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En stor utmaning för företag som befinner sig på den internationella E-handelsmarknaden är att ha fullständig kontroll över utgående transportkostnader. Oväntade kostnader kopplade därtill är ett dyrt och tidskrävande problem för en verksamhets Supply chain management. Last mile transporten, den avslutande transporten av en kundbeställning, påverkas speciellt mycket då den betraktas som den dyraste delen av försörjningskedjan. Syftet med examensarbetet är således att undersöka om det finns en besparingspotential i att få ökas kontroll över inkomna fakturor för last mile transporter. Det här examensarbetet har genomförts på ett fallföretag inom E-handel. För att uppnå syftet och besvara frågeställningar har fallstudien använt det vetenskapliga angreppssättet abduktion, vilket har möjliggjort växling mellan litteratur och empiriskt material. Med hjälp av intervju, observation och dataanalys samt en kompletterande litteraturgenomgång har materialet analyserats och diskuterats för att slutligen dra en slutsats. På fallföretaget genomförs den nuvarande kontrollen av inkomna faktorur för last mile transporter genom stickprov, och de oväntade kostnader som påträffas misstänks vara feldebiteringar. Examensarbetets slutsats är att oväntade kostnader kan orsakas av att skillnaden mellan angiven och debiterad vikt är störra än ett kilo, samt att bränsletillägget är större än 50 procent av transportens grundpris. Problematiken är omfattande dels då effektiviteten och kundnöjdheten ur ett långsiktigt perspektiv påverkas negativt, dels då insikten om och förståelsen för verksamhetens utgående kostnader är nödvändigt för företag som verkar på den internationella marknaden. Slutligen har en mer tidseffektiv arbetsmetodik i programvaruverktyget Microsoft Excel rekommenderats för att urskilja möjliga orsaker till oväntade kostnader vid last mile transporter.

A steady increase in parcel volume has put more pressure on the freight transportation industry and will only continue to do so in the future. The whole industry will continue to grow as the volume increases which in turn will put more pressure on the drivers responsible that the goods arrive safely to their destination. There are many reasons to try and facilitate their working environment. It is very common for delivery drivers nowadays to use different mapping services to help navigate. The maps have helped a lot since their arrival, but this does not mean that they are faultless, there is still room for improvement. This study examines how mapping services can be used and updated to help drivers save time while deliveries. It focuses on public, free-to-use maps. A survey was conducted where drivers in the industry were asked questions about their use of mapping services and where they got to give their opinion on possible improvements to these. Motivated by observations in the field and the literature, the survey presented two potential improvements to the maps to gather opinions from the drivers. The first one was a possible addition of loading zones and loading docks to the mapping services in order to help drivers find their destination’s drop-off area. Previous studies have shown that drivers lose time in the last mile of their trip. The second problem occurs when a map navigates so that you approach your destination from the wrong direction. The study showed that delivery drivers today use maps very frequently. All 33 respondents in the study use a mapping service for their work at least once a week, 29 of them using one at least once a day. The drivers were very positive about a possible addition of loading zones and docks to the maps, all of them thought it would facilitate their work. After analysing the data collected it could be seen that an average driver loses 20 minutes a day searching for a place to load. The drivers were overall frustrated with the maps despite using them very frequently. They agreed with the problems presented in the survey and gave further examples of how they are being held back by the maps.

<p>Included in licentiate thesis in manuscript form.</p>

<p>  </p> <p>Hydrogen fuel cells are an abundant and cleaner source of energy, making them an attractive option for powering transportation systems. Hydrogen fuel cell drones are a new type of drone that generates energy from fuel cells for flight and expels heat and water vapor as byproducts. Compared to battery-powered drones, hydrogen fuel cell drones have better endurance and payload capacity due to their higher energy density, making them more efficient for eCommerce delivery. This research compares the performance of hydrogen and battery delivery drones for both drone-only and truck-drone last-mile delivery systems. A mixed integer programming model has been formulated to minimize the total delivery time for small to medium customer instances using the two-echelon vehicle routing problem, where drones are launched from the truck to serve one or more customers. The study conducted a comparative analysis by varying different parameters of drones on multiple sets of customer instances from real-world data to determine the best choice of drones for different scenarios. The results of the analysis show that hydrogen fuel cell drones have significant delivery advantages over typical battery drones in terms of delivery time and efficiency. Additionally, a sensitivity analysis was conducted to demonstrate the impacts of different parameters on the objective function of the delivery systems.</p>

Abstract: Efficient last-mile transportation is a continuous difficulty for businesses, particularly in e-commerce, necessitating the development of creative solutions. This thesis investigates the use of mobile warehouses in mid-sized urban and rural areas to help with this problem. The study begins by emphasizing the importance offlawless delivery as well as the role of warehouses in supply chains. Mobile warehouses emerge as a possible solution, addressing constraints related to these regions' low population density, purchasing power, and market dynamics. The methodology includes a review of the literature on mobile warehouse solutions and the introduction of a generalized cost function model for estimating last-mile logistics costs. The model, which is adaptable to different vehicle types, is applied to Dalarna County in Sweden, considering delivery routes and stops. The findings spotlight the efficacy of mobile warehouses, notably mobile trucks, for last-mile delivery in Dalarna County. Interpretation of results from simulation scenarios emphasizes the importance of route optimization. While the study acknowledges its limitations, it underscores the potential benefits of adopting mobile warehouses, both in practical and theoretical terms. These findings resonate as valuable insights for businesses and the logistics industry, especially in the dynamic landscape of e-commerce. The study illuminates the way forward, emphasizing the critical role of adaptive, geography-specific solutions, such as mobile warehouses, in enhancing last-mile delivery efficiency.

This paper presents the results of a Berlin research project in which a low emission urban delivery system was designed and tested in collaboration with different urban logistics stakeholders. First, the paper shows the developed concept that includes a macro-hub and corresponding micro-hubs, while the vehicle fleet consists of electric cargo bikes as well as an electric van. Second, the key results of the corresponding 6-month field trial are discussed. Parcels have been delivered to B2B recipients. To investigate the feasibility, the ecological and the economic impact of the developed concept, transport data was constantly collected during the field trial. Based on the data, average costs and emissions per parcel were calculated and compared to a conventional delivery system. Furthermore, managerial implications were derived. Finally, the limitations of the study and further research are summarized.

This twofold work first presents a state-of-the-art review of the roots and context for freight mobility barriers, and secondly investigates the key barriers to freight mobility in Canada from the perspective of stakeholders. The review provides a holistic approach to understanding the interconnected nature of mobility, spatial structure, congestion, supply chains, and the economy on generating, demanding, and hindering freight movements. The investigation develops a novel theory grounded in the experiences of stakeholders following the Strauss/Corbin extended Grounded Theory approach of symbolic interactionism. From interviews with 28 industry and government stakeholders, a total of 50 themes emerged as barriers. These barriers were grouped into four categories which frame the issue of freight mobility as being impacted by high infrastructure utilization, cost impacts of diminishing distribution reliability, rapidly growing regions and ineffective or absent policy support, and lacking a robust data collection, analysis, and sharing framework. The categories were considered in the frame of addressing goods movement barriers and were argued to be influenced by factors of cost, political risk, implement-ability, and maintainability. A framework was developed by integrating the emergent categories and factors, identifying four high-level interventions: data and knowledge mobilization; public-private collaborative freight evaluations; government funding and political support; and, capacity alterations: improvements and expansions. Overall, the key concepts of the emergent theory are to collect and analyze data to inform public-private stakeholder evaluations of policy interventions, with government funding to support both knowledge generation efforts, policy actions and capacity investments. There is a significant need to expand data collection and information sharing to enable firms and government to address physical and policy barriers which impede the effective goods movements, including infrastructure and land use planning. The theory is generally consistent with barriers identified internationally. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / This twofold work first presents a state-of-the-art review of the roots and context for hinderances to the movement of freight, and secondly, investigates the key barriers to freight mobility in Canada as perceived by Canadian stakeholders. The review provides a holistic approach to understanding the interconnected nature of mobility, spatial structure, congestion, supply chains, and the economy on generating, demanding, and hindering freight movements. The investigation develops a novel theory grounded in the experiences of stakeholders in Canada. Emergent are categories which frame the barriers to freight mobility as high infrastructure utilization, diminishing reliability, rapidly growing regions, ineffective or absent policy support, and insufficient data collection and sharing. These categories are theorized to be influenced by cost, political risk, implement-ability, and maintainability considerations. The concepts are to collect and analyze data to inform stakeholder evaluations of policy interventions, with government funding to support knowledge generation, policy actions, and capacity investments.

Missed deliveries are a major issue for package carriers and a source of great hassle for the customers. Either the carrier attempts to redeliver the package, incurring the additional expense of visiting the same house up to three times, or they leave the package on the doorstep, vulnerable to package thieves. In this dissertation, a system of collection-and-delivery-points (CDPs) has been proposed to improve customer service and reduce carrier costs. A CDP is a place, either in an existing business or a new location, where the carrier drops any missed deliveries and the customers can pick the packages at their convenience. To examine the viability of a CDP system in North America, a variation on a location-routing problem (LRP) was created, a mixed-integer programming model called the CDP-LRP. Unlike standard LRPs, the CDP-LRP takes into account both the delivery truck route distance and the direct customer travel to the CDPs. Also, the facilities being placed are not located at the beginning and ending of the truck routes, but are stops along the routes. After testing, it became clear that, because of the size and complexity of the problem, the CDP-LRP is unable to be solved exactly in a reasonable amount of time. Heuristics developed for the standard LRP cannot be applied to the CDP-LRP because of the differences between the models. Therefore, three heuristics were created to approximate the solution to the CDP-LRP, each with two different embedded modified vehicle routing problem (VRP) algorithms, the Clark-Wright and the Sweep, modified to handle the additional restrictions caused by the CDPs. The first is an improvement heuristic, in which each closed CDP is tested as a replacement for each open CDP, and the move that creates the most savings is implemented. The second begins with every CDP open, and closes them one at a time, while the third does the reverse and begins will only one open CDP, then opens the others one by one. In each case, a penalty is applied if the customer travel distance is too long. Each heuristic was tested for each possible number of open CDPs, and the least expensive was chosen as the best solution. Each heuristic and VRP algorithm combination was tested using three delivery failure rates and different data sets: three small data sets pulled from VRP literature, and randomly generated clustered and uniformly distributed data sets with three different numbers of customers. OpenAll and OpenOne produced better solutions than Replacement in most instances, and the Sweep Algorithm outperformed the Clark-Wright in both solution quality and time in almost every test. To judge the quality of the heuristic solutions, the results were compared to the results of a simple locate-first, route-second sequential algorithm that represents the way the decision would commonly be made in industry today. The CDPs were located using a simple facility location model, then the delivery routes were created with the Sweep algorithm. These results were mixed: for the uniformly distributed data sets, if the customer travel penalty threshold and customer density are low enough, the heuristics outperform the sequential algorithm. For the clustered data sets, the sequential algorithm produces solutions as good as or slightly better than the sequential algorithm, because the location of the potential CDP inside the clusters means that the penalty has less impact, and the addition of more open CDPs has less effect on the delivery route distances. The heuristic solutions were also compared to a second value – the route costs incurred by the carrier in the current system of redeliveries, calculated by placing additional customers in the routes and running the Sweep algorithm – to judge the potential savings that could be realized by implementing a CDP system in North America. Though in some circumstances the current system is less expensive, depending on the geographic distribution of the customers and the delivery failure rate, in other circumstances the cost savings to the carrier could be as high as 27.1%. Though the decision of whether or not to set up a CDP system in an area would need to be made on a case-by-case basis, the results of this study suggest that such a system could be successful in North America. / Doctor of Philosophy / Missed deliveries are a major issue for package carriers and a source of great hassle for the customers. Either the carrier attempts to redeliver the package, incurring the additional expense of visiting the same house up to three times, or they leave the package on the doorstep, vulnerable to package thieves. In this dissertation, a system of collection-and-delivery-points (CDPs) has been proposed to improve customer service and reduce carrier costs. A CDP is a place, either in an existing business or a new location, where the carrier drops any missed deliveries and the customers can pick the packages at their convenience. To examine the viability of a CDP system in North America, a mathematical programming model was created called the CDP-LRP. Because of the size and complexity of the problem, it is unable to be solved exactly in a reasonable amount of time. Therefore, three heuristics were created to approximate the solution to the CDP-LRP, each with two different embedded modified vehicle routing problem (VRP) algorithms. For all the heuristics, a penalty is applied if the customer travel distance is too long. Each heuristic and VRP algorithm combination was tested using different data sets: three small data sets pulled from VRP literature, and randomly generated clustered and uniformly distributed data sets with three different numbers of customers. To judge the quality of the heuristic solutions, the results were compared to the results of a simple locate-first, route-second sequential algorithm that represents the way the decision would commonly be made in industry today. These results were mixed: for the uniformly distributed data sets, if the customer travel penalty threshold and customer density are low enough, the heuristics outperform the sequential algorithm. For the clustered data sets, the sequential algorithm produces solutions as good as or slightly better than the sequential algorithm, because the location of the potential CDP inside the clusters means that the penalty has less impact, and the addition of more open CDPs has less effect on the delivery route distances. The heuristic solutions were also compared to a second value – the route costs incurred by the carrier in the current system of redeliveries – to judge the potential savings that could be realized by implementing a CDP system in North America. Though in some circumstances the current system is less expensive, depending on the geographic distribution of the customers and the delivery failure rate, in other circumstances the cost savings to the carrier could be as high as 27.1%. Though the decision of whether or not to set up a CDP system in an area would need to be made on a case-by-case basis, the results of this study suggest that such a system could be successful in North America.

Purpose: The increasing importance given to sustainability issues by governments, companies, consumers, suppliers, researchers, students and the authors of this paper in addition to the scarce empirical studies on the topic of sustainable last mile logistics operations in the food retail industry in Sweden provides relevance to the choice of topic. This paper presents an exploratory single-case study on a Swedish food retailer with a strong sustainability-oriented decision-making body, and will seek to understand how they manage to adopt best sustainable practices and which drivers and most responsible for it. Objective: The aim of this study is to present through an empirical study, how food retailers operate their last mile logistics operations according to the triple bottom line approach, contributing to this young field where a profusion of data to confirm the existing theory remains deficient. Furthermore, the focus is placed on the different drivers for food retailers to adopt sustainable practices in their transportation operations from the distribution warehouse to their stores located in urban areas. Approach: A Swedish food retailer that strives for best practices will be studied in order to obtain key empirical data, which will allow the authors to compare theory and empirical data.  The study will focus on the sustainability-oriented operations approach in the Last Mile Logistics of the chosen retailer and observe the different drivers regarding their operations following all aspects of the triple bottom line. A single-case study analysis of a leading company in terms of sustainability-driven operations will provide more insight on how this “category” of food retailers manages to operationalize their environmental-friendly culture and strategy for inbound Last Mile Logistics successfully, without losing their competitive edge and remaining economically sustainable. Findings: After juxtaposing the secondary data issued from the existing theories on sustainable LML in the food retail industry to the primary data obtained from Axfood, a Swedish food retailer, the results have demonstrated that a business cannot neglect economic drivers to be financially sustainable, (cost optimization, enhanced efficiency, etc.) it remains important and cannot be overridden to enable a shift towards optimal sustainability practices in LML operations. However, the drivers that have proven to make the cut in order to succeed in achieving best sustainable practices are; a highly proactive management, stakeholder pressure (particularly consumers and NGOs amongst others) and innovative technology (including those that imply a short-term economic trade-off for long-term greater good to the TBL dimensions). Keywords: Sustainability; Sustainable practices; Last Mile Logistics; Sustainable Last Mile Logistics; Triple Bottom Line; Food Retailers; Food Retail Industry; Drivers.