The rise of on-demand ‘Instant Deliveries’ in European cities

Abstract

This exploratory paper contributes to a new body of research that investigates the potential of digital market places to disrupt transport and mobility services. We are specifically looking at the urban freight sector, where numerous app-based services have emerged in recent years. The paper specifically looks at 'instant deliveries,' i.e. services providing on-demand delivery within two hoursby either private individuals, independent contractors, or employeesby connecting consignors, couriers and consignees via a digital platform. The paper provides an overview of the main issues concerning instant deliveries, supported by data (including a survey of 96 courier delivery providers) and examples. After presenting a typology of companies (digital platforms) involved in 'instant deliveries,' we question in what way they transform the urban freight current patterns. We highlight four issues, discussing their potential to impact urban freight services and related policies in European cities: 1) Freight trips and data; 2) Business models; 3) Labor legislation and work conditions; and 4) Local public policies. We conclude by saying that predicting the medium-term consequences of these changes is difficult, but it is essential that city planning and policies take account of these developments and consider how planning and possibly regulation needs to be adapted to these new ways of doing things.

Last-mile delivery concepts: a survey from an operational research perspective

“…6, left), who are already on the road, have spare capacity, and are willing to detour to consumer locations (Buldeo Rai et al 2017;Sampaio et al 2019). A main characteristic of crowdshipping is the existence of an online (digital) platform and a related smartphone app (Dablanc et al 2017). After a delivery request is posted on a platform (for an example, see Fig.…”

The Role of ‘Influencers’ as Drivers of a More Sustainable Urban Freight Sector

“…In urban freight research, the business model concept has been accentuated as a necessary factor in the introduction of technological innovations, such as electric vehicles [11], and it has been argued to play a key role when trying to bring about changes in how companies arrange their operations [7]. The search for a viable business model has been identified as a significant challenge for companies providing new types of logistics services, such as instant deliveries [12,13]. In addition, research indicates that business models have a potential role to fulfil in relation to the realization of sustainability initiatives in cities, such as joint delivery systems [14] and consolidation services [6,15].…”

The future of European communication and transportation research: a research agenda

“…Instead, public transport-based crowdshipping, in which only public transport or walking is allowed to bring the parcels to the end destination, represents an environmentally friendly and acceptable solution (Gatta et al 2019, Serafini et al 2018. Possibilities to bundle and use public transport, bike or walk should be incorporated in the concept but new types of employment raise social issues (Dablanc et al 2017). Thirdly, it was pointed out that this integration between passenger and freight transport should be done as well at the governance level, as often freight and passenger transport is treated by different departments.…”