Last mile (transportation)

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Bicycle sharing systems such as Washington's Capital Bikeshare have been cited as a way to alleviate the "last mile problem". Capital Bikeshare DC 2010 10 532.JPG
Bicycle sharing systems such as Washington's Capital Bikeshare have been cited as a way to alleviate the "last mile problem".

In supply chain management and transportation planning, the last mile or last kilometer is the last leg of a journey comprising the movement of passengers and goods from a transportation hub to a final destination. The concept of "last mile" was adopted from the telecommunications industry, which faced difficulty connecting individual homes to the main telecommunications network. Similarly, in supply chain management, last-mile describes the logistical challenges at the last phase of transportation getting people and packages from hubs to their final destinations.

Contents

Last-mile delivery is an increasingly studied field as the number of business-to-consumer (b2c) deliveries grow, especially from e-commerce companies in freight transportation, and ride-sharing companies in personal transportation. Some challenges of last-mile delivery include minimizing cost, ensuring transparency, increasing efficiency, and improving infrastructure. [1]

History

"Last mile" was originally used in the telecommunications industry to describe the difficulty of connecting end users' homes and businesses to the main telecommunication network. The last "mile" of cable or wire is only used by one customer. Therefore, the cost of installing and maintaining this infrastructure can only be amortized over one subscriber, compared to many customers in the main "trunks" of the network.

In supply chain management last-mile describes a similar problem for transporting either people or freight. In freight networks, parcels can be delivered to a central hub efficiently via ship, train or other means, but they must then be loaded into smaller vehicles for delivery to individual customers. In transportation networks, "last mile" describes the rising marginal cost of getting people from a transportation hub such as an airport or train station to their final destination.

Usage in distribution networks

Transporting goods via freight rail networks and container ships is often the most efficient and cost-effective manner of shipping. However, when goods arrive at a high-capacity freight station or port, they must then be transported to their final destination. This last leg of the supply chain is often less efficient, comprising up to 53% of the total cost to move goods. [2] This has become known as the "last mile problem." [3] [4] The last mile problem can also include the challenge of making deliveries in urban areas. Deliveries to retail stores, restaurants, and other merchants in a central business district often contribute to congestion and safety problems. [3] [5]

A related last mile problem is the transportation of goods to areas in need of humanitarian relief. Aid supplies are sometimes able to reach a central transportation hub in an affected area but cannot be distributed due to damage caused by a natural disaster or a lack of infrastructure. [6]

One challenge faced in last-mile delivery is unattended packages. Shipping companies, like UPS, FedEx, USPS, DHL and others, leave a parcel unattended at a business or home which exposes the item(s) to weather, and the chance of theft by "porch pirates" (a person who steals packages off of customers' porches or front door areas). One solution to this problem is setting up lockers in urban centers. Amazon in the United States has deployed lockers where customers can pick up packages rather than them being left at their home. This protects them from theft and damage as well as allowing companies to deliver to one location, rather than a number of individual homes or businesses. Similarly, in Taiwan, some online vendors offer the option of delivery to a convenience store of the customer's choice, for pickup from the store by the customer. Not only does this reduce the chance of theft and consolidate packages but also payment of the purchase at the store may also be offered.

To reduce cost retailers have researched using autonomous vehicles to deliver packages. US-based Amazon and China-based Alibaba have researched deploying drones for delivering goods to consumers. [7] In Europe, Germany, Britain, and Poland have experimented with services that provide automated parcel delivery.

Usage in transportation networks

The Hiriko folding two-seat urban electric car was intended to be deployed in Germany in 2013 to provide the last mile of the journey to Deutsche Bahn's railway customers to their final destinations. Hiriko 1.jpg
The Hiriko folding two-seat urban electric car was intended to be deployed in Germany in 2013 to provide the last mile of the journey to Deutsche Bahn's railway customers to their final destinations.

"Last mile" also describes the difficulty in getting people from a transportation hub, especially railway stations, bus depots, and ferry berths, to their final destination. When users have difficulty getting from their starting location to a transportation network, the scenario may alternatively be known as the "first-mile problem." [9] In the United States, land-use patterns have moved jobs and people to lower-density suburbs that are often not within walking distance of existing public transportation options. Therefore, transit use in these areas is often less practical. Critics claim this promotes a reliance on cars, which results in more traffic congestion, pollution, and urban sprawl. [10]

Solutions to the last mile problem in public transit have included the use of feeder buses, bicycling infrastructure, and urban planning reform. [11] Other methods of alleviating the last mile problem such as bicycle sharing systems, [9] car sharing programs, [12] pod cars (personal rapid transit), [13] and motorized shoes [14] have been proposed with varying degrees of adoption. Late in 2015, the Ford Motor Company received a patent for a "self-propelled unicycle engageable with vehicle", which is intended as a last mile commuter solution. [15] Bicycle sharing programs have been successfully implemented in Europe and Asia, and are beginning to be implemented in North America. [16] [17] [18] Starting in late 2017, micro-mobility services that provide shared vehicles such as dockless electric kick scooters [19] or electric-assist bikes [20] entered the marketplace. Dual-mode vehicles, which can operate on infrastructure and outside of infrastructure, are also considered as a solution to the first-mile and last-mile problem. [21] The same dual-mode vehicle can make the journey to a station and from the station on using infrastructure.

The last mile problem

The last mile problem refers to last mile being the most expensive stage of the entire logistics journey. In fact, it accounts for 53% of total delivery costs. The factors for the high costs of last-mile delivery are numerous: [22]

The last mile problem is usually addressed by route optimization methods that lead to reduced mileage, fuel consumption and working hours. Businesses in the last mile sector can either optimize routes manually or use a delivery management technology platform.

Last mile technology platforms

Due in part to demand on retailers and product manufacturers to provide expedited (same and next day) deliveries, tech-enabled last-mile technology platforms have emerged. Increased demand for last-mile fulfillment has put pressure on shippers to manage many types of delivery companies, which range from traditional parcel carriers, to couriers, to on-demand service providers that execute an "Uber for delivery" model utilizing contractors.

Matching the supply of delivery with the demand that has been created by shippers is a problem that is being addressed by several last-mile technology platforms. These companies connect shippers to delivery service providers to facilitate final mile deliveries. These last-mile technology platforms allow real-time data to be received by the shipper and the receiver which enables managers to act immediately when exceptions such as late delivery, address error, or product damage occurs.

As Amazon strengthens its last-mile logistics capabilities, competing retailers have become more interested than ever in last-mile technologies to compete. The fear of Amazon has compelled CEOs of major transportation and logistics companies to seek alternative strategies. [23]

Companies

Robots

Sidewalk robots

A sidewalk robot made by Starship delivering food to students at Oregon State University MGL0333.jpg
A sidewalk robot made by Starship delivering food to students at Oregon State University

A number of companies are actively using small delivery robots to do the last-mile delivery of small packages such as food and groceries, using sidewalks/pavements and travelling at speeds comparable with a fast walking pace. Companies actively delivering include:

  • Starship Technologies – by January 2021, it had made over a million deliveries. [24]
  • Serve robotics – delivering in the Los Angeles area
  • Tiny Mile – delivering in the Toronto area
  • Kiwibot – 120,00[ clarification needed ] deliveries made by 2017 [25]

Drones

  • Zipline – robotic airplanes delivering medicine and blood supplies using parachutes; by June 2022, they had made 325,000 deliveries this way

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FedEx</span> American freight and package delivery company

FedEx Corporation, formerly Federal Express Corporation and later FDX Corporation, is an American multinational conglomerate holding company focused on transportation, e-commerce and business services based in Memphis, Tennessee. The name "FedEx" is a syllabic abbreviation of the name of the company's original air division, Federal Express, which was used from 1973 until 2000. FedEx today is best known for its air delivery service, FedEx Express, which was one of the first major shipping companies to offer overnight delivery as a flagship service. Since then, FedEx also started FedEx Ground, FedEx Office, FedEx Supply Chain, FedEx Freight, and various other services across multiple subsidiaries, often meant to respond to its main competitor, UPS. The company is the fifth largest American-headquartered employer globally with 547,000 employees, and FedEx is also one of the top contractors of the US government and assists in the transport of some United States Postal Service packages through their Air Cargo Network contract.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Logistics</span> Management of the flow of resources

Logistics is the part of supply chain management that deals with the efficient forward and reverse flow of goods, services, and related information from the point of origin to the point of consumption according to the needs of customers. Logistics management is a component that holds the supply chain together. The resources managed in logistics may include tangible goods such as materials, equipment, and supplies, as well as food and other consumable items.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United Parcel Service</span> American package delivery company

United Parcel Service, Inc. (UPS) is an American multinational shipping & receiving and supply chain management company founded in 1907. Originally known as the American Messenger Company specializing in telegraphs, UPS has grown to become a Fortune 500 company and one of the world's largest shipping couriers. UPS today is primarily known for its ground shipping services as well as the UPS Store, a retail chain which assists UPS shipments and provides tools for small businesses. UPS offers air shipping on an overnight or two-day basis and delivers to post office boxes through UPS Mail Innovations and UPS SurePost, two services that pass on packages to the United States Postal Service for last-mile delivery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Package delivery</span> Type of delivery service

Package delivery or parcel delivery is the delivery of shipping containers, parcels, or high-value mail as single shipments. The service is provided by most postal systems, express mail, private courier companies, and less-than-truckload shipping carriers. Package delivery is different in each country, and how packages are delivered is closely connected with the cost for delivering to that country as well as population. In 2019, China, The United States, and Japan were the leaders in package delivery while Latvia, Macau, and Iceland were the bottom three. The population of the bottom three barely totals 2 million while the population of the top three tops totals more than 2 billion. Package delivery is an every day occurrence in the US while many other countries do not have this luxury.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cargo</span> Goods or produce transported

In transportation, freight refers to goods conveyed by land, water or air, while cargo refers specifically to freight when conveyed via water or air. In economics, freight refers to goods transported at a freight rate for commercial gain. The term cargo is also used in case of goods in the cold-chain, because the perishable inventory is always in transit towards a final end-use, even when it is held in cold storage or other similar climate-controlled facilities, including warehouses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Courier</span> Person or company delivering items

A courier is a person or organization that delivers a message, package or letter from one place or person to another place or person. Typically, a courier provides their courier service on a commercial contract basis; however, some couriers are government or state agency employees.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ryder</span> American transportation company

Ryder System, Inc. is an American transportation and logistics company. It is known for its fleet of commercial rental trucks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Delivery (commerce)</span> Process of transporting goods from a source location to a predefined destination

Delivery is the process of transporting goods from a source location to a predefined destination. Cargo is primarily delivered via roads and railroads on land, shipping lanes on the sea, and airline networks in the air. Certain types of goods may be delivered via specialized networks, such as pipelines for liquid goods, power grids for electrical power and computer networks such as the Internet or broadcast networks for electronic information. Car transport is a particular subgroup; a related variant is Autorack, which involves the transport of autos by railroads.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FedEx Ground</span> American ground package delivery corporation

FedEx Ground, a subsidiary of the FedEx Corporation, is an American ground package delivery company headquartered in Moon Township, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh. The company began as Roadway Package System (RPS), founded in 1985 by transportation company Roadway Services Inc., later renamed Caliber System. FedEx bought Caliber in 1998 to complement its existing FedEx Express business and rebranded Caliber's RPS package delivery service FedEx Ground in 2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FedEx Express</span> Cargo airline based in Memphis, Tennessee, United States

FedEx Express is a major American cargo airline based in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. As of 2023, it is the world's largest cargo airline in terms of fleet size and freight tons flown. It is the namesake and leading subsidiary of FedEx Corporation, delivering freight and packages to more than 375 destinations over 220 countries across six continents each day. FedEx Express is also the world's largest express transportation company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Freight rate</span> Cost of transporting goods

A freight rate is a price at which a certain cargo is delivered from one point to another. The price depends on the form of the cargo, the mode of transport, the weight of the cargo, and the distance to the delivery destination. Many shipping services, especially air carriers, use dimensional weight for calculating the price, which takes into account both weight and volume of the cargo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Less-than-truckload shipping</span> An amount of freight in shipping

Less-than-truckload shipping or less than load (LTL) is the transportation of an amount of freight sized between individual parcels and full truckloads. Parcel carriers handle small packages and freight that can be broken down into units less than approximately 150 pounds (68 kg). Full truckload carriers move entire semi-trailers. Semi-trailers are typically between 26 and 53 feet and require a substantial amount of freight to make such transportation economical. The term LTL can refer to the freight itself, or to the carrier that transports the such freight.

A freight forwarder or forwarding agent is a person or a company who co-ordinates and organizes the movement of shipments on behalf of a shipper by liaising with carriers. The carriers may use a variety of shipping modes, including ships, airplanes, trucks, and railroads, and often use multiple modes for a single shipment. A freight forwarder does not move the goods but acts as an agent in the logistics network and will carry out freight consolidation, rate negotiations, shipment tracking, customs and other documentation, among other tasks. FIATA describes a freight forwarder as the "Architect of transport".

Railinc Corporation provides rail data and messaging services to the North American freight railway industry. Railinc is a for-profit subsidiary of the Association of American Railroads.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shared transport</span> Demand-driven vehicle-sharing arrangement

Shared transport or shared mobility is a transportation system where travelers share a vehicle either simultaneously as a group or over time as personal rental, and in the process share the cost of the journey, thus purportedly creating a hybrid between private vehicle use and mass or public transport. It is a transportation strategy that allows users to access transportation services on an as-needed basis. Shared mobility is an umbrella term that encompasses a variety of transportation modes including carsharing, Bicycle-sharing systems, ridesharing companies, carpools, and microtransit.

Sustainable distribution refers to any means of transportation / hauling of goods between vendor and purchaser with lowest possible impact on the ecological and social environment, and includes the whole distribution process from storage, order processing and picking, packaging, improved vehicle loadings, delivery to the customer or purchaser and taking back packaging.

Third-party logistics is an organization's long term commitment of outsourcing its distribution services to third-party logistics businesses.

Urban freight distribution is the system and process by which goods are collected, transported, and distributed within urban environments. The urban freight system can include seaports, airports, manufacturing facilities, and warehouse/distribution centers that are connected by a network of railroads, rail yards, pipelines, highways, and roadways that enable goods to get to their destinations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hub Group</span> American transportation management company

Hub Group is a transportation and logistics management company in North America. A publicly traded company with over $5 billion in revenue, Hub Group was founded in 1971 by Phillip Yeager, and is currently run by his grandson, Phillip D. Yeager. The company went public in 1996, and is headquartered in Downers Grove, Illinois.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">APL Logistics</span> Global logistics company

APL Logistics Ltd. (APLL) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Kintetsu World Express, Inc. (KWE), a Japan-based freight forwarding and transportation company. As a global supply chain specialist, APL Logistics trades in more than 60 countries, serving the automotive, consumer, industrials, and retail verticals. Headquartered in Singapore and USA, APL Logistics has locations across the globe.

References

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  2. ↑ "The challenges of last mile delivery logistics and the tech solutions cutting costs in the final mile". BUSINESS INSIDER.
  3. 1 2 Scott, Martia (November 2009). "Improving Freight Movement in Delaware Central Business Districts" (PDF). Institute for Public Administration, University of Delaware. Retrieved 24 October 2011.
  4. ↑ Rodrigue, Jean-Paul; Claude Comtois; Brian Slack (2009). "The "Last Mile" in Freight Distribution". The Geography of Transport Systems (2nd ed.). Routledge. p. 212. ISBN   978-0-415-48323-0.
  5. ↑ Allen, Brigitte (2012) Improving freight efficiency within the ‘last mile’: A case study of Wellington’s Central Business District (Thesis, Master of Planning). University of Otago.
  6. ↑ Balcik, Burcu; Benita M. Beamon; Karen Smilowitz (2009). "Last Mile Distribution in Humanitarian Relief". Journal of Intelligent Transportation Systems. 12 (2): 51–63. doi:10.1080/15472450802023329. ISSN   1547-2442. S2CID   6063514. Archived from the original on 25 April 2012. Retrieved 24 October 2011.
  7. ↑ "Alibaba deploys drones to deliver tea in China".
  8. ↑ Danny King (21 December 2012). "Hiriko 'folding' EV will be produced for German car-sharing project next year". Autoblog Green. Archived from the original on 1 January 2013. Retrieved 21 December 2012.
  9. 1 2 "Using Bicycles for the First and Last Mile of a Commute" (PDF). Mineta Transportation Institute. September 2009. Retrieved 24 October 2011.
  10. ↑ "First Steps toward livable communities". Fast Lane. U.S. Department of Transportation. 22 March 2009. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 24 October 2011.
  11. ↑ "FHWA grant funds East Coast's largest bike center; DC transport hub may crack the "last mile" problem". Fast Lane. U.S. Department of Transportation. 5 October 2009. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 24 October 2011.
  12. ↑ Kuang, Cliff (16 April 2009). "Convenience Is King". GOOD Magazine. Retrieved 24 October 2011.
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  14. ↑ Yvkoff, Liane (15 July 2010). "Are motorized shoes the last-mile transport answer?". CNet. Archived from the original on 22 August 2012. Retrieved 24 October 2011.
  15. ↑ Read, Richard (29 December 2015). "Ford Patent Could Transform Your Car Into A Unicycle". The Car Connection. Internet Brns Automotive Group. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
  16. ↑ DeMaio, Paul (2009). "Bike-sharing: History, Impacts, Models of Provision, and Future". Journal of Public Transportation. 12 (4): 41–56. doi: 10.5038/2375-0901.12.4.3 .
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  19. ↑ Raphelson, Samantha (29 August 2018). "Dockless Scooters Gain Popularity And Scorn Across The U.S." NPR.org. Retrieved 16 September 2018.
  20. ↑ Greenfield, John (11 September 2018). "Jump's Cheaper, Dockless Electric Rides Seem to Be Winning Over Far-South-Siders". Streetsblog Chicago. Retrieved 16 September 2018.
  21. ↑ Folsom, Tyler C. (2012). "Energy and Autonomous Urban Land Vehicles". IEEE Technology and Society Magazine. 31 (2): 28–38. doi:10.1109/MTS.2012.2196339. ISSN   1937-416X. S2CID   6557114.
  22. ↑ Why Is Last-Mile Delivery Expensive + 4 Ways To Cut Costs https://ufleet.io/blog/why-is-last-mile-delivery-expensive
  23. ↑ Logistics experts try to figure out how to take on Amazon. https://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/business/20200125/logistics-experts-try-to-figure-out-how-to-take-on-amazon Archived 28 November 2020 at the Wayback Machine
  24. ↑ Heinla, Ahti (27 January 2021). "Starship Completes One Million Autonomous Deliveries". Starship Technologies. Retrieved 16 June 2022.
  25. ↑ "No Tipping Necessary: Hundreds of Delivery Robots Are Coming to Los Angeles". dot.LA. 13 January 2021. Retrieved 16 June 2022.
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