Benefits of shared-fleet horizontal logistics collaborations: a case study of patient service vehicles collecting pathology samples in a public sector healthcare setting
Benefits of shared-fleet horizontal logistics collaborations: a case study of patient service vehicles collecting pathology samples in a public sector healthcare setting
Road-based logistics suffer from inefficiencies due to less-than-full load vehicle movements. Consolidating loads through shared-fleet collaborations (also known as freight pooling) can reduce such inefficiencies, and thereby reduce costs, vehicle-kilometres (vkm), and related emissions and congestion. Utilising a significant historical dataset of vehicle movements, the potential cost savings and environmental benefits of a shared-fleet operation involving collaboration between two public sector organisations, integrating both static (fixed-schedule) and dynamic (client-specific) demand within a healthcare setting, were quantified. A Sample Collection Service (SCS; transporting pathology samples from doctors’ surgeries to centralised laboratories for analysis) shared spare capacity in vehicles operated by a Patient Transport Service (PTS; transporting eligible non-emergency patients to/from routine hospital appointments) as an alternative to engaging an external courier company. Results suggested that a shared-fleet collaboration servicing 78 surgeries, alongside normal patient loads in an average of 24 PTS vehicles/day, produced reductions of 16%, 13% and 12% in costs, vkm and carbon dioxide emissions, respectively. Decision-makers within public sector organisations that operate own-account vehicle fleets could pursue policies that actively seek out opportunities to deploy shared-fleet solutions to improve vehicle utilisation and therefore reduce public sector spending and the detrimental effects of road logistics.
freight pooling, healthcare, horizontal collaboration, logistics, public sector, road vehicles, shared-fleet
169–188
Grote, Matt
f29566f9-42a7-498a-9671-8661a4287754
Cherrett, Thomas
e5929951-e97c-4720-96a8-3e586f2d5f95
Oakey, Andy
dfd6e317-1e6d-429c-a3e0-bc80e92787d1
Martinez-Sykora, Antonio
2f9989e1-7860-4163-996c-b1e6f21d5bed
Aydemir, Ismail
2fd6cf88-6fef-44bc-85f6-70b65743b490
1 March 2023
Grote, Matt
f29566f9-42a7-498a-9671-8661a4287754
Cherrett, Thomas
e5929951-e97c-4720-96a8-3e586f2d5f95
Oakey, Andy
dfd6e317-1e6d-429c-a3e0-bc80e92787d1
Martinez-Sykora, Antonio
2f9989e1-7860-4163-996c-b1e6f21d5bed
Aydemir, Ismail
2fd6cf88-6fef-44bc-85f6-70b65743b490
Grote, Matt, Cherrett, Thomas, Oakey, Andy, Martinez-Sykora, Antonio and Aydemir, Ismail
(2023)
Benefits of shared-fleet horizontal logistics collaborations: a case study of patient service vehicles collecting pathology samples in a public sector healthcare setting.
Future Transportation, 3 (1), .
(doi:10.3390/futuretransp3010011).
Abstract
Road-based logistics suffer from inefficiencies due to less-than-full load vehicle movements. Consolidating loads through shared-fleet collaborations (also known as freight pooling) can reduce such inefficiencies, and thereby reduce costs, vehicle-kilometres (vkm), and related emissions and congestion. Utilising a significant historical dataset of vehicle movements, the potential cost savings and environmental benefits of a shared-fleet operation involving collaboration between two public sector organisations, integrating both static (fixed-schedule) and dynamic (client-specific) demand within a healthcare setting, were quantified. A Sample Collection Service (SCS; transporting pathology samples from doctors’ surgeries to centralised laboratories for analysis) shared spare capacity in vehicles operated by a Patient Transport Service (PTS; transporting eligible non-emergency patients to/from routine hospital appointments) as an alternative to engaging an external courier company. Results suggested that a shared-fleet collaboration servicing 78 surgeries, alongside normal patient loads in an average of 24 PTS vehicles/day, produced reductions of 16%, 13% and 12% in costs, vkm and carbon dioxide emissions, respectively. Decision-makers within public sector organisations that operate own-account vehicle fleets could pursue policies that actively seek out opportunities to deploy shared-fleet solutions to improve vehicle utilisation and therefore reduce public sector spending and the detrimental effects of road logistics.
Text
Accepted manuscript
- Accepted Manuscript
Text
futuretransp-03-00011
- Version of Record
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 30 January 2023
e-pub ahead of print date: 3 February 2023
Published date: 1 March 2023
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
This research was funded by the EPSRC, grant number EP/V002619/1; and by the UK Department for Transport under Solent Transport’s Future Transport Zones project.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 by the authors.
Keywords:
freight pooling, healthcare, horizontal collaboration, logistics, public sector, road vehicles, shared-fleet
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 475107
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/475107
ISSN: 2673-7590
PURE UUID: 29470443-beac-4839-9f8e-72e915683e7f
Catalogue record
Date deposited: 10 Mar 2023 17:31
Last modified: 26 Apr 2024 17:25
Export record
Altmetrics
Contributors
Author:
Andy Oakey
Download statistics
Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.
View more statistics