Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/288489 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Citation: 
[Journal:] OR Spectrum [ISSN:] 1436-6304 [Volume:] 43 [Issue:] 1 [Publisher:] Springer [Place:] Berlin, Heidelberg [Year:] 2020 [Pages:] 1-58
Publisher: 
Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Abstract: 
In the wake of e-commerce and its successful diffusion in most commercial activities, last-mile distribution causes more and more trouble in urban areas all around the globe. Growing parcel volumes to be delivered toward customer homes increase the number of delivery vans entering the city centers and thus add to congestion, pollution, and negative health impact. Therefore, it is anything but surprising that in recent years many novel delivery concepts on the last mile have been innovated. Among the most prominent are unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) and autonomous delivery robots taking over parcel delivery. This paper surveys established and novel last-mile concepts and puts special emphasis on the decision problems to be solved when setting up and operating each concept. To do so, we systematically record the alternative delivery concepts in a compact notation scheme, discuss the most important decision problems, and survey existing research on operations research methods solving these problems. Furthermore, we elaborate promising future research avenues.
Subjects: 
Transportation
City logistics
Last-mile delivery
Survey
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by Logo
Document Type: 
Article
Document Version: 
Published Version

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