Purpose

The 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/approach

To 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/value

This 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.

中文翻译：

---

将移动包裹储物柜集成到最后一英里递送网络：送货上门、固定和移动包裹储物柜的操作设计

目的

电子商务的繁荣给最后一英里配送（LMD）带来了新的挑战，新的配送技术可以缓解这一挑战。本文评估了移动包裹储物柜 (MPL)对现有 LMD 网络（包括送货上门和运送到固定包裹储物柜）的成本和 CO ₂当量 (CO _{2 e) 排放量的影响。}

设计/方法论/途径

为了描述客户的偏好，我们根据收件人到取货地点的出行距离和家里的可用性设计了一个多项 Logit 模型。根据路线成本估算，我们定义了 MPL 的运营成本。我们设计了一个具有二元决策变量的数学模型来优化 MPL 的位置。

发现

我们的研究表明，集成 MPL 可以额外节省 8.7% 的成本，额外减少高达 5.4% 的CO _{2 e 排放量。}我们对几个区域集群的分析表明，MPL 在人口稠密的城市带来好处，但可能会导致更多农村地区的额外排放，因为这些地区的接收者需要开车更远的距离才能上车。

原创性/价值

本文设计了适合 MPL 的运营模型，并展示了环境和经济节约。此外，它还增加了收件人在家中接收包裹的可用性，从而提高了随机需求的准确性。此外，MPL 是在从大城市到农村地区的几个区域集群的背景下进行评估的。因此，我们为物流服务提供商提供如何以及在何处部署 MPL 的管理指导。