TY - JOUR

T1 - Shortening the Last Mile in Urban Areas

T2 - Optimizing a Smart Logistics Concept for E-Grocery Operations

AU - Leyerer, Max

AU - Sonneberg, Marc Oliver

AU - Heumann, Maximilian

AU - Breitner, Michael H.

PY - 2020/7/2

Y1 - 2020/7/2

N2 - Urbanization, the corresponding road traffic, and increasing e-grocery markets require efficient and at the same time eco-friendly transport solutions. In contrast to traditional food procurement at local grocery stores, e-grocery, i.e., online ordered goods, are transported directly to end customers. We develop and discuss an optimization approach to assist the planning of e-grocery deliveries in smart cities introducing a new last mile concept for the urban food supply chain. To supply city dwellers with their ordered products, a network of refrigerated grocery lockers is optimized to temporarily store the corresponding goods within urban areas. Customers either collect their orders by themselves or the products are delivered with electric cargo bicycles (ECBs). We propose a multi-echelon optimization model that minimizes the overall costs while consecutively determining optimal grocery locker locations, van routes from a depot to opened lockers, and ECB routes from lockers to customers. With our approach, we present an advanced concept for grocery deliveries in urban areas to shorten last mile distances, enhancing sustainable transportation by avoiding road traffic and emissions. Therefore, the concept is described as a smart transport system.

AB - Urbanization, the corresponding road traffic, and increasing e-grocery markets require efficient and at the same time eco-friendly transport solutions. In contrast to traditional food procurement at local grocery stores, e-grocery, i.e., online ordered goods, are transported directly to end customers. We develop and discuss an optimization approach to assist the planning of e-grocery deliveries in smart cities introducing a new last mile concept for the urban food supply chain. To supply city dwellers with their ordered products, a network of refrigerated grocery lockers is optimized to temporarily store the corresponding goods within urban areas. Customers either collect their orders by themselves or the products are delivered with electric cargo bicycles (ECBs). We propose a multi-echelon optimization model that minimizes the overall costs while consecutively determining optimal grocery locker locations, van routes from a depot to opened lockers, and ECB routes from lockers to customers. With our approach, we present an advanced concept for grocery deliveries in urban areas to shorten last mile distances, enhancing sustainable transportation by avoiding road traffic and emissions. Therefore, the concept is described as a smart transport system.

KW - City logistics

KW - E-grocery

KW - Last mile delivery

KW - Location routing problem

KW - Multi-echelon optimization

KW - Smart city

KW - Sustainability

KW - Vehicle routing problem

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85090387324&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3390/smartcities3030031

DO - 10.3390/smartcities3030031

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85090387324

VL - 3

SP - 585

EP - 603

JO - Smart Cities

JF - Smart Cities

IS - 3

ER -