neighbourhood search heuristic for the asymmetric two-echelon vehicle routing problem with swap containers for cargo-bicycles," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 289(2), pages 742-757.
    7. Fontaine, Pirmin, 2022. "The vehicle routing problem with load-dependent travel times for cargo bicycles," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 300(3), pages 1005-1016.
    8. Perboli, Guido & Brotcorne, Luce & Bruni, Maria Elena & Rosano, Mariangela, 2021. "A new model for Last-Mile Delivery and Satellite Depots management: The impact of the on-demand economy," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    9. Heimfarth, Andreas & Ostermeier, Manuel & Hübner, Alexander, 2022. "A mixed truck and robot delivery approach for the daily supply of customers," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 303(1), pages 401-421.
    10. Edoardo Fadda & Guido Perboli & Mariangela Rosano & Julien Etienne Mascolo & Davide Masera, 2022. "A Decision Support System for Supporting Strategic Production Allocation in the Automotive Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-21, February.
    11. 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.
    12. Katsela, Konstantina & Pålsson, Henrik, 2021. "Viable business models for city logistics: Exploring the cost structure and the economy of scale in a Swedish initiative," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    13. 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.
    14. Konstantina Katsela & Michael Browne, 2019. "Importance of the Stakeholders’ Interaction: Comparative, Longitudinal Study of Two City Logistics Initiatives," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-17, October.

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