Suggested Citation:
Jaller, Miguel and Anmol Pahwa (2020) Analytical Modeling Framework to Assess the Economic and Environmental Impacts of Residential Deliveries, and Evaluate Sustainable Last-Mile Strategies. Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, Davis, Research Report UCD-ITS-RR-20-32

In the last decade, eâ€commerce has grown substantially, increasing businessâ€toâ€business, businessâ€toâ€consumer, and consumerâ€toâ€consumer transactions. While this has brought prosperity for the e-retailers, the ever-increasing consumer demand has brought more trucks to the residential areas, bringing along externalities such as congestion, air and noise pollution, and energy consumption. To cope with this, different logistics strategies such as the introduction of micro-hubs, alternative delivery points, and use of cargo bikes and zero emission vehicles for the last mile have been introduced and, in some cases, implemented as well. This project, hence, aims to develop an analytical framework to model urban last mile delivery. In particular, this study will build upon the previously developed econometric behavior models that capture e-commerce demand. Then, based on continuous approximation techniques, the authors will model the last-mile delivery operations. And finally, using the cost-based sustainability assessment model (developed in this study), the authors will estimate the economic and environmental impacts of residential deliveries under different city logistics strategies.

Key words: Last mile delivery, City logistics, Continuous approximation, Cargo consolidation, Alternate fuel vehicles