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Benefits of shared-fleet horizontal logistics collaborations: Patient service vehicles collecting pathology samples – a case study in a public sector healthcare setting

Benefits of shared-fleet horizontal logistics collaborations: Patient service vehicles collecting pathology samples – a case study in a public sector healthcare setting
Benefits of shared-fleet horizontal logistics collaborations: Patient service vehicles collecting pathology samples – a case study in a public sector healthcare setting
Road-based logistics can be associated with inefficiencies due to vehicles travelling with less-than-full loads. Shared-fleet logistics, involving horizontal collaboration between organizations to consolidate loads and improve vehicle utilization through sharing vehicle capacity, can reduce such inefficiencies, and thereby reduce costs, vehicle-kilometers (vkm), related vehicle emissions and traffic congestion. Utilizing a significant historic dataset of vehicle movements, the potential cost savings and environmental benefits of a shared-fleet operation involving collaboration between two public sector organizations, integrating both static (fixed-schedule) and dynamic (client specific) transport demands within a healthcare setting were quantified. The pathology Sample Collection Service (SCS; responsible for transporting pathology samples from doctors’ surgeries to laboratories for analysis) shared spare capacity in ambulances operated by the non-emergency Patient Transport Service (PTS; responsible for transporting eligible patients to/from routine hospital appointments) as an alternative to engaging an external courier company for sample transport. Results suggested that a shared-fleet collaboration transporting samples generated by a network of 78 doctors’ surgeries to a centralized pathology laboratory, alongside normal patient loads, in an average of 24 ambulances/day produced a reduction in costs of 20%, and a reduction in both vkm and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of 13%. Decision-makers within public sector organizations that operate own-account vehicle fleets could pursue policies that actively seek-out opportunities to deploy shared-fleet solutions to improve vehicle utilization and therefore reduce public sector spending.
Shared-fleet; logistics; horizontal collaboration; road vehicles; healthcare; public sector
Grote, Matthew
f29566f9-42a7-498a-9671-8661a4287754
Cherrett, Thomas
e5929951-e97c-4720-96a8-3e586f2d5f95
Oakey, Andy
dfd6e317-1e6d-429c-a3e0-bc80e92787d1
Martinez-Sykora, Toni
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Aydemir, Ismail
2fd6cf88-6fef-44bc-85f6-70b65743b490
Grote, Matthew
f29566f9-42a7-498a-9671-8661a4287754
Cherrett, Thomas
e5929951-e97c-4720-96a8-3e586f2d5f95
Oakey, Andy
dfd6e317-1e6d-429c-a3e0-bc80e92787d1
Martinez-Sykora, Toni
2f9989e1-7860-4163-996c-b1e6f21d5bed
Aydemir, Ismail
2fd6cf88-6fef-44bc-85f6-70b65743b490

Grote, Matthew, Cherrett, Thomas, Oakey, Andy, Martinez-Sykora, Toni and Aydemir, Ismail (2023) Benefits of shared-fleet horizontal logistics collaborations: Patient service vehicles collecting pathology samples – a case study in a public sector healthcare setting. Transportation Research Board (TRB) 102nd Annual Meeting (TRB 2023), , Washington D.C., United States. 08 - 12 Jan 2023. 22 pp .

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

Abstract

Road-based logistics can be associated with inefficiencies due to vehicles travelling with less-than-full loads. Shared-fleet logistics, involving horizontal collaboration between organizations to consolidate loads and improve vehicle utilization through sharing vehicle capacity, can reduce such inefficiencies, and thereby reduce costs, vehicle-kilometers (vkm), related vehicle emissions and traffic congestion. Utilizing a significant historic dataset of vehicle movements, the potential cost savings and environmental benefits of a shared-fleet operation involving collaboration between two public sector organizations, integrating both static (fixed-schedule) and dynamic (client specific) transport demands within a healthcare setting were quantified. The pathology Sample Collection Service (SCS; responsible for transporting pathology samples from doctors’ surgeries to laboratories for analysis) shared spare capacity in ambulances operated by the non-emergency Patient Transport Service (PTS; responsible for transporting eligible patients to/from routine hospital appointments) as an alternative to engaging an external courier company for sample transport. Results suggested that a shared-fleet collaboration transporting samples generated by a network of 78 doctors’ surgeries to a centralized pathology laboratory, alongside normal patient loads, in an average of 24 ambulances/day produced a reduction in costs of 20%, and a reduction in both vkm and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of 13%. Decision-makers within public sector organizations that operate own-account vehicle fleets could pursue policies that actively seek-out opportunities to deploy shared-fleet solutions to improve vehicle utilization and therefore reduce public sector spending.

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Published date: January 2023
Venue - Dates: Transportation Research Board (TRB) 102nd Annual Meeting (TRB 2023), , Washington D.C., United States, 2023-01-08 - 2023-01-12
Keywords: Shared-fleet; logistics; horizontal collaboration; road vehicles; healthcare; public sector

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 472720
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/472720
PURE UUID: 6b1c0557-24d4-4705-97fe-790bb0c747cd
ORCID for Matthew Grote: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-5590-7150
ORCID for Thomas Cherrett: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-0394-5459
ORCID for Andy Oakey: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-1796-5485
ORCID for Toni Martinez-Sykora: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-2435-3113
ORCID for Ismail Aydemir: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-7847-1801

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Date deposited: 15 Dec 2022 17:44
Last modified: 28 Mar 2024 03:02

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Contributors

Author: Matthew Grote ORCID iD
Author: Thomas Cherrett ORCID iD
Author: Andy Oakey ORCID iD
Author: Ismail Aydemir ORCID iD

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