Photo: Raysonho @ Open Grid Scheduler / Grid Engine, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons (image cropped)

Last Mile Brief 01/05/2023: new report highlights low-hanging fruits for sustainable parcel delivery

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The 2023 Green Last Mile Report, produced by Last Mile Experts, has identified which sustainability measures can be rolled out the fastest and at the lowest cost. One such area is interactive delivery management, which can cut emissions by significantly reducing missed deliveries.

The potential of interactive delivery management is just one of several findings in the 2023 Green Last Mile Report, which contains key info on numerous case studies from major delivery companies operating throughout Europe.

Produced with the support of Quadient, Sameday and Swipbox, the report has been put together using extensive research, interviews, advance internet search algorithm outcomes, as well as expert analysis.

A key part of the report’s conclusions is a list of sustainability measures that provides info on how long each measure would take to roll out, and how high the cost would be.

In the case of interactive delivery management, the report finds the positive environmental impact to be high, while the startup costs and preparation time are low. Similarly, route optimisation also has low startup costs and implementation time, albeit the environmental impact is considered medium.

When it comes to out of home development, including parcel lockers and PUDO points, the environmental impact is high and implementation time low. However, unless consolidation takes place, the implementation costs are high.

Another interesting concept the report sheds light on is the ‘cargo tunnel’ model. It too yields a high environmental impact, but is both expensive and difficult to implement.

“Tunnel-based cargo transport. Cargo tunnels are an innovative solution to reduce the problems associated with conventional delivery vans, such as congestion and emissions. The idea is to use automated guided vehicles or rail-bound cargo vehicles to transport shipments from a central depot outside the city centre via cargo tunnels toward inner-city micro-hubs,” says the 2023 Green Last Mile Report.

The report adds:

“Cargo bikes can then be used to deliver shipments to customer homes. While we quite like the idea, operational requirements and investment costs for the tunnels would seem to be a significant downside. Omniloop in Sweden, Smart City Loop in Germany and Cargo Sous Terrain in Switzerland are seeking to promote this concept.”

The cargo tunnel approach nonetheless has “several hurdles” to overcome according to the report, which cites the coordination of delivery schedules and capacities in the micro-hubs as two examples.

To download the report for free, visit the Last Mile Experts website here.


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Photo: Raysonho @ Open Grid Scheduler / Grid Engine, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons (image cropped)

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