Alternative solution for addressing failed home deliveries

Song, Liying, Cherrett, Tom, Guan, Wei and Zhang, Wenyi (2012) Alternative solution for addressing failed home deliveries. Transportation Research Record, 2269, 83-91. (doi:10.3141/2269-10).

Abstract

Freight planners are becoming increasingly more concerned about the impact of failed home deliveries on additional carrier journeys (repeat deliveries) and customer trips (to retrieve goods from carrier depots). A local collection-and-delivery point (CDP) concept, which allows customers to collect their failed deliveries, has emerged as a solution for home delivery failures. Data from a 2007 customer survey across two areas along with historical delivery data provided by a major carrier company in the United Kingdom were used in a study of the problem. Nine carrier companies were interviewed to gain an understanding of current operating characteristics of carriers and the key problems encountered during delivery operations. The study quantified the transport costs for the carrier and customer trips of the conventional home delivery method, in which the carrier makes repeat deliveries in the case of first-time failure and appraises the benefits of using CDP networks for handling those failures. The results suggest that a network of CDPs would function most effectively when (a) the proportion of first-time home delivery failures is significant, (b) a significant number of people walk to their local CDP, (c) the carrier's depot is located far from the collection area and is not in a convenient location that allows the trip to be combined with another trip; and (d) there is a dense network of CDPs around the residential area.

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Contributors

Author: Tom Cherrett

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