Sustainable Urban Deliveries

Urban last mile deliveries are a key component of transport in cities. However, traditional delivery vehicles cause noise, congestion, air pollution and emissions. Hence, companies want to implement alternative, environmentally friendly delivery concepts. In this project, we are looking at the potential of novel, green urban transport modes such as cargo-bikes, walking couriers and electric robots. Cargo bikes are environmentally friendly and quiet and therefore perfectly suitable for transportation in cities. In addition, they are flexible and agile, hardly affected by traffic jams and due to the smaller space requirement, the long search for a parking spot is not necessary. Another alternative for last mile delivery is to include walking couriers. In many cities it is difficult to find a parking location and the average driving speed is low. In practice, walking constitutes a substantial part of the delivery tour. During that time the vehicle is parked at the kerbside. Additionally, we also consider small electrically driven robots as an alternative or complementary transport mode. Robotic deliveries open new perspectives for re-organizing last-mile deliveries and thereby making them more efficient in terms of travel distances or failed delivery attempts. They might also reduce the emissions related to deliveries as these slower driving electric vehicles will be less polluting than more classical delivery vehicles. Compared to traditional delivery vehicles, the sustainable modes considered have a lower transport capacity and a limited range. To overcome this problem, they can be included in a two-echelon distribution framework where synchronization between larger vehicles and smaller (green) modes of transport is necessary to transfer goods. The objective of this project is to develop a scientific frame allowing to address decision making problems on strategical, tactical, and operational levels for deploying sustainable distribution modes in a multi-echelon setting. The overarching goal is to show that deliveries can be carried out by carbon neutral and less harmful modes of transport in an urban setting, while remaining economically viable and fulfilling the needs of the citizens. This project sets up a collaboration between Vera Hemmelmayr (Vienna University of Economics and Business) and Jakob Puchinger (EM Normandie) that have proven expertise in urban multi-echelon distribution and deterministic and dynamic optimization approaches.