Locating Movable Parcel Lockers under Stochastic Demands

Wang, Yan; Bi, Mengyu; Lai, Jianhui; Chen, Yanyan

doi:10.3390/sym12122033

Cited by 16 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 36 publications

(51 reference statements)

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“…Nevertheless, SPLs also have some drawbacks. Owing to their fixed locations, their ability to respond to changes in demand is limited (Wang et al. , 2020b).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Integrating mobile parcel lockers into last-mile delivery networks: an operational design for home delivery, stationary, and mobile parcel lockers

Peppel,

Spinler,

Winkenbach

2024

IJPDLM

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PurposeThe e-commerce boom presents new challenges for last-mile delivery (LMD), which may be mitigated by new delivery technologies. This paper evaluates the impact of mobile parcel lockers (MPL) on costs and CO2 equivalent (CO2e) emissions in existing LMD networks, which include home delivery and shipments to stationary parcel lockers.Design/methodology/approachTo describe customers’ preferences, we design a multinomial logit model based on recipients’ travel distance to pick-up locations and availability at home. Based on route cost estimation, we define the operating costs for MPLs. We devise a mathematical model with binary decision variables to optimize the location of MPLs.Findings Our study demonstrates that integrating MPLs leads to additional cost savings of 8.7% and extra CO2e emissions savings of up to 5.4%. Our analysis of several regional clusters suggests that MPLs yield benefits in highly populous cities but may result in additional emissions in more rural areas where recipients drive longer distances to pick-ups.Originality/valueThis paper designs a suitable operating model for MPLs and demonstrates environmental and economic savings. Moreover, it adds recipients’ availability at home to receive parcels improving the accuracy of stochastic demand. In addition, MPLs are evaluated in the context of several regional clusters ranging from large cities to rural areas. Thus, we provide managerial guidance to logistics service providers how and where to deploy MPLs.

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“…Nevertheless, SPLs also have some drawbacks. Owing to their fixed locations, their ability to respond to changes in demand is limited (Wang et al. , 2020b).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…, 2017). For instance, more than 400,000 SPLs were in operation in China in 2019 (Wang et al. , 2020b).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrating mobile parcel lockers into last-mile delivery networks: an operational design for home delivery, stationary, and mobile parcel lockers

Peppel,

Spinler,

Winkenbach

2024

IJPDLM

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…They consider single customer locations and add pickup services to the delivery problem. This work has been further extended to incorporate stochastic demand in [25].…”

Section: Related Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Mobile parcel lockers with individual customer service

2023

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The ongoing growth of e‐commerce deliveries has led to a significant increase in last‐mile delivery volumes. New technologies are being investigated to provide these deliveries efficiently and in a customer‐friendly manner. A common practice is to use fixed parcel lockers (FPLs) to make deliveries independent from the presence of the customer as is the case in attended home deliveries (AHDs). FPLs are usually installed at key locations in cities, and customers can collect their package at any time once it has been delivered to this particular location. Mobile parcel lockers (MPLs) represent a new idea: they can be parked for temporary collection of items at different locations, keeping the pickup distance to the customer short and avoiding high infrastructure costs. However, customers need to collect their parcels within a restricted time window. This service is supposed to become especially efficient through autonomously operating vehicles that can move MPLs at low costs. In this article, we introduce the heterogeneous locker location problem to study the effects of fleets combining two of the services—FPLs, MPLs, AHDs—within one framework. In our comparison, we consider that customers may have different expectations regarding their maximum pickup distance as well as their temporal flexibility in accepting deliveries. A fixed fleet is applied to maximize the number of customers served, respecting individual customer preferences in terms of pickup distances and time windows. We evaluate the different delivery services regarding managerial insights on service quality and efficiency. In the experiments, we analyze the impact of structural demand differences and different fleet sizes, as well as the operational fleet utilization and the individual customer experience. Results show the potential to increase the number of customers served by about 14%–19% through the use of MPLs while considering individual customer preferences.

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“…Consumers operate SPLs using built-in terminals or apps to open a specific compartment to receive or drop-off parcels. More than 400,000 SPLs are deployed in China (Wang et al. , 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Consumers operate SPLs using built-in terminals or apps to open a specific compartment to receive or drop-off parcels. More than 400,000 SPLs are deployed in China (Wang et al, 2020). In Germany, DHL announced a new SPL expansion target for 2023 which shows that DHL will triple their SPL network within a five-year period (DHL, 2021a).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of optimal parcel locker locations on costs and the environment

Peppel

Spinler

2022

IJPDLM

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PurposeLast-mile delivery is associated with a negative environmental impact and high costs. The purpose of this paper is to develop an approach to designing stationary parcel locker (SPL) networks while minimizing both CO2 equivalent (CO2e) emissions and costs during delivery and pick-up.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a multinomial logit model to evaluate recipients' willingness to use SPLs based on their availability at home and travel distance. To determine optimal SPL locations, this study formulates a mixed-integer linear programming model.FindingsThe empirical study of different regional clusters reveals that optimal SPL locations can generate cost savings of up to 11.0%. SPLs have a positive impact on total CO2e emission savings in urban areas (i.e. up to 2.5%), but give rise to additional emissions (i.e. 4.6%) in less populated areas due to longer travel distances during the pick-up process.Originality/valueThis paper optimizes SPL locations and the ecological effect of SPLs by minimizing emissions and costs simultaneously. Furthermore, it extends existing discrete choice models by also including recipients' availability at home, increasing the accuracy of recipients' preferences. So far, the effect of SPLs has been studied for metropolitan areas only. A global logistics service provider shared a real dataset which allows us to study seven different regional clusters ranging from rural areas to large cities. Thus, this study contributes to the field of sustainable urban logistics.

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Locating Movable Parcel Lockers under Stochastic Demands

Cited by 16 publications

References 36 publications

Integrating mobile parcel lockers into last-mile delivery networks: an operational design for home delivery, stationary, and mobile parcel lockers

Integrating mobile parcel lockers into last-mile delivery networks: an operational design for home delivery, stationary, and mobile parcel lockers

Mobile parcel lockers with individual customer service

The impact of optimal parcel locker locations on costs and the environment

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