The study focuses on building a financial model for a telecommunications carrier to guide it towards profitable network investments. The model shows optimal access-network topography by comparing two broadband delivery techniques over fibre technology. The study is a scenario exploration of how a large telecommunication company deploying fibre will see its investment pay off in a Canadian residential market where cable operators are using competing technology serving the same bandwidth hungry consumers. The comparison is made at the last mile by studying how household densities, bandwidth demand, competition, geographic and deployment considerations affect the economics of fibre technology investment. Case comparisons are made using custom models that extend market forecasts to estimate future bandwidth demand. Market uptake is forecasted using sigmoid curves in an environment where competing and older technologies exist. Sensitivity analyses are performed on each fibre technology to assess venture profitability under different scenarios.

The study focuses on building a financial model for a telecommunications carrier to guide it towards profitable network investments. The model shows optimal access-network topography by comparing two broadband delivery techniques over fibre technology. The study is a scenario exploration of how a large telecommunication company deploying fibre will see its investment pay off in a Canadian residential market where cable operators are using competing technology serving the same bandwidth hungry consumers. The comparison is made at the last mile by studying how household densities, bandwidth demand, competition, geographic and deployment considerations affect the economics of fibre technology investment. Case comparisons are made using custom models that extend market forecasts to estimate future bandwidth demand. Market uptake is forecasted using sigmoid curves in an environment where competing and older technologies exist. Sensitivity analyses are performed on each fibre technology to assess venture profitability under different scenarios.

The last-mile delivery option has become a focal point of academic research and industrial development in recent years. Multiple factors such as increased demands on delivery flexibility, customer requirements, delivery urgency, and many others are enforcing to adopt this option. For fulfilling this paradigm shift in delivery and providing additional flexibility, drones can be considered as a viable option to use for last-mile delivery cases. Numerous drones are available in the market with varying capacities and functionalities, posing a significant challenge for decision-makers to select the most appropriate drone type for a specific application. For this purpose, this study proposes a comprehensive list of criteria that can be used to compare a set of available last-mile delivery drones. Additionally, we introduced a systematic multi-criterion, multi-personnel decision-making approach, referred to as the Interval Valued Inferential Fuzzy TOPSIS method. This method is robust and can handle the fuzziness in decision-making, thereby providing quality drone selection decisions under different applications. We then apply this method to a real-life test setting. Results suggest that smaller drones or quadcopters are considered viable to use in urban environments, while long-range drones are preferred for the last mile delivery needs in rural settings.

Background: The last-mile logistics of the supply chain is often the most expensive part for an e-commerce retailer. It is also according to Lim and Srai (2018) where the consumers are the most demanding. It is no longer exclusively the e-commerce retailers’ job to choose the delivery method of the parcel they are sending out to their customer. As a consumer in Sweden today, you will often get the option to choose how you want your online order to be delivered. The result of consumers wanting to have more of a say in how their parcel is delivered is that the carrier companies now compete for the opportunity to deliver parcels (Post- och telestyrelsen 2020).  Purpose: This master’s thesis has as a purpose to investigate what reasoning there is behindthe choices the actors in B2C last-mile delivery make when it comes to their offerings ofdelivery options, and their chosen strategy. As e-commerce retailing has grown in hugeproportions during the last decades, there will also be a focus on what the industry mightdevelop into, as this will have an impact on the actors in the industry. There is a lack of insightinto the subject of this study, i.e. how e-commerce retailers and parcel carriers tackle theconstantly changing world of last-mile logistics. To help answer the purpose of the master’sthesis, literature on last-mile parcel delivery was compiled together with theories such as agencytheory, co-opetition, dynamic capabilities, and transaction cost analysis. Research questions: What should the different actors in B2C last-mile delivery take intoaccount when developing their parcel delivery strategy? What will the future of B2C parceldeliveries look like according to the different actors in B2C last-mile delivery? Methodology: The study used a qualitative method with an abductive reasoning. Thequalitative method that was used for collecting the data was qualitative semi-structuredinterviews. As this master’s thesis has a focus on the actors in B2C last-mile delivery, theinterviews were conducted with professionals within the e-commerce retailing, parcel carrier,and last-mile logistics industry. Conclusion: The study then concludes that the e-commerce retailer will try to adapt theirdelivery offerings based on what the consumers wish, and to be able to do this, the e-commerceretailer need to be flexible in their offerings. The parcel carriers need to keep in mind that theyhave a dependency towards the e-commerce retailers. The option of co-opetition is alsosomething that they should consider. It is important for the last-mile logistics companies to beaware of all this as they are working with both e-commerce retailers and parcel carriers. Thefindings of the study show that many believe that the future of parcel delivery will be to useparcel lockers. What needs to be kept in mind is that it is important for the consumer to be ableto choose when, where, and how their parcel is delivered. This master’s thesis can be used bye-commerce retailers, parcel carriers, and last-mile logistics companies, to gain insight intowhat the parcel delivery market looks like today, and what is important for all actors on it.

I dagsläget lever 86 % av Sveriges befolkning i stadsområden. Mellan år 1990 till 2015 ökade befolkningen i Sveriges största storstadsområden med ca 26 % i Göteborg, ca 36 % i Stockholm och ca 31 % i Malmö. Detta har skapat hårdare konkurrens i fråga om ytan mellan bland annat bostäder, näringsliv, grönområden och transportinfrastrukturen. Det är viktigt att redan i planeringsfasen vid städernas utformning väga in aspekterna för citydistributionen och skapa ett balanserat transportsystem. Vid ökade transporter inom en stad ökar faktorer så som köer, trängsel, koldioxidutsläpp, kostnader, stress och olyckor. Syftet med undersökningen var att genom signifikanta teorier och datainsamling beräkna kostnadsfördelningen av distributörernas ”last mile distribution”. Även ge underlag för att visualisera konsoliderings- och samlastningsmöjligheter där antalet utlämnings- och upphämtningsstopp var tätare. Arbetet begränsades till ett område inom Göteborgs innerstad och fordonstypen till paketbilar. Datainsamlingsperioden skedde från och med den 23 mars 2016 till och med 25 april 2016. De teorier som låg till grund för arbetet är supply chain, distribution, citydistribution, Triple bottom line, kostnader för citydistribution, samlastning och konsolidering. Uppsatsen utgick ifrån kvantitativa metoder och värdena analyserades från en objektiv ståndpunkt. För att skaffa en grunduppfattning av last mile utfördes även två semistrukturerade kvalitativa intervjuer. De utvalda respondenterna är forskare inom logistik. Primärdata till uppsatsen är insamlad genom en tidsstudie med hjälp av applikationen Stardriver. Detta utfördes under 13 hela arbetsdagar tillsammans med marknadsledande distributionsfirmor inom paket och logistik i Sverige. Resultatet påvisar att kostnadsfördelningen inom last mile till störst del fördelas på aktiviteterna Drive, Handle to store och Unload. Aktiviteterna delades också in beroende på om de är värdeskapande, stödjande eller förluster. Kontentan av det blev att 70% är värdeskapande aktiviteter, 13% stödjande aktiviteter och 17% är rena förluster. Detta innebär att under ett kalenderår lägger distributören på ett ungefär 501 269 kr på värdeskapande aktiviteter, 93 093 kr på stödjande aktiviteter och 121 737 kr på förluster. De aktiviteter som klassas som förlust bör elimineras för att minska kostnaderna. Även de andra aktiviteterna kan skapa mer kostnadseffektiva transporter genom exempelvis samlastning mellan distributörer och intern effektivisering. Möjligheterna för samlastning och konsolidering av paket inom centrala områden i Göteborgs är goda enligt det data som samlades in. Baserat på den tätare kundkrets som påträffades inom den begränsade ytan upprättades två mindre områden där samlastning med fördel kan nyttjas. För att implementera samlastning mellan distributörerna krävs ett starkare samarbete mellan parterna. Alternativt att en oberoende part så som Stadleveransen som tar hand om distributionen.

Buying the same product at the neighborhood store or at a shopping mall implies different carbon emissions. This paper quantifies carbon impacts of consumer choices of retail channel and shop location (where to buy), extending footprint assessments of product choices (what to buy). Carbon emissions of shopping situations are shown in the current situation, in a business-as-usual projection in 2020, and in policy scenarios with changed market shares of shopping situations. The analysis covers the product categories: groceries, clothing, and electronics & computers, from the shopping situations: neighborhood store, town center, discount store, shopping mall, and mail order/online selling. Stages of the product life cycle which differ between shopping situations are examined: freight transport, warehousing, store operation, and the last mile of the consumers' trip to the store. Carbon emissions of shopping situations amount to 2.7% of overall Austrian emissions in the base year. Dominant car use on the last mile substantially contributes to the overall footprint. In the business-as-usual scenario, carbon emissions from shopping situations increase by +33% until 2020, corresponding to 4.2% of the overall Austrian emissions target for 2020. Restricting shopping malls or supporting neighborhood stores could limit this increase to +25% and +20%, respectively. Facilitating online selling achieves no notable effects. The study underlines that an absolute reduction in private demand for household goods is necessary, as available policy instruments aiming at shopping situations fail to compensate the steady growth in private consumption.

Bakgrund. E-handel ökar ständigt, och med det även frakt av ehandelsvaror. Frakten som skrivs om i den här studien syftar till den frakt som sker mellan en återförsäljare och en slutkonsument. Denna är i texten kallad last-mile delivery. Denna är identifierad som mycket kostnadsbärande för återförsäljare och därför har ansträngningar gjorts för att ta reda på vad som driver konsumentpreferenser vid frakt av ehandelsvaror. För att bredda det här fältet och den nuvarande kunskapen inom område har den här studien introducerat tidspreferensteori som underlag och adderat betalningsfördröjning som attribut vid last-mile delivery för att se vilken effekt detta har på preferenser vid fraktval. Syfte. Syftet med den här studien är att ta reda på hur en fördröjd betalning kan påverka preferenserna för olika last-mile delivery-alternativ. Överlag syftar också studien till att bredda kunskapen inom området. Detta görs alltså med introduktionen av tidspreferensteori till området. Metod. Studien är en experimentstudie med en ansluten enkät. Enkäten gjordes i tre utföranden och skickades ut i tre distinkta experimentgrupper. Därefter testades datan med ett icke-parametriskt proportionstest för att se om det fanns någon signifikant mängd svar som stödjer att en fördröjd betalning påverkar konsumentens val av last-mile delivery-alternativ. Resultat. Resultaten av studien visar att det inte finns någon koppling mellan en fördröjd betalning och ändrade konsumentbeteenden i fraktpreferenser. Överlag så valdes fraktalternativet med lägst frakt. Detta är något som går igen i flera tidigare studier där man kommit fram till att fraktkostnad och leveranshastighet är de två mest betydelsefulla aspekterna av frakten. Det enda scenariot som visade någon förändring i preferens var då produkten vid köpet var en dyr sådan. Huruvida preferensskiftet går att tillskriva den fördröjda betalningen förblir oklart, men inte osannolikt. Slutsatser. Slutsatsen till studien blir att trots tidspreferens och fördröjd betalning användes i studien så gav de inget mervärde. Resultatet blev i linje med tidigare resultat. Att tidspreferensteorin inte höll för fraktpreferenserna kan haft att göra med studiedesignen. En framtida studie hade kunnat göra ett mer ingående arbete och fokusera ännu mer på tidspreferensen för att hitta nya resultat / Background. E-commerce is ever expanding, and with it, so is last-mile delivery. Last-mile delivery is the last part of any delivery from a retailer or etailer (online retailer) to a consumer. Last-mile delivery is one of the most costly parts of the supply chain for many etailers and as such efforts have been made to understand what drives preferences for last-mile delivery. To broaden this field, this study will introduce time preference theory to the last-mile delivery and examine if delayed payment of an online purchase has any effect on the last-mile deliver preferences.  Objectives. The objectives of this study are to examine if delayed payment of online purchases has any effect on the last-mile delivery preference for consumers, as well as broaden the knowledge on last-mile delivery preferences in general. This is done with the inclusion of time preference theory as an underlying theory.  Methods. The study is carried out through the use of an experiment study with an experiment survey. The survey was made into three different versions, distributed to three different experiment groups. The data was then tested with a non-parametric proportion test with varying values of proportion to see whether there was any significant proportion of the replies that were in favor of delay of payment having any effect on the consumer preference.   Results. The results of the study showed that consumers generally choose the last-mile delivery option with the lowest delivery fee. This is in line with previous findings which concluded that delivery fee and delivery speed are the two most important factors for consumers. The only case in which consumers indicated that there was any effect of the payment delay was in the case of an expensive product. Even then it is hard to rule out that it was not something else that brought this result.   Conclusions. The concluding findings of the study is that while time preference was added as an attribute for last-mile delivery, it had little to no effect. This may have been because of the study design of this study. For future research on the topic, examining time preference in a greater depth may give different findings from this study.

The goods distribution companies are today controlled by customer needs and environmental goals. New customer needs that have arisen the past years are that the goods distribution should be ecologically sustainable and leave the lowest possible ecological footprint. There are several possible vehicle and routing concepts as well as system perspectives appropriate for product distribution. This study aims to investigate the appropriate concept that meets customer needs. KPI: s are used to measure the performance of companies. One problem with goods distribution by automobile transportation is the accessibility in the traffic that follows. Congestion, pedestrian- and one-way streets as well as to park decrease accessibility. The problem with replacing automobile vehicles with the chosen vehicle concept in this study, electric-powered cargo bikes, is that productivity risks to be degraded from a system perspective since the cargo volume is significantly smaller with an electric-powered bicycle. But the customer's framework conditions need to be followed and the goods distribution companies should also consider that environmental zones could be introduced in their municipalities. Various vehicles that are being used today worldwide to deliver goods are heavy trucks, light trucks, and bicycles. These deliveries are routed with a route optimization program. Vehicle load carriers are designed differently and therefore have different load capacities. High load capacity is an advantageous characteristic of productivity. With bicycle implementation, a reload point may be necessary if there is too long of a distance between the distribution center and the area of the recipient. This study is based on an explorative research purpose and an inductive research approach. The set questions of the study were answered mainly through qualitative research methods, but also quantitative research methods were used. The results show that an electric-powered cargo bicycle, called the Starke cycle, will be proposed to be implemented as a vehicle concept together with a movable transshipment point and a garage for the bicycles. A conclusion drawn by the study is that the customer's main need is to achieve an ecologically sustainable distribution. Suggestions for further research are to investigate more in route optimization and to investigate robotic solutions used for last mile. / Idag är det intressentbehov och ramvillkor som styr varudistributionsföretagen. Nya intressentbehov som uppkommit nu i närtid är att varudistribution ska vara ekologiskt hållbart och lämna det lägsta möjliga ekologiska fotavtrycket. Det finns flera möjliga fordons- och ruttplaneringskoncept samt systemperspektiv för varudistribution. Den här studien ämnar undersöka lämpligt koncept som tillgodoser intressentbehovet för ekologisk hållbarhet. KPI:er används för att mäta prestanda hos företag. Ett problem med distribution med bil är framkomligheten i trafiken. Trafikstockningar, enkelriktade gator och gågator samt att parkera försämrar framkomligheten. Problemet med att byta ut fossildrivna distributionsfordon till studiens valda fordonskoncept, eldrivna lastcyklar, är att produktiviteten kan försämras ur ett systemperspektiv, eftersom lastvolymen är betydligt mindre på en eldriven cykel. Men kundintressentens ramvillkor behöver följas och varudistributionsföretagen borde ta hänsyn till att miljözoner kan införas i deras kommuner. Fordon som idag globalt användas för att leverera gods är tung lastbil, lastbil och lastcykel. Dessa leveranser ruttplaneras med ett ruttoptimeringsprogram. Fordonens lastbärare är utformade olika och har därmed olika lastkapaciteter. En hög lastkapacitet är en fördelaktig egenskap för produktiviteten. Vid cykelimplementation kan en omlastningspunkt vara nödvändigt ifall avståndet mellan distributions-centralen och området med mottagarna är för långt. Studien har ett explorativt forskningssyfte och en induktiv forskningsansats. Frågeställningarna besvaras genom kvalitativa- och kvantitativa forskningsmetoder. En eldriven lastcykel, Starke cycle, föreslås implementeras som fordonskoncept. Detta tillsammans med en flyttningsbar omlastningspunkt och ett garage för cyklarna. Slutsatsen av studien är att kundintressentens främsta behov är att åstadkomma en ekologiskt hållbar distribution.

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Background: The strong growth of e-commerce and the connected last mile delivery problems as well as the increasing customer demands have driven forward delivery innovations in the past years. One of them, parcel locker networks, were developed and have been growing for several years. However, customers still seem to prefer the traditional home delivery, which is highly inefficient for last mile delivery actors. Thereby, it has to be evaluated whether customers are satisfied with the parcel locker technology and which factors determine the satisfaction.  Purpose: This study aims at evaluating the factors influencing customer satisfaction in regard to parcel lockers. Therefore, relevant constructs about satisfaction and acceptance models in the last mile context were derived from the literature. Method: In order to accomplish our purpose, a quantitative study was conducted using a questionnaire among end customers in Austria and Germany. The proposed framework and hypotheses were analysed by using structural equation modelling. Furthermore, a multigroup analysis was conducted to identify differences between sociodemographic categories.  Conclusion: The results show that perceived ease of use, perceived quality and convenience perception all have an influence on customer satisfaction in Germany and Austria. However, the direct influence of perceived ease of use and convenience perception cannot be confirmed, both constructs are entirely mediated by perceived quality. Furthermore, the multigroup analysis determined significant differences in the gender category for the path between perceived ease of use and convenience perception, in the living area category for the relationship between convenience perception and perceived quality and in the age category for perceived quality and customer satisfaction.