Agent-Based Simulation Model for Evaluating Urban Freight Policy to E-Commerce

Abstract

This study aims to assess delivery lockers as a last-mile solution, considering the behavior and interaction among e-commerce stakeholders. In Brazil, a large portion of deliveries are attended home. This results in a large number of failed deliveries and redelivery attempts, which can reach up to three delivery attempts. Delivery lockers (DL) represent a solution to reduce the number of re-deliveries and consolidate the delivery of goods. The implementation of DL and the exclusion of the third delivery attempt are evaluated in this study via an agent-based simulation model (ABSM) in the city of Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Four scenarios were simulated by varying delivery locker implementation and the exclusion of the third attempts, which allowed comparable results to be obtained for each agent, in terms of gains and operational and external costs (emission, noise, and congestion). The scenario that most closely resembles the current situation was the one that presented the worst results. The implementation of the lockers brings improvements to this scenario in terms of reducing re-deliveries and distances traveled by trucks. When the possibility of three delivery attempts is excluded, the benefits are even greater. The deployment of lockers also enables carriers to reduce the number of trucks required to make deliveries, thereby increasing their profits.

Importance of the Stakeholders’ Interaction: Comparative, Longitudinal Study of Two City Logistics Initiatives

“…Due to the scarcity of space, the density, the challenges, and the complexity of the city logistics initiatives, conflicts between stakeholders are common [9]. Most of the conflicts arise due to their diversity and heterogenic needs, which are great challenges in city logistics [15][16][17][18] and contribute to barriers for communication between the private and public sectors [2]. Stakeholder theory attempts to identify the fundamental question of which groups of stakeholders deserve or require attention.…”

“…According to [24,28,29], the consideration of such collaboration is a success factor for city logistics initiatives. Without a common understanding between stakeholders, it might be difficult to obtain sustainable city logistics initiatives [9,14,15,19].…”

“…Further, the way stakeholders collaborate can facilitate efficient city logistics initiatives [30]. Few studies have considered the behavior of the stakeholders, but their diversity and heterogenic needs are great challenges in city logistics [15][16][17][18] and contribute to barriers for communication between the private and public sectors [2]. Hence, coordination and collaboration between the stakeholders are necessary to obtain more sustainable and livable cities [7,15,19] Stakeholder theory argues that the organization has formed relationships with several stakeholders and can maintain the support of these stakeholders by considering their interests [31][32][33][34][35].…”

“…Few studies have considered the behavior of the stakeholders, but their diversity and heterogenic needs are great challenges in city logistics [15][16][17][18] and contribute to barriers for communication between the private and public sectors [2]. Hence, coordination and collaboration between the stakeholders are necessary to obtain more sustainable and livable cities [7,15,19] Stakeholder theory argues that the organization has formed relationships with several stakeholders and can maintain the support of these stakeholders by considering their interests [31][32][33][34][35]. However, only a few studies have considered the stakeholders interaction, but it is increasingly valued and regarded as an integral part of city logistics initiatives, since it gives stakeholders the power to influence decisions [4,5,9,23] and the policies [23,29,36].…”

“…Most literature on stakeholders' collaboration in city logistics has proposed the use of an agent-based approach [9,15,18,23]; a system-based approach [14]; and the social network analysis [36] to consider the multi-stakeholder domain in city logistics initiatives. The approaches' models have developed different decision models, such as a multi-perspective semantic data model and a validation approach to draw significant insights in terms of stakeholders' objectives [18,23].…”