Improving last-mile parcel delivery through shared consolidation and portering: a case study in London
Improving last-mile parcel delivery through shared consolidation and portering: a case study in London
Based on the insights derived from practical trials conducted with carriers operating in London, this article proposes a last-mile delivery model that involves both driving and walking. A particularly innovative aspect of the model is the shared use of a third-party portering service between the carriers as an enabler to collaborative provision, and shared micro-consolidation points for temporary storage of goods. The model gives rise to a complex routing problem, for which a tabu search algorithm is developed. The algorithm is able to suggest vehicle routes that consolidate parcels in shared locations and porter paths that deliver items from various companies, reducing the overall delivery cost. We applied this algorithm to a manifest dataset obtained from two carriers operating in London. The results from the model suggested that sharing a third party portering service for the last-mile delivery element between the rival carriers in the case study reduced overall transport costs by up to 14%.
Last-mile, distribution, micro-consolidation, routing, shared portering
Lamas Fernandez, Carlos
e96b5deb-74d5-4c9b-a0ce-448c99526b09
Martinez-Sykora, Antonio
2f9989e1-7860-4163-996c-b1e6f21d5bed
Mcleod, Fraser
93da13ec-7f81-470f-8a01-9339e80abe98
Bektas, Tolga
0a4040d9-082c-4339-8b87-f5dfabef8acb
Cherrett, Tom
e5929951-e97c-4720-96a8-3e586f2d5f95
Allen, Julian
5a70d3a9-57ab-4f92-bd40-682e51aebfec
10 July 2023
Lamas Fernandez, Carlos
e96b5deb-74d5-4c9b-a0ce-448c99526b09
Martinez-Sykora, Antonio
2f9989e1-7860-4163-996c-b1e6f21d5bed
Mcleod, Fraser
93da13ec-7f81-470f-8a01-9339e80abe98
Bektas, Tolga
0a4040d9-082c-4339-8b87-f5dfabef8acb
Cherrett, Tom
e5929951-e97c-4720-96a8-3e586f2d5f95
Allen, Julian
5a70d3a9-57ab-4f92-bd40-682e51aebfec
Lamas Fernandez, Carlos, Martinez-Sykora, Antonio, Mcleod, Fraser, Bektas, Tolga, Cherrett, Tom and Allen, Julian
(2023)
Improving last-mile parcel delivery through shared consolidation and portering: a case study in London.
Journal of the Operational Research Society.
(doi:10.1080/01605682.2023.2231095).
Abstract
Based on the insights derived from practical trials conducted with carriers operating in London, this article proposes a last-mile delivery model that involves both driving and walking. A particularly innovative aspect of the model is the shared use of a third-party portering service between the carriers as an enabler to collaborative provision, and shared micro-consolidation points for temporary storage of goods. The model gives rise to a complex routing problem, for which a tabu search algorithm is developed. The algorithm is able to suggest vehicle routes that consolidate parcels in shared locations and porter paths that deliver items from various companies, reducing the overall delivery cost. We applied this algorithm to a manifest dataset obtained from two carriers operating in London. The results from the model suggested that sharing a third party portering service for the last-mile delivery element between the rival carriers in the case study reduced overall transport costs by up to 14%.
Text
Improving last-mile parcel delivery through shared consolidation and portering_Accepted_JORS
- Accepted Manuscript
Text
Revised_Online_Appendix
- Accepted Manuscript
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 22 June 2023
e-pub ahead of print date: 10 July 2023
Published date: 10 July 2023
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
The authors gratefully acknowledge the EPSRC for funding this work through its financial support of Freight Traffic Control 2050 ( www.ftc2050.com ), EPSRC Grant Reference: EP/N02222X/1. Responsibility for the contents of the paper rests with the authors.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Keywords:
Last-mile, distribution, micro-consolidation, routing, shared portering
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 478660
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/478660
ISSN: 0160-5682
PURE UUID: 37f86008-3ccc-4d82-ae4b-8483eecac939
Catalogue record
Date deposited: 06 Jul 2023 16:49
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 02:40
Export record
Altmetrics
Contributors
Author:
Carlos Lamas Fernandez
Author:
Tolga Bektas
Author:
Julian Allen
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