[ { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4410986405", "doi": "10.1109/iscait64916.2025.11010317", "title": "The joint optimization of truck-drone routes for last-mile delivery", "year": 2025, "publication_date": "2025-03-21", "type": "conference-paper", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Lei Zhou", "Chunxiao Li", "Yuhao Li" ], "first_author": "Lei Zhou", "venue": null, "publisher": null, "abstract": "This article proposes a joint allocation problem between truck and drone. On the basis of considering the constraints of drone battery capacity and load capacity, a mixed integer programming model for collaborative delivery between drones and vehicles was constructed to minimize the total delivery cost. In order to effectively solve the coordinated distribution path planning problem of a single drone and a single aircraft, chaotic mapping is applied to the initial population, adaptive population ratios are used, and a spiral search strategy is adopted to improve the sparrow search algorithm. Several local search strategies have been proposed. Finally, numerical experiments verified its effectiveness and compared the proposed model with traditional travel salesman problem models, highlighting its advantages.", "keywords": [ "Mile", "Drone", "Truck", "Last mile (transportation)", "Joint (building)", "Computer science", "Aeronautics", "Transport engineering", "Engineering", "Automotive engineering", "Civil engineering", "Geography" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1109/iscait64916.2025.11010317" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4377090877", "doi": "10.3390/systems11050259", "title": "A Hybrid Metaheuristic Solution Method to Traveling Salesman Problem with Drone", "year": 2023, "publication_date": "2023-05-19", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Noyan Sebla Günay", "Emre Çakmak", "Serol Bulkan" ], "first_author": "Noyan Sebla Günay", "venue": "Systems", "publisher": "Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute", "abstract": "The challenging idea of using drones in last-mile delivery systems of logistics addresses a new routing problem referred to as the traveling salesman problem with drone (TSP-D). TSP-D aims to construct a route to deliver parcels to a set of customers by either a truck or a drone, thereby minimizing operational costs. Since TSP-D is considered NP-hard, using metaheuristics is one of the most promising solutions. This paper presents a hybrid metaheuristic solution method of TSP-D based on two state-of-the-art algorithms: the genetic algorithm and ant colony optimization algorithm. Heuristics in TSP-D literature are based on two consequent decisions: truck routing and drone assignment. Unlike those in the existing literature, the proposed metaheuristic constructs both truck and drone routes simultaneously. Additionally, to the best of our knowledge, we introduce for the first time a solution method on the basis of an ant colony optimization approach to TSP-D. Additionally, we propose a binary pheromone framework for both drone and truck, diverging from the traditional pheromone structure. Computational experiments indicate that the proposed hybrid metaheuristic algorithm is able to generate optimal routes for provided instances of TSP-D benchmarking. In addition, the algorithm improves the best-known solutions of some instances found by rival heuristics.", "keywords": [ "Metaheuristic", "Drone", "Travelling salesman problem", "Ant colony optimization algorithms", "Computer science", "Heuristics", "Mathematical optimization", "Vehicle routing problem", "Genetic algorithm", "Routing (electronic design automation)", "Ant colony", "Parallel metaheuristic" ], "cited_by_count": 31, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://www.mdpi.com/2079-8954/11/5/259/pdf?version=1684492686" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4298001168", "doi": "10.22306/al.v9i3.316", "title": "IMPACT ANALYSIS OF URBAN FREIGHT TRIPS GENERATED FROM WHOLESALE MARKET, AHMEDABAD", "year": 2022, "publication_date": "2022-09-29", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Jignesh Chaudhari", "Rena N. Shukla", "Chetan R. Patel" ], "first_author": "Jignesh Chaudhari", "venue": "Acta Logistica", "publisher": "4S go, s.r.o.", "abstract": "Freight transport plays an important role in meeting the domestic needs of the city's inhabitants. But when freight vehicles come into contact with city traffic, it has a negative impact on urban routes, such as extra traffic congestion, noise pollution, air pollution, etc. The aim of the study is to assess the impact of freight transport on the overall traffic of the city. A case study of the wholesale market of Ahmedabad has been considered as a study area. The freight trip models based on the trips attracted and produced by the market are developed on the basis of data collected from establishment surveys and freight vehicle driver surveys. Both the models developed in this study, FTA (Freight Trip Attraction) and FTP (Freight Trip Production), have R Square values of 0.799 and 0.715, respectively. The volume of freight vehicles contributing to the overall traffic flow is also measured by the traffic volume study. Through the data analysis and identification of the impact of freight transportation on city traffic, remedial measures are discussed to reduce the impact of freight transportation.", "keywords": [ "Transport engineering", "Truck", "TRIPS architecture", "Traffic management", "Trip generation", "Traffic volume", "Business", "Traffic congestion", "Traffic flow (computer networking)", "Noise pollution", "Engineering", "Computer science" ], "cited_by_count": 1, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.22306/al.v9i3.316" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W3162839318", "doi": "10.1016/j.omega.2021.102493", "title": "Algorithms based on branch and bound for the flying sidekick traveling salesman problem", "year": 2021, "publication_date": "2021-05-18", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Mauro Dell’Amico", "Roberto Montemanni", "Stefano Novellani" ], "first_author": "Mauro Dell’Amico", "venue": "Omega", "publisher": "Elsevier BV", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Travelling salesman problem", "Drone", "Branch and bound", "Computer science", "Solver", "Heuristic", "Traveling purchaser problem", "Mathematical optimization", "Service (business)", "2-opt", "Upper and lower bounds", "Nearest neighbour algorithm" ], "cited_by_count": 100, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://cris.unibo.it/bitstream/11585/898008/3/DMN_BB.pdf" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W1999887253", "doi": "10.1017/s1467222700007862", "title": "Delivery to the Customer's Door: Efficiency, Regulatory Policy, and Integrated Rail-Truck Operations, 1900–1938", "year": 2009, "publication_date": "2009-03-01", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Albert J. Churella" ], "first_author": "Albert J. Churella", "venue": "Enterprise & Society", "publisher": "Cambridge University Press", "abstract": "During the first third of the twentieth century, U. S. railroad executives offered local collection and delivery trucking operations. Railroad managers claimed, with justification, that these services were necessary to reduce congestion at urban freight terminals, and to increase the operating efficiency. Yet, executives also employed collection and delivery practices to discriminate against shippers and communities, and to draw business away from rival carriers, in violation of the 1887 Interstate Commerce Act, the 1903 Elkins Act, and the Transportation Act of 1920. During the 1920s, as competition from independent truckers became more intense, railroad managers used their inherent advantage in line-haul service to cross-subsidize local delivery services, to the detriment of independent motor carriers—an issue of considerable concern to Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) commissioners, following the passage of the 1935 Motor Carrier Act. The railroads' emphasis on the productive efficiency associated with local trucking operations conflicted with the allocative efficiency advocated by federal courts and by the ICC. Commissioner Joseph B. Eastman, in particular, emphasized both the potential benefits and the potential dangers associated with coordinated rail-truck service. More broadly, the status of that service, as one of the few forms of transportation that lay beyond the ICC's authority, stemmed from a complex interaction, over several decades, between all three branches of the federal government. By 1938, the ICC commissioners had concluded that the railroads' local delivery operations occupied a nebulous region between rail and truck regulation. While lawful, they did not serve as a model for post-1945 efforts to achieve integrated, multi-modal transportation services.", "keywords": [ "Commission", "Subsidy", "Truck", "Business", "Service (business)", "Competition (biology)", "Government (linguistics)", "Allocative efficiency", "Public administration", "Transport engineering", "Finance", "Law" ], "cited_by_count": 1, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1017/s1467222700007862" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W3049561512", "doi": "10.3929/ethz-b-000429738", "title": "Modeling interactions of cars and freight vehicles in urban areas for speed and travel time prediction", "year": 2020, "publication_date": "2020-08-01", "type": "report", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Allister Loder", "Thomas G. Otte" ], "first_author": "Allister Loder", "venue": "Repository for Publications and Research Data (ETH Zurich)", "publisher": "ETH Zurich", "abstract": "The prediction of journey speeds is important for decision making -not only for travelers, but also for businesses such as urban freight companies.Journey speed is total travel distance divided by total travel time, including all delays and additional stopping times.So far, methodologies to model these interactions between cars and urban freight vehicles at an aggregated level have not yet received much attention, although the demand for urban freight is growing.However, these methodologies are required to identify solutions for optimal management and regulation of urban freight.This paper proposes a novel approach to model the interactions between cars and urban freight vehicles for journey speed prediction in urban areas based on the multi-modal macroscopic fundamental diagram (MFD).To ensure transferability to many applications, we formulate the model in a generic way.We apply the proposed model to an synthetic network with parameters oriented towards European cities to illustrate the model's applicability and discuss trade-offs in regulation of urban freight.As data related to (urban) freight movements (e.g., route planning and load factors) are currently often treated as private resources by involved freight companies, our generic model also provides a foundation to integrate actual freight data as soon as they are available for cities as a consequence from the ongoing, continuous digital transformation.Thus, the new approach not only helps cities on deriving urban freight strategies to optimize the overall traffic in the network, but also helps businesses to make better decisions.", "keywords": [ "Transport engineering", "Travel time", "Traffic speed", "Speed measurement", "Air travel", "Time travel", "Computer science", "Engineering", "Automotive engineering", "Artificial intelligence", "Aviation" ], "cited_by_count": 1, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/429738" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W3040584873", "doi": null, "title": "MyPolisLive.net: A Tool and a Methodology for Optimizing Urban Freight Mobility through Crowdsourcing", "year": 2020, "publication_date": "2020-06-19", "type": "conference-paper", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Fotis K. Liotopoulos", "Apostolos Georgiadis", "Vassilis Kalaitzis", "Ann‐Marie Nienaber", "Andrée Woodcock" ], "first_author": "Fotis K. Liotopoulos", "venue": "Pure (Coventry University)", "publisher": "Coventry University", "abstract": "This paper presents a methodology and results from a pilot demonstration for monitoring and optimizing combined citizen and freight mobility in urban envi-ronments through crowdsourcing. The pilot was conducted in the city of Kala-maria (Thessaloniki, Greece), within the H2020/CIVITAS/SUITS project using the web platform MyPolisLive.net; an innovative tool for data collection, pro-cessing, and visualization of urban mobility. The proposed methodology aims to support mobility transformation and deci-sion making through the gathering and processing of crowdsourced floating car data (FCD) of citizen and freight mobility, from which integrated transport plan-ning can take place. The Kalamaria pilot demonstrated that, with proper incentivization, citizens, taxis and logistics companies can provide accurate and adequate data for monitor-ing real-time traffic conditions of a city’s entire road network. By segregating various traffic sources, freight traffic can be inter-correlated with other urban mo-bility patterns. This will enable city authorities tio effectively evaluate the impact of temporary or permanent mobility measures related to freight, e.g. route chang-es, delivery timeframes, loading/unloading zones, reduction of the number of freight trucks delivering within congested areas, etc., thereby resulting in the overall reduction of driven distances and travelling time, as well as improving ur-ban accessibility and speed of distribution of goods.", "keywords": [ "Crowdsourcing", "Transport engineering", "Net (polyhedron)", "Business", "Computer science", "Engineering", "World Wide Web", "Mathematics" ], "cited_by_count": 1, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://pureportal.coventry.ac.uk/en/publications/8754e1d8-487b-4186-bb55-6e1d768f30f2" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W2778108619", "doi": null, "title": "Behavioural Modelling of Urban Freight Transportation: Activity and Inter-arrival Duration Models Estimated Using GPS Data", "year": 2014, "publication_date": "2014-11-01", "type": "dissertation", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Bryce W. Sharman" ], "first_author": "Bryce W. Sharman", "venue": "TSpace (University of Toronto)", "publisher": "University of Toronto", "abstract": "This dissertation details the development of two behavioural models of urban commercial (freight and services) transportation: activity duration and inter-arrival duration models. These models were designed to comprise two components within the proposed FRELODE (FREight LOgistics DEcisions) modelling framework; FRELODE accepts a list of shipments or service trips by carrier and models how carriers execute urban shipments, creating a series of resulting vehicle movements (trips and tours). My Ph.D. research produced significant progress in four areas. First, the activity and inter-arrival duration models were estimated using a three-month passively-collected GPS dataset from truck-mounted GPS-equipped engine-on-board recorders. To the author's knowledge, this research represents the first attempt in the literature to estimate components of a commercial-vehicle travel demand model using passively-collected GPS data as the primary data source. Exploring new data sources, such as GPS, is important because little data describing urban commercial vehicle movements are currently available. New data processing techniques were developed to convert the longitudinal GPS data into a travel diary suitable for transportation model estimation. Second, two hazard models of commercial activity duration were estimated. Third, models of inter-arrival duration were estimated using the longitudinal GPS dataset to model the number of days between repeated visits to the same destination. To the author's knowledge, these represent the first estimated models of inter-arrival duration for commercial transportation. The fourth area of significant process described in this dissertation is the development of the FRELODE modelling framework. FRELODE considers a multiple day time period as commercial establishments do not necessarily operate using consistent schedules, and also accounts for carriers delivering multiple shipments in a single tour. In conclusion, passively-collected GPS data were found to hold promise as a complement to existing data sources of commercial vehicle travel. Also, it is expected that these estimated models, included within the FRELODE framework, will form components within a larger proposed agent-based microsimulation commercial vehicle modelling framework that is currently under development.", "keywords": [ "Duration (music)", "Global Positioning System", "Transport engineering", "Geography", "Arrival time", "Environmental science", "Computer science", "Engineering", "Telecommunications" ], "cited_by_count": 2, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://utoronto.scholaris.ca/bitstreams/b7a5b619-e922-4ce8-9dbc-e64b4e2502cb/download" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W2067862703", "doi": "10.1007/s11116-004-7615-6", "title": "Refocusing the Modelling of Freight Distribution: Development of an Economic-Based Framework to Evaluate Supply Chain Behaviour in Response to Congestion Charging", "year": 2005, "publication_date": "2005-09-01", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "David A. Hensher", "Sean M. Puckett" ], "first_author": "David A. Hensher", "venue": "Transportation", "publisher": "Springer Science+Business Media", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Supply chain", "Traffic congestion", "Business", "Congestion pricing", "Transport engineering", "Distribution (mathematics)", "Industrial organization", "Traffic management", "Environmental economics", "Marketing", "Economics", "Engineering" ], "cited_by_count": 76, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s11116-004-7615-6" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W2962125870", "doi": null, "title": "Zero emission city logistics: the possibilities of battery electric reight vehicles, now and in the future", "year": 2018, "publication_date": "2018-01-01", "type": "conference-paper", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Hans J. Quak", "Nina Nikolaevna Nesterova" ], "first_author": "Hans J. Quak", "venue": "TNO Repository", "publisher": null, "abstract": "The city logistics system faces serious challenges in the near future, such as zero-emission transport in city centers and the decarbonization of urban freight transport to meet the climate agreements. The city logistics system is in itself a very heterogenous system with many different types and forms of logistics operations. The use of battery electric freight vehicles (EFVs) could be a solution to make urban freight transport more sustainable. However, the relatively high procurement costs for an EFV – especially for the vehicles heavier than 3.5 tons – in comparison to the currently often used diesel vehicles, the lack of availability of OEM-produced vehicles, and the relatively short range compared to the currently used diesel vehicles, are challenging in actually using EFVs on a large scale in daily city logistics operations. This paper identifies the main trends and developments influencing city logistics and breaks down the city logistics system in six main segments. Using a TCO comparison between conventional and electric freight vehicles, we identify for which segments battery electric freight vehicles can be expected to be feasible alternative on the short time (and what barriers should be resolved in order to increase feasibility. The analyses follow from real-life demonstrations, of EFVs in city logistics operations in the project FREVUE.", "keywords": [ "City logistics", "Procurement", "Traffic management", "Original equipment manufacturer", "Zero emission", "Transport engineering", "Battery (electricity)", "Business", "Order (exchange)", "Computer science", "Engineering", "Finance" ], "cited_by_count": 1, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://resolver.tno.nl/uuid:a5dd05cf-36e3-4dda-abc1-dd5b9fe4bc50" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4394562284", "doi": "10.6084/m9.figshare.22548349.v4", "title": "Cooperative trucks and drones for rural last-mile delivery with steep roads", "year": 2023, "publication_date": "2023-01-01", "type": "dataset", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Anonymous author" ], "first_author": "Anonymous author", "venue": "Figshare", "publisher": "Figshare (United Kingdom)", "abstract": "The following instances are originally presented in the paper Cooperative trucks and drones for rural last-mile delivery with steep roads. The data includes 96 instances corresponding to different scales and scenarios. Each instance is named \"n. d. m. h\", where n is the number of customers, d represents the dimension of the grid, m is the generic name of the scenarios with different coordinates and demands, and h refers to the generic name of the altitude scenarios. The first column of each instance file indicates Coordinate X of each customer. The second and third columns are Coordinate Y and Demand, respectively. The last column is Altitude. Finally, there is an extra file, named Supplemental online material, which provides the following appendices： Appendix A: Provides calculations about the main parameters of drone energy consumption. Appendix B: Discusses the differences between the proposed problem with GVRPD and GVRP-SR. Appendix C: Provides the detailed principles for generating benchmark instances. Appendix D: Provides information about the value of the parameters in the main configuration of the problem.", "keywords": [ "Mile", "Truck", "Drone", "Last mile (transportation)", "Aeronautics", "Geography", "Transport engineering", "Engineering", "Automotive engineering", "Biology", "Geodesy" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.22548349.v4" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4394250112", "doi": "10.6084/m9.figshare.22548349.v1", "title": "Cooperative trucks and drones for rural last-mile delivery with steep roads", "year": 2023, "publication_date": "2023-01-01", "type": "dataset", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Jiuhong Xiao" ], "first_author": "Jiuhong Xiao", "venue": "Figshare", "publisher": "Figshare (United Kingdom)", "abstract": "The following instances are originally presented in the paper Cooperative trucks and drones for rural last-mile delivery with steep roads. The data includes 96 instances corresponding to different scales and scenarios. Each instance is named \"n. d. m. h\", where n is the number of customers, d represents the dimension of the grid, m is the generic name of the scenarios with different coordinates and demands, and h refers to the generic name of the altitude scenarios. The first column of each instance file indicates Coordinate X of each customer. The second and third columns are Coordinate Y and Demand, respectively. The last column is Altitude. Finally, there is an extra file, named Supplemental online material, which provides the following appendices： Appendix A: Provides calculations about the main parameters of drone energy consumption. Appendix B: Discusses the differences between the proposed problem with GVRPD and GVRP-SR. Appendix C: Provides the detailed principles for generating benchmark instances. Appendix D: Provides information about the value of the parameters in the main configuration of the problem.", "keywords": [ "Mile", "Truck", "Drone", "Last mile (transportation)", "Transport engineering", "Aeronautics", "Engineering", "Geography", "Automotive engineering" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.22548349.v1" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4394079051", "doi": "10.6084/m9.figshare.22548349.v3", "title": "Cooperative trucks and drones for rural last-mile delivery with steep roads", "year": 2023, "publication_date": "2023-01-01", "type": "dataset", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Anonymous author" ], "first_author": "Anonymous author", "venue": "Figshare", "publisher": "Figshare (United Kingdom)", "abstract": "The following instances are originally presented in the paper Cooperative trucks and drones for rural last-mile delivery with steep roads. The data includes 96 instances corresponding to different scales and scenarios. Each instance is named \"n. d. m. h\", where n is the number of customers, d represents the dimension of the grid, m is the generic name of the scenarios with different coordinates and demands, and h refers to the generic name of the altitude scenarios. The first column of each instance file indicates Coordinate X of each customer. The second and third columns are Coordinate Y and Demand, respectively. The last column is Altitude. Finally, there is an extra file, named Supplemental online material, which provides the following appendices： Appendix A: Provides calculations about the main parameters of drone energy consumption. Appendix B: Discusses the differences between the proposed problem with GVRPD and GVRP-SR. Appendix C: Provides the detailed principles for generating benchmark instances. Appendix D: Provides information about the value of the parameters in the main configuration of the problem.", "keywords": [ "Mile", "Truck", "Drone", "Last mile (transportation)", "Transport engineering", "Aeronautics", "Geography", "Engineering", "Biology", "Automotive engineering" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.22548349.v3" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4394292585", "doi": "10.6084/m9.figshare.22548349.v2", "title": "Cooperative trucks and drones for rural last-mile delivery with steep roads", "year": 2023, "publication_date": "2023-01-01", "type": "dataset", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Jiuhong Xiao" ], "first_author": "Jiuhong Xiao", "venue": "Figshare", "publisher": "Figshare (United Kingdom)", "abstract": "The following instances are originally presented in the paper Cooperative trucks and drones for rural last-mile delivery with steep roads. The data includes 96 instances corresponding to different scales and scenarios. Each instance is named \"n. d. m. h\", where n is the number of customers, d represents the dimension of the grid, m is the generic name of the scenarios with different coordinates and demands, and h refers to the generic name of the altitude scenarios. The first column of each instance file indicates Coordinate X of each customer. The second and third columns are Coordinate Y and Demand, respectively. The last column is Altitude. Finally, there is an extra file, named Supplemental online material, which provides the following appendices： Appendix A: Provides calculations about the main parameters of drone energy consumption. Appendix B: Discusses the differences between the proposed problem with GVRPD and GVRP-SR. Appendix C: Provides the detailed principles for generating benchmark instances. Appendix D: Provides information about the value of the parameters in the main configuration of the problem.", "keywords": [ "Mile", "Truck", "Drone", "Last mile (transportation)", "Geography", "Transport engineering", "Aeronautics", "Engineering", "Biology", "Automotive engineering" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.22548349.v2" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4394430123", "doi": "10.6084/m9.figshare.22548349", "title": "Cooperative trucks and drones for rural last-mile delivery with steep roads", "year": 2023, "publication_date": "2023-01-01", "type": "dataset", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Anonymous author" ], "first_author": "Anonymous author", "venue": "Figshare", "publisher": "Figshare (United Kingdom)", "abstract": "The following instances are originally presented in the paper Cooperative trucks and drones for rural last-mile delivery with steep roads. The data includes 96 instances corresponding to different scales and scenarios. Each instance is named \"n. d. m. h\", where n is the number of customers, d represents the dimension of the grid, m is the generic name of the scenarios with different coordinates and demands, and h refers to the generic name of the altitude scenarios. The first column of each instance file indicates Coordinate X of each customer. The second and third columns are Coordinate Y and Demand, respectively. The last column is Altitude. Finally, there is an extra file, named Supplemental online material, which provides the following appendices： Appendix A: Provides calculations about the main parameters of drone energy consumption. Appendix B: Discusses the differences between the proposed problem with GVRPD and GVRP-SR. Appendix C: Provides the detailed principles for generating benchmark instances. Appendix D: Provides information about the value of the parameters in the main configuration of the problem.", "keywords": [ "Mile", "Truck", "Drone", "Last mile (transportation)", "Transport engineering", "Aeronautics", "Engineering", "Geography", "Automotive engineering" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.22548349" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4408986606", "doi": "10.1007/978-981-96-3969-4_38", "title": "Multi-objective Optimization Study of Electric Heavy Truck Composite Braking System Based on IVY Algorithm", "year": 2025, "publication_date": "2025-01-01", "type": "conference-paper", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Zhenliang Ma", "Xiaopeng Yang", "Falong Wang", "Yi Liu", "Chen Chang", "Xianglin Meng", "Mengqi Gao", "Xiangbo Han" ], "first_author": "Zhenliang Ma", "venue": "Lecture notes in electrical engineering", "publisher": "Springer Science+Business Media", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Truck", "Automotive engineering", "Braking system", "Composite number", "Computer science", "Optimization algorithm", "Algorithm", "Engineering", "Mathematics", "Mathematical optimization", "Brake" ], "cited_by_count": 1, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-96-3969-4_38" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4320477371", "doi": "10.1016/j.trc.2023.104022", "title": "Pickup and delivery with lockers", "year": 2023, "publication_date": "2023-01-27", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Mauro Dell’Amico", "Roberto Montemanni", "Stefano Novellani" ], "first_author": "Mauro Dell’Amico", "venue": "Transportation Research Part C Emerging Technologies", "publisher": "Elsevier BV", "abstract": "We define a pickup and delivery routing problem with time windows that arises in last-mile delivery. A customer can be served either directly at home, by one of the available capacitated trucks, or via lockers, that allow a self-service option. On the same route, the couriers must deliver the parcels and collect the packages that the customers intend to return. The returned parcels can be picked up directly at the customers’ homes or at a locker. Customers can select home service, self-service at one of the nearby lockers with a discount, or let the logistics company decide. All services must be performed within a given time window. We propose three formulations, two branch-and-cut algorithms, and some valid inequalities. We also investigate the case with a single vehicle, with different types of time windows, including no time windows. Moreover, we show how to accommodate simultaneous pickup and delivery and multiple requests from a customer.", "keywords": [ "Pickup", "Computer science", "Last mile (transportation)", "Truck", "Service (business)", "Window (computing)", "Vehicle routing problem", "City logistics", "Routing (electronic design automation)", "Business", "Operating system", "Transport engineering" ], "cited_by_count": 35, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0968090X23000116" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W3110085676", "doi": "10.1109/fists46898.2020.9264848", "title": "A Contemporary Approach for Visualizing Temporal and Spatial Urban Freight Movement by Leveraging Mobility Portal Data", "year": 2020, "publication_date": "2020-11-03", "type": "conference-paper", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Eren Yuksel", "Robert L. Bertini", "Nikhil Menon", "Seckin Ozkul", "Brian M. Staes" ], "first_author": "Eren Yuksel", "venue": null, "publisher": null, "abstract": "Analyzing and visualizing traffic data in order to better understand congestion trends, safety concerns, goods movement and capacity needs is a pressing need. Broadly speaking, there is a large amount of traffic data available today, including volume, lane occupancy, speed, and travel time, which can be used to manage transportation networks, provide traveler information and produce performance measures. This broadly disseminated data almost always treats all vehicles alike, without discriminating between trucks and passenger cars. Since trucks are critical and growing components of freeway traffic, monitoring and tracking their dynamics can reveal the impacts of freight movement on current freeway operations and over time will uncover trends useful for future planning and management. This study takes advantage of a unique data stream available for the freeway network of Portland, Oregon, USA. In addition to providing continuous vehicle count, speed and lane occupancies at 20-second intervals at more than 500 stations (1,300 individual detectors), the Portland system reports volume bins at 4 length-based classifications. (60 ft). Given that most vehicle classification studies are done over very short time intervals at an extremely limited number of locations, this nonstop data stream enables unprecedented insight into where and when trucks are traveling on Portland's freeways and a wealth of opportunities for performance measurement and diagnosis of their impacts. The objective of this paper is to exploit this new data stream and explore new visualization techniques that depict truck volume, truck percentage and volume-weighted average vehicle speeds along Portland's Interstate 5 corridor, an important north-south freight route between the Canada and Mexico borders. Results confirm the merit in analyzing and tracking truck volumes, proportions, and other dynamics for traffic management, information and modeling. The results of this study and the techniques employed here can be used to better understand and visualize freight movement dynamics on a continuous basis.", "keywords": [ "Truck", "Computer science", "Transport engineering", "Volume (thermodynamics)", "Real-time data", "Real-time computing", "Engineering", "Automotive engineering" ], "cited_by_count": 1, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1109/fists46898.2020.9264848" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4411501447", "doi": "10.2139/ssrn.5312573", "title": "Exploring Drive-By Sensing and Deep Learning for Urban Truck Characterization Using Google Street View Imagery", "year": 2025, "publication_date": "2025-01-01", "type": "preprint", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Bo Shang", "Yiqiao Li", "Blanche Horbach", "Kevin Villon" ], "first_author": "Bo Shang", "venue": "SSRN Electronic Journal", "publisher": "RELX Group (Netherlands)", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Truck", "Deep learning", "Characterization (materials science)", "Computer science", "Artificial intelligence", "Cartography", "Geography", "Engineering", "Automotive engineering" ], "cited_by_count": 1, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5312573" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W3197795840", "doi": "10.1155/2021/8103333", "title": "Grid-Based Anomaly Detection of Freight Vehicle Trajectory considering Local Temporal Window", "year": 2021, "publication_date": "2021-08-31", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Zixian Zhang", "Geqi Qi", "Avishai Avi Ceder", "Wei Guan", "Rongge Guo", "Zhenlin Wei" ], "first_author": "Zixian Zhang", "venue": "Journal of Advanced Transportation", "publisher": "Hindawi Publishing Corporation", "abstract": "The security travel of freight vehicles is of high societal concern and is the key issue for urban managers to effectively supervise and assess the possible social security risks. With continuous improvements in motion-based technology, the trajectories of freight vehicles are readily available, whose unusual changes may indicate hidden urban risks. Moreover, the increasing high spatial and temporal resolution of trajectories provides the opportunity for the real-time recognition of the abnormal or risky vehicle motion. However, the existing researches mainly focus on the spatial anomaly detection, and there are few researches on the real-time temporal anomaly detection. In this paper, a grid-based algorithm, which combines the spatial and temporal anomaly detection, is proposed for tracing the risk of urban freight vehicles trajectory by considering local temporal window. The travel time probability distribution of vehicle historical trajectory is analyzed to meet the time complexity requirements of real-time anomaly calculation. The developed methodology is applied to a case study in Beijing to demonstrate its accuracy and effectiveness.", "keywords": [ "Anomaly detection", "Trajectory", "Computer science", "Grid", "Anomaly (physics)", "Tracing", "Focus (optics)", "Sliding window protocol", "Beijing", "Key (lock)", "Temporal resolution", "Real-time computing" ], "cited_by_count": 1, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://downloads.hindawi.com/journals/jat/2021/8103333.pdf" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4408715871", "doi": "10.1109/itsc58415.2024.10919697", "title": "Addressing the Robust Battery Electric Truck Dispatching Problem with Backhauls and Time Windows Under Travel Time Uncertainty", "year": 2024, "publication_date": "2024-09-24", "type": "conference-paper", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Dongbo Peng", "Matthew Barth", "Kanok Boriboonsomsin" ], "first_author": "Dongbo Peng", "venue": null, "publisher": null, "abstract": "The emergence of battery electric trucks (BETs) in recent years has shown great promise in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in urban freight logistics. However, designing a customer-oriented dispatching strategy for a BET fleet is more complex than traditional vehicle routing problems (VRP) due to several constraints, such as limited driving range, potential need for en route recharging, and long recharging times. Also, in practice, the uncertain travel times in urban transportation network may lead to the violation of scheduled customer time windows and impact overall energy consumption. To better utilize the BET fleet, this paper introduces a robust BET dispatching problem with backhauls and time windows under travel time uncertainty, which aims to minimize the overall fleet energy consumption while also minimizing the risk of violating customer time window. A mathematical optimization model based on novel route-related sets is developed, and an adaptive large neighborhood search (ALNS) metaheuristic algorithm is used to find robust dispatching solutions. Based on real-world data from a truck fleet in San Bernardino County, California, a simulation study is conducted to demonstrate the robustness of the solutions obtained by the proposed method. Moreover, a sensitivity analysis with respect to uncertainty parameters is performed to assess the trade-off between the overall fleet energy consumption and the robustness of the solutions.", "keywords": [ "Truck", "Computer science", "Battery (electricity)", "Automotive engineering", "Time travel", "Engineering", "Power (physics)", "Artificial intelligence" ], "cited_by_count": 1, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1109/itsc58415.2024.10919697" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W3006539294", "doi": null, "title": "Drone Delivery: Urban airspace traffic density estimation", "year": 2018, "publication_date": "2018-01-01", "type": "conference-paper", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Malik Doole", "Joost Ellerbroek", "Jacco M. Hoekstra" ], "first_author": "Malik Doole", "venue": "Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS)", "publisher": "Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences", "abstract": "The concept of autonomous drone delivery in urban areas has gained a favorable amount of media attention over the past few years. Companies such as Amazon, Uber and Matternet are investigating the use of drones to transport parcels in order to solve the disaggregate delivery (last-mile) problem. This solution could potentially reduce vehicular congestion in cities by replacing traditional transport modes used in last-mile delivery, such as trucks, vans and bikes, with a fleet of autonomous drones flying in an urban airspace. To realize this concept, the design of an urban airspace for drones is necessary. However, the design of an urban airspace for drones will depend on critical design metrics such as drone traffic densities, traffic distribution patterns, distance between origin-destination, and the number of distribution centers. For this study, we first tackle the first metric, drone traffic density. This metric will provide an indication for the required urban airspace capacity and its expected demand. This paper therefore establishes a framework for determining the traffic density of delivery drones for a typical urban city airspace in Europe. In addition, the paper presents a cost-analysis study for fast-food delivery via drones relative to electric bikes.", "keywords": [ "Drone", "Transport engineering", "Last mile (transportation)", "Mile", "Computer science", "Metric (unit)", "Truck", "Geography", "Engineering", "Automotive engineering", "Operations management" ], "cited_by_count": 40, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:f33c73a1-683f-4f9d-a04a-55254dd4aebf" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W7112399389", "doi": null, "title": "Last Mile Delivery by Drones", "year": 2025, "publication_date": "2025-01-01", "type": "dissertation", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Alawala Dewage, Hishani Indunil" ], "first_author": "Alawala Dewage, Hishani Indunil", "venue": "Theseus (Ammattikorkeakoulujen)", "publisher": null, "abstract": "Last-Mile Delivery is a critical and costly part of the distribution chain, providing the final connection to customers. Modern drone technology is viewed as a promising solution, enabling faster delivery, lower costs, and enhanced environmental protection. Research suggests that drones can alleviate the limitations of traditional truck delivery – including traffic congestion, gas and electricity consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions – and enable faster delivery of goods to rural and remote areas. However, there are technical challenges that need to be addressed, including routing optimization, cargo distribution, battery management, data communication, and environmental protection. Companies such as Amazon Prime Air and UPS Flight Forward are also introducing new ordering systems and “flying warehouse” concepts, which are new areas of focus for drone use. In business, the use of drones is expected to increase the efficiency of the entire supply chain, enhance overall customer satisfaction, and promote safe and sustainable operations.", "keywords": [ "Drone", "Last mile (transportation)", "Truck", "Electricity", "Greenhouse gas", "Sustainable development", "Supply chain" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "http://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/10024/901731/2/AlawalaDewage_HishaniIndunil.pdf" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W7165848339", "doi": "10.1061/9780784487020.027", "title": "Truck-Drone Routing with Dynamics-Informed Energy Constraints for Last-Mile Deliveries", "year": 2026, "publication_date": "2026-06-25", "type": "conference-paper", "language": null, "authors": [ "Keaton Safu", "Jingyi Zeng", "Xin Qin", "Tairan Liu" ], "first_author": "Keaton Safu", "venue": null, "publisher": null, "abstract": "This study introduces an integrated framework for the Flying Sidekick Traveling Salesman Problem (FSTSP), combining realistic road-network routing for a truck with dynamics-based energy modeling for a payload-carrying multi-rotor drone. Using four delivery routes from the Amazon Last-Mile Routing Research Challenge dataset, we perform a multi-instance simulation under key operational constraints: maximum payload capacity, maximum volumetric capacity, round-trip drone range, and limited battery life. Results demonstrate that incorporating the Amazon MK30 drone into last-mile operations can effectively reduce total route completion time by up to 16.82%, even with just two drone-serviced deliveries. We further examined the conditions enabling these time savings and analyzed the practical strengths and failure modes of coordinated truck-drone delivery across diverse urban environments in Seattle, Tacoma, Los Angeles, and Orange County for potential future directions of research in the truck-drone delivery problem.", "keywords": [ "Drone", "Payload (computing)", "Routing (electronic design automation)", "Key (lock)", "Truck", "Travelling salesman problem", "Energy (signal processing)" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784487020.027" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4405767967", "doi": "10.1007/978-3-031-77426-3_19", "title": "Route Optimization for Urban Last-Mile Delivery: Truck vs. Drone Performance", "year": 2024, "publication_date": "2024-01-01", "type": "conference-paper", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Adriano S. Silva", "Guido S. Berger", "João Mendes", "Thadeu Brito", "José Lima", "Helder Teixeira Gomes", "Ana I. Pereira" ], "first_author": "Adriano S. Silva", "venue": "Communications in computer and information science", "publisher": "Springer Science+Business Media", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Mile", "Truck", "Last mile (transportation)", "Drone", "Computer science", "Transport engineering", "Aeronautics", "Automotive engineering", "Engineering", "Geography", "Biology" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-77426-3_19" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W2956070695", "doi": "10.2478/ttt-2019-0001", "title": "Opportunities for Solving Urban and Environmental Problems by Progressive City Logistics Tools", "year": 2019, "publication_date": "2019-06-01", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Tomáš Čechovič", "Milan Dedík", "Martin Kendra", "Vladimír Ľupták", "Borut Jereb" ], "first_author": "Tomáš Čechovič", "venue": "Transport technic and technology", "publisher": "De Gruyter", "abstract": "Abstract At present, high traffic intensity level on the roads currently saturates a great demand for individual transportation. Mobility is an important part of everyday activities in cities. The increasing number of passenger and freight vehicles on the widening transport infrastructure raises several problems. The range of use of public passenger transport does satisfy enough the citizens needs and its use is constantly decreasing, especially in the new EU countries. One of the reasons is also the growing sale and production of new passenger cars in the EU, resulting in congestion in the road infrastructure of cities and environmental problems. These issues are dealt with the modern City Logistics concept. The contribution focused on the basic principles of city logistics, the reasons for its development and, in particular, the possibilities of practical use. An example is the city of Trenčín in Slovakia, where a regional rail passenger transport is proposed for city traffic service including Park and Ride system.", "keywords": [ "Transport engineering", "City logistics", "Public transport", "Traffic congestion", "Service (business)", "Business", "Passenger transport", "Park and ride", "Environmental planning", "Engineering", "Marketing", "Geography" ], "cited_by_count": 1, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://content.sciendo.com/downloadpdf/journals/ttt/15/1/article-p1.pdf" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W7213424840", "doi": "10.1109/mesa70578.2026.11684226", "title": "LLM-Driven Automatic Design of Truck and Drone Last-Mile Delivery Routes", "year": 2026, "publication_date": "2026-08-01", "type": "conference-paper", "language": null, "authors": [ "Xuan Fu", "Yonglin Tian", "Fei Lin" ], "first_author": "Xuan Fu", "venue": null, "publisher": null, "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Drone", "Truck", "Key (lock)", "Tracking system", "Automation" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1109/mesa70578.2026.11684226" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W7161780621", "doi": "10.1007/978-3-032-21811-7_26", "title": "Optimizing Drone’s Energy in Single Truck Multiple Drones Last Mile Delivery", "year": 2026, "publication_date": "2026-01-01", "type": "conference-paper", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Ornela Gordani", "Eglantina Kalluçi", "Fatos Xhafa" ], "first_author": "Ornela Gordani", "venue": "Lecture notes in computer science", "publisher": "Springer Science+Business Media", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Drone", "Truck", "Energy (signal processing)", "Energy consumption", "Efficient energy use" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://hdl.handle.net/2117/464953" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4407275006", "doi": "10.1016/j.trc.2025.105026", "title": "The multi-visit vehicle routing problem with multiple heterogeneous drones", "year": 2025, "publication_date": "2025-02-08", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Yu Jiang", "Mengmeng Liu", "Xibei Jia", "Qingwen Xue" ], "first_author": "Yu Jiang", "venue": "Transportation Research Part C Emerging Technologies", "publisher": "Elsevier BV", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Drone", "Vehicle routing problem", "Routing (electronic design automation)", "Computer science", "Transport engineering", "Engineering", "Aeronautics", "Operations research", "Computer network", "Biology" ], "cited_by_count": 28, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trc.2025.105026" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W1971517979", "doi": "10.1007/s11116-004-2218-9", "title": "Trucking industry demand for urban shared use freight terminals", "year": 2005, "publication_date": "2005-01-01", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Amelia Regan", "Thomas F. Golob" ], "first_author": "Amelia Regan", "venue": "Transportation", "publisher": "Springer Science+Business Media", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Diseconomies of scale", "Transport engineering", "Trucking industry", "Truck", "Business", "Traffic management", "City logistics", "Probit model", "Marketing", "Economics", "Engineering", "Economies of scale" ], "cited_by_count": 39, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s11116-004-2218-9" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W2244683699", "doi": null, "title": "URBAN FREIGHT POLICIES AND TOURISM. THE CASE OF OWN-ACCOUNT OPERATORS IN ROME'S LIMITED TRAFFIC ZONE", "year": 2012, "publication_date": "2012-01-01", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Edoardo Marcucci", "Amanda Stathopoulos", "Romeo Danielis" ], "first_author": "Edoardo Marcucci", "venue": null, "publisher": null, "abstract": "Almost all Italian cities and town have an historical city centres, built in Roman or medieval times, characterised by narrow and winding lanes, often leading uphill, with a dense housing structure. The charm and liveliness of the city centres depends on the its ability to conciliate the very many urban functions and activities that they host: houses and apartments for the various income groups (often low-income family but with a tendency to “gentrification”); artisan and craftsman activities (carpenters, tailors, watchmakers, jewellers, bakers, plumbers etc.), administrative offices (courts, tax offices); kindergartens and schools; local shops (clothing and shoes, chemists, house appliances) and retailers (bakeries, fruit&vegetables shops, cheese shops, dry food shops, butchers, fish mongers, florists); hotels, bars, restaurants and pizzerias. All these activities generate an strong demand for good supply from the local wholesalers and producers, particularly because they have a very small storage space at the disposal. However, goods distribution in the narrow and winding lanes of the Italian historical city centres is not an easy task: the lorry must be small and the parking places are very limited. Moreover, the interaction between passenger and goods vehicles traffic make congestion almost inevitable, especially at certain times of the day.\\nOn top of all this, tourists enjoy living and visiting the city centres and their many monuments and churches. And in some of the most famous Italian cities (e.g., Rome, Venice, Florence but also Pisa, Siena, Urbino and so on), tourism is the main source of income for the activities located in the city centre. Hence, finding the right balance between goods distribution and tourism is not an easy task.", "keywords": [ "Tourism", "Clothing", "Distribution (mathematics)", "Business", "Gentrification", "Economy", "Truck", "Geography", "Economic growth", "Engineering", "Economics", "Archaeology" ], "cited_by_count": 1, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "http://www.sieds.it/listing/RePEc/journl/2012LXVI_N2_09.pdf" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W2467555928", "doi": null, "title": "Urban freight distribution: Assessing time efficiency of daily activities for future development of medium-duty electric vehicles", "year": 2016, "publication_date": "2016-01-01", "type": "dissertation", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Anders Levandi", "Jimmy Mårdberg" ], "first_author": "Anders Levandi", "venue": "Chalmers Publication Library (Chalmers University of Technology)", "publisher": "Chalmers University of Technology", "abstract": "The increasing amount of goods required by the intense urbanization has triggered\\na considerable growth of urban distribution. To meet the increased demand, this\\nMaster’s thesis seeks to map and quantify the duration of activities that take place\\nin a typical urban distribution tour for medium-duty trucks, and identify potential\\nactions to enhance the time efficiency of these activities. Thereafter, the aforementioned\\nfindings are combined with a research in the advancements of all-electric\\nvehicles to see if their characteristics fit with the existing demands in urban freight\\ndistribution.\\nThe methods used for data collection involved both field and desk research. Primary\\ndata was collected through a time study with Company X’s truck drivers. The time\\nstudy was supplemented by distribution route tracking and interviews with 17 different\\nparticipants. The interviewees consisted of operational and managerial level\\nparticipants from Company X, and experts in the electric driveline technology. Additionally,\\nsecondary data was gathered through a revision of Volvo Group Truck\\nTechnology’s internal documents.\\n31 work related activities for truck drivers were identified and classified into six\\ncategories. The categorization was based on the location where the activity took\\nplace. Observations envisage that there are notable time differences among the activities.\\nDriving and breaks accounted for the vast majority of the truck driver’s\\ntime consumption (44.5 percent). 15 improvement initiatives were proposed to enhance\\ntruck drivers’ safety and increase time efficiency in urban distribution. In\\naddition, the average driving distance was 63.9 km. The research revealed that\\nexisting electric powertrain technology is able to address the transport operators’\\ndistribution demands in the Gothenburg area. As of today, no major infrastructural\\nchanges are necessary to utilize all-electric fleets.", "keywords": [ "Truck", "Transport engineering", "Powertrain", "Fuel efficiency", "Distribution (mathematics)", "Desk", "Work (physics)", "Urbanization", "Consumption (sociology)", "Engineering", "Business", "Operations management" ], "cited_by_count": 1, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "http://studentarbeten.chalmers.se/publication/238964-urban-freight-distribution-assessing-time-efficiency-of-daily-activities-for-future-development-of-m" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W2021119385", "doi": "10.3141/2049-19", "title": "Collecting Commercial Vehicle Tour Data with Passive Global Positioning System Technology", "year": 2008, "publication_date": "2008-01-01", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Stephen P. Greaves", "Miguel Figliozzi" ], "first_author": "Stephen P. Greaves", "venue": "Transportation Research Record Journal of the Transportation Research Board", "publisher": "SAGE Publishing", "abstract": "The assessment of strategies designed to manage the continued growth in road-based freight and associated externalities has been hampered by a paucity of disaggregate data on commercial vehicle movements. When disaggregated data are available, the analysis of commercial vehicle route and trip chain structure can provide insightful information about urban commercial vehicle tours, travel patterns, and congestion levels. Over the past 15 years, the ability to collect detailed travel information has been expanded by developments in global positioning system (GPS) technology. In mid-2006, a GPS survey of commercial vehicles was piloted in Melbourne, Australia, to support a major update of freight data and modeling capabilities in the metropolitan region. The survey used passive GPS methods in which the truck driver's involvement in the data collection effort was minimal. The contributions of this research to the field of urban freight data collection were fourfold: (a) describing implementation issues with the data collection, (b) detailing the algorithms used to process the raw GPS data into meaningful travel and trip information, (c) presenting a discussion of pilot survey data tour results, and (d) discussing potential uses and limitations of GPS technology in urban freight modeling and planning. Despite processing challenges, GPS provides an appealing method to enrich commercial vehicle data collection and enhance our understanding of on-road behavior. Because increasing numbers of commercial vehicles become equipped with GPS receivers, only privacy concerns remain as a major barrier to gathering and using such data on a widespread basis in the future.", "keywords": [ "Global Positioning System", "Data collection", "Transport engineering", "Truck", "Metropolitan area", "Computer science", "Raw data", "Engineering", "Geography", "Telecommunications" ], "cited_by_count": 97, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.3141/2049-19" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W7160154228", "doi": "10.3390/systems14050491", "title": "Optimization of Transportation and Delivery Routes Under Regional Constraints: A Two-Stage Solution Model Based on SDVRP and Truck-Drone Collaboration", "year": 2026, "publication_date": "2026-04-30", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Weiquan Kong", "Senlai Zhu", "Gaoming Yu" ], "first_author": "Weiquan Kong", "venue": "Systems", "publisher": "Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute", "abstract": "With the rapid development of e-commerce and the increasing complexity of urban logistics, traditional delivery methods face significant challenges due to regional traffic restrictions and congestion. This paper presents a two-stage optimization approach for urban delivery routing, integrating the Split Delivery Vehicle Routing Problem (SDVRP) and truck-drone collaboration to address these challenges. In the first stage, a transportation route optimization model based on SDVRP is proposed, which accounts for regional constraints and vehicle capacity limitations. The model allows for demand splitting, reducing the number of vehicles required and minimizing transportation costs. In the second stage, a truck-drone collaborative delivery model is introduced to handle the “last mile” distribution, where drones complement trucks by delivering to areas with restricted vehicle access. The optimization model aims to minimize overall delivery costs while ensuring timely service. An enhanced genetic algorithm is further developed to solve this complex, multi-constrained model. Experimental results show that the proposed collaborative strategy reduces delivery costs by over 10% compared to truck-only delivery, and the improved algorithm achieves a 4.77% average cost reduction over traditional approaches. This study provides valuable insights for optimizing urban logistics systems under regional constraints, offering both theoretical and practical contributions to smart logistics development.", "keywords": [ "Truck", "Vehicle routing problem", "Genetic algorithm", "Routing (electronic design automation)", "Traffic congestion", "City logistics", "Complement (music)", "Drone" ], "cited_by_count": 1, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://www.mdpi.com/2079-8954/14/5/491/pdf?version=1779066150" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W3196387838", "doi": "10.1007/978-3-030-68655-0_27", "title": "A Drone System for Detecting, Classifying and Monitoring Solid Wastes Using Computer Vision Techniques in the Context of a Smart Cities Logistics Systems", "year": 2021, "publication_date": "2021-01-01", "type": "book-chapter", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Adrian Ramirez-Lopez", "Alberto Cortes-González", "Gilberto Ochoa‐Ruiz", "Alberto Ochoa", "Lina María Aguilar-Lobo", "Diego Moreno-Jacobo", "Christian Mata" ], "first_author": "Adrian Ramirez-Lopez", "venue": "Lecture notes in intelligent transportation and infrastructure", "publisher": "Springer International Publishing", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Drone", "Context (archaeology)", "Computer science", "Engineering", "Artificial intelligence", "Computer security", "Geography" ], "cited_by_count": 2, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68655-0_27" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W3150294226", "doi": "10.1145/3448079", "title": "Efficient Schedule of Energy-Constrained UAV Using Crowdsourced Buses in Last-Mile Parcel Delivery", "year": 2021, "publication_date": "2021-03-19", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Yan Pan", "Shining Li", "Qianwu Chen", "Nan Zhang", "Tao Cheng", "Zhigang Li", "Bin Guo", "Qingye Han", "Ting Zhu" ], "first_author": "Yan Pan", "venue": "Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive Mobile Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies", "publisher": "Association for Computing Machinery", "abstract": "Stimulated by the dramatical service demand in the logistics industry, logistics trucks employed in last-mile parcel delivery bring critical public concerns, such as heavy cost burden, traffic congestion and air pollution. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are a promising alternative tool in last-mile delivery, which is however limited by insufficient flight range and load capacity. This paper presents an innovative energy-limited logistics UAV schedule approach using crowdsourced buses. Specifically, when one UAV delivers a parcel, it first lands on a crowdsourced social bus to parcel destination, gets recharged by the wireless recharger deployed on the bus, and then flies from the bus to the parcel destination. This novel approach not only increases the delivery range and load capacity of battery-limited UAVs, but is also much more cost-effective and environment-friendly than traditional methods. New challenges therefore emerge as the buses with spatiotemporal mobility become the bottleneck during delivery. By landing on buses, an Energy-Neutral Flight Principle and a delivery scheduling algorithm are proposed for the UAVs. Using the Energy-Neutral Flight Principle, each UAV can plan a flying path without depleting energy given buses with uncertain velocities. Besides, the delivery scheduling algorithm optimizes the delivery time and number of delivered parcels given warehouse location, logistics UAVs, parcel locations and buses. Comprehensive evaluations using a large-scale bus dataset demonstrate the superiority of the innovative logistics UAV schedule approach.", "keywords": [ "Schedule", "Last mile (transportation)", "Truck", "Transport engineering", "Bottleneck", "Computer science", "Scheduling (production processes)", "Battery capacity", "Mile", "Automotive engineering", "Engineering", "Battery (electricity)" ], "cited_by_count": 48, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1145/3448079" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4297626330", "doi": "10.1061/9780784484265.125", "title": "Prediction of Green Development of Urban Freight Transportation Based on “Carbon Peak” and “Carbon Neutral” Goals", "year": 2022, "publication_date": "2022-09-08", "type": "conference-paper", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Ran An", "Shuzhen Feng" ], "first_author": "Ran An", "venue": "CICTP 2022", "publisher": null, "abstract": "Around the target of “peak carbon dioxide emissions” “carbon neutrality” for urban transportation and the target of deep emission reduction path, various cities have introduced corresponding policies to promote the low-carbon and green development of urban freight transportation. Based on the statistical data of transportation industry, this paper deeply analyzes the status quo of types, quantity, energy consumption and carbon emission of urban freight vehicles. Consider combining industry development and achieve carbon up to the peak, in the framework of scenario analysis method, based on the regression analysis method, fitting the data and predicting the future energy consumption and carbon emission reduction targets of urban freight in 2035, under the natural situation, the general policy, the strong policy such three situations. And put forward work priorities and policy recommendations for different scenarios. Promote the development of green freight transport in cities, accelerate the green and low-carbon transformation of the urban transport industry, and promote the sustainable and high-quality development of the industry.", "keywords": [ "Carbon fibers", "Transport engineering", "Environmental science", "Computer science", "Engineering", "Algorithm" ], "cited_by_count": 1, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784484265.125" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W2055141228", "doi": "10.2495/ut080571", "title": "A fixed-point model and algorithms for simulating urban freight distribution in a multimodal context with crossed congestion", "year": 2008, "publication_date": "2008-08-15", "type": "conference-paper", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Luca D’Acierno", "Mariano Gallo", "Bruno Montella" ], "first_author": "Luca D’Acierno", "venue": "WIT transactions on the built environment", "publisher": "WIT Press", "abstract": "Urban road networks are generally shared by at least three different kinds of vehicles: private cars, buses and freight vehicles.These vehicle categories influence their travel times reciprocally (the crossed congestion phenomenon).Hence, in order to simulate the performance of urban road networks, it is worth developing a multimodal assignment model that takes into account the effects of reciprocal influences among vehicles on user travel choices (at least on mode and path choices).In this paper, we extend the model proposed in a previous paper to the case of urban freight distribution simulation, considering crossed congestion among all considered transportation systems.The proposed model is tested on a real dimension network adopting three algorithmic approaches (external, internal and hyper-network) for its solution and comparing their performances in terms of calculation times and result reliability.Finally, we discuss the effects of crossed congestion on freight path choices and the influences of freight vehicle presence on (road and transit) user choices.", "keywords": [ "Context (archaeology)", "Computer science", "Multimodal transport", "Traffic congestion", "Transport engineering", "Dimension (graph theory)", "Mode (computer interface)", "Order (exchange)", "Point (geometry)", "Path (computing)", "Reliability (semiconductor)", "Reciprocal" ], "cited_by_count": 1, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "http://www.witpress.com/Secure/elibrary/papers/UT08/UT08057FU1.pdf" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4382651503", "doi": "10.1007/s10287-023-00453-3", "title": "Enabling same-day delivery using a drone resupply model with transshipment points", "year": 2023, "publication_date": "2023-05-08", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Mohammad Moshref‐Javadi", "Kristof P. Van Cauwenberghe", "Brent A. McCunney", "Ahmad Hemmati" ], "first_author": "Mohammad Moshref‐Javadi", "venue": "Computational Management Science", "publisher": "Springer Science+Business Media", "abstract": "Abstract We study a hybrid logistics delivery model which incorporates trucks and drones. In this model, named the Drone Resupply Model with Transshipment Points (DRMTP), drones are used to resupply transshipment points where trucks visit to pick up packages for delivery to customers. A simulation model is developed to simulate the delivery operations. The model is evaluated in two case studies in an urban area and a suburban area in Massachusetts, USA. Using this resupply model, the average delivery time is reduced compared to the conventional truck-only delivery model. The experimental results in the suburban region show that the DRMTP model with one transshipment point achieves 36% lower delivery time compared to the truck-only model. In the urban region, the model with four transshipment points obtains 66% delivery time reduction compared to the truck-only model. The results indicate that the proposed model can be used to enhance the efficiency of the last-mile delivery operations.", "keywords": [ "Transshipment (information security)", "Truck", "Drone", "Computer science", "Delivery Performance", "Operations research", "Point (geometry)", "Location model", "Transport engineering", "Simulation", "Engineering", "Automotive engineering" ], "cited_by_count": 16, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10287-023-00453-3.pdf" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W7167191376", "doi": null, "title": "Optimizing Last-Mile Delivery with Hybrid Truck-Drone Systems: A Predictive Traffic MILP Framework", "year": 2024, "publication_date": "2024-01-01", "type": "dissertation", "language": "en", "authors": [ " Shihab" ], "first_author": " Shihab", "venue": "Research Publication Repository of King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals)", "publisher": "King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Component (thermodynamics)", "Stability (learning theory)", "Context (archaeology)", "Key (lock)", "Hybrid system" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://eprints.kfupm.edu.sa/id/eprint/143171/1/Shihab_Hasan%20Master%20Thesis.pdf" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4290660010", "doi": "10.1038/d41586-022-02101-3", "title": "Drones bearing parcels deliver big carbon savings", "year": 2022, "publication_date": "2022-08-05", "type": "other", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Freda Kreier" ], "first_author": "Freda Kreier", "venue": "Nature", "publisher": "Nature Portfolio", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Drone", "Truck", "Mile", "Diesel fuel", "Last mile (transportation)", "Food delivery", "Environmental science", "Aeronautics", "Business", "Engineering", "Automotive engineering", "Geography" ], "cited_by_count": 7, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-02101-3" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W7163018740", "doi": "10.1080/21681015.2026.2678971", "title": "Data-driven robust optimization model for hybrid truck-drone last-mile delivery logistics", "year": 2026, "publication_date": "2026-06-01", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Reza Ahmadi Malakoot", "Rashed Sahraeian" ], "first_author": "Reza Ahmadi Malakoot", "venue": "Journal of Industrial and Production Engineering", "publisher": "Taylor & Francis", "abstract": "This research proposes a robust optimization model for a hybrid truck-drone delivery system under uncertain drone battery performance. The model introduces a one-to-one truck-drone pairing structure and formulates a hierarchical bi-objective mixed-integer linear program to (1) minimize the required fleet size and (2) minimize the total return time. A novel data-driven uncertainty modeling approach is employed, leveraging piecewise linear support vector clustering to formulate realistic uncertainty sets and mitigate over-conservatism. Findings from a real-world case study illustrate the model’s ability to maintain solution quality under uncertainty. Eliminating drones increases both truck count and delivery time by over 23%, highlighting the operational benefits of drone integration. This work advances last-mile logistics research by combining machine learning and robust optimization to address performance-risk trade-offs in hybrid delivery systems.", "keywords": [ "Robust optimization", "Robustness (evolution)", "Work (physics)", "Optimization problem", "Genetic algorithm" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1080/21681015.2026.2678971" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W7204125503", "doi": "10.17632/rv2c7768hp.1", "title": "Replication package: Flight Authorization Limits Emissions Abatement in Truck--Drone Last-Mile Delivery", "year": 2026, "publication_date": "2026-08-24", "type": "dataset", "language": null, "authors": [ "Armin Mahmoodi", "Mehdi Davoodi", "Seyed Mojtaba Sajadi", "Elnaz Torkamani", "Said M. Easa" ], "first_author": "Armin Mahmoodi", "venue": "Mendeley Data", "publisher": null, "abstract": "Code and results supporting the article of the same name, on how airspace flight authorization limits the emissions abatement achievable by hybrid truck-drone last-mile delivery. The code implements a multi-objective truck-UAV routing model in which emissions are an output of the routing decision rather than an assumption about it: a momentum-theory energy model with payload dependence in place of a distance proxy, well-to-wheel emissions accounting, an explicit truck-only counterfactual solved on the same instances, and SORA-derived authorization limits entering as arc eligibility. Twelve operating scenarios vary the authorization ceiling, population density, and whether a sheltering mitigation is claimed, repeated across five independently generated service areas. Solutions come from NSGA-II and MOPSO over a shared random-key encoding, validated against proven optima from a mixed-integer program on small instances. CONTENTS. code/ holds the model package (tdrp/) and the scripts that produce every reported result: run_multigeo.py for the main experiment, run_evan.py for the electric-van counterfactual, seed_scaling.py for the measurement-resolution diagnostic, run_validation.py and test_validation.py for validation against exact optima, and make_figs_multigeo.py, make_figs_converged.py and make_fronts.py for the figures. results/ holds the result files behind every table and figure. ASSUMPTIONS_REGISTER.md documents each modelling choice and its provenance. The reported emissions results are in results/results_multigeo_50seed.json: five service areas, twelve scenarios each, 2000 generations, 50 seeds, with the truck-only counterfactual solved once per seed and selected on minimum cost. Reproduction requires Python 3.10 or newer with NumPy pinned to 2.4.4; NumPy gives no guarantee that its random streams are stable across versions, so a different version changes every seeded run. code/HOW_TO_RUN.md gives step-by-step commands, the expected output at each stage, and the values to check against. Instances are determined entirely by customer count, scenario and random seed, so any result regenerates exactly on a matching environment.", "keywords": [ "Counterfactual thinking", "Population", "Payload (computing)", "Python (programming language)", "Scripting language", "Replication (statistics)", "Greenhouse gas" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.17632/rv2c7768hp.1" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W7164652649", "doi": "10.5281/zenodo.20682275", "title": "Trained models — Cooperative Truck-Drone Last-Mile Delivery via Graph-Attention MARL", "year": 2026, "publication_date": "2026-06-13", "type": "dataset", "language": null, "authors": [ "Muzzamil Mustafa" ], "first_author": "Muzzamil Mustafa", "venue": "Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)", "publisher": "European Organization for Nuclear Research", "abstract": "Trained GAT-MARL model weights (one per Solomon VRPTW instance, best seed; 56 files) used to produce the GAT-MARL and hybrid GAT-MARL-LS results in the associated repository. Extract into data/models/ to reproduce inference without retraining.", "keywords": [ "Inference", "Artificial neural network", "Hybrid system", "Expert system" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20682275" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4413346427", "doi": "10.2139/ssrn.5388230", "title": "Evaluating the Energy Savings from Truck-drone Hybrid Last-mile Delivery in Arbitrary Cities", "year": 2025, "publication_date": "2025-01-01", "type": "preprint", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Seunghyun Baik", "Steven M. Willits", "Sebastian Scherer", "Junfeng Jiao", "Peter Yun Zhang" ], "first_author": "Seunghyun Baik", "venue": "SSRN Electronic Journal", "publisher": "RELX Group (Netherlands)", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Mile", "Drone", "Truck", "Last mile (transportation)", "Aeronautics", "Transport engineering", "Energy (signal processing)", "Computer science", "Automotive engineering", "Engineering", "Business", "Geography" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5388230" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W7164686910", "doi": "10.5281/zenodo.20682276", "title": "Trained models — Cooperative Truck-Drone Last-Mile Delivery via Graph-Attention MARL", "year": 2026, "publication_date": "2026-06-13", "type": "dataset", "language": null, "authors": [ "Muzzamil Mustafa" ], "first_author": "Muzzamil Mustafa", "venue": "Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)", "publisher": "European Organization for Nuclear Research", "abstract": "Trained GAT-MARL model weights (one per Solomon VRPTW instance, best seed; 56 files) used to produce the GAT-MARL and hybrid GAT-MARL-LS results in the associated repository. Extract into data/models/ to reproduce inference without retraining.", "keywords": [ "Inference", "Artificial neural network", "Hybrid system", "Expert system" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20682276" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4389889225", "doi": "10.46254/ap04.20230137", "title": "A MILP Model for Single Depot, Single Truck and Multiple Drones for Last-Mile Delivery Problem", "year": 2023, "publication_date": "2023-09-12", "type": "conference-paper", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Saloni Jangid", "Rupkatha Ghosh", "Muthu Mathirajan" ], "first_author": "Saloni Jangid", "venue": null, "publisher": null, "abstract": "The high volume of daily e-commerce shipments in major urban areas require today's technology of drones for lastmile delivery (LMD) of parcels.The traditional method of delivering parcels using trucks is time-consuming due to traffic congestion, impeding their timely delivery.On the other hand, drones can avoid traffic congestion by flying over road networks.However, drones have a limited flight endurance due to their battery capacity constraints.At the same time, trucks possess long-haul capabilities.Hence, for achieving an efficient LMD, both trucks and drones should be integrated to offset each other's disadvantages.This paper addresses one such truck-drone based last-mile delivery (TD-LMD) problem.There are plenty of studies which have investigated TD-LMD problem with different configurations.For our study, we examine the TD-LMD problems involving single depot, single truck and multiple drones (SD-ST-MD) configuration.In the literature, various researchers have used mathematical models and heuristics to address this problem.In our study, we consider one Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP) model given in the existing literature for the TD-LMD problem with SD-ST-MD configuration and relax one of their assumptions to give it a new dimension.In the process of extending the MILP model, we also introduce the CO2 emission cost along with the economic cost for optimizing the TD-LMD problem.Accordingly, the workability of the MILP model is tested using a tiny numerical example and solved through developing a code in the Python-MILP solver module.Further, the computational complexity is analyzed by increasing the number of nodes in the SD-ST-MD based TD-LMD problem.", "keywords": [ "Last mile (transportation)", "Mile", "Truck", "Drone", "Computer science", "Depot", "Transport engineering", "Engineering", "Automotive engineering", "Geography" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://ieomsociety.org/proceedings/2023vietnam/137.pdf" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W3124145329", "doi": "10.2139/ssrn.3338436", "title": "The Multiple Flying Sidekicks Traveling Salesman Problem: Parcel Delivery with Multiple Drones", "year": 2019, "publication_date": "2019-01-01", "type": "preprint", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Chase C. Murray", "Ritwik Raj" ], "first_author": "Chase C. Murray", "venue": "SSRN Electronic Journal", "publisher": "RELX Group (Netherlands)", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Travelling salesman problem", "Drone", "Computer science", "Aeronautics", "Operations research", "Engineering", "Biology", "Algorithm" ], "cited_by_count": 21, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3338436" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4386395528", "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2308.16408", "title": "Last Mile Delivery with Drones and Sharing Economy", "year": 2023, "publication_date": "2023-08-31", "type": "preprint", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Mehdi Behroozi", "Dinghao Ma" ], "first_author": "Mehdi Behroozi", "venue": "arXiv (Cornell University)", "publisher": "Cornell University", "abstract": "We consider a combined system of regular delivery trucks and crowdsourced drones, available via a sharing economy platform, to provide a technology-assisted crowd-based last-mile delivery experience. We develop analytical models and methods for a system in which package delivery is performed by a big truck carrying many packages to a neighborhood or a town in a metropolitan area and then the packages are assigned to crowdsourced drone operators to deliver them to their final destinations. We develop several optimization models for various cases of the problem and use a combination of heuristic algorithms to solve this NP-hard problem. Finally, we present computational results for the models and algorithms, and conduct an exhaustive sensitivity analysis to check the influence of different parameters and assumptions on the final results. We also provide extensive managerial insights on the benefits of our proposed model if implemented in practice.", "keywords": [ "Drone", "Computer science", "Truck", "Heuristic", "Last mile (transportation)", "Metropolitan area", "Crowdsourcing", "Sharing economy", "Operations research", "Mile", "Engineering", "Artificial intelligence" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2308.16408" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4392224200", "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2402.16085", "title": "Online Drone Scheduling for Last-mile Delivery", "year": 2024, "publication_date": "2024-02-25", "type": "preprint", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Saswata Jana", "Giuseppe Francesco Italiano", "Manas Jyoti Kashyop", "Athanasios L. Konstantinidis", "Evangelos Kosinas", "Partha Sarathi Mandal" ], "first_author": "Saswata Jana", "venue": "arXiv (Cornell University)", "publisher": "Cornell University", "abstract": "Delivering a parcel from the distribution hub to the customer's doorstep is called the \\textit{last-mile delivery} step in delivery logistics. In this paper, we study a hybrid {\\it truck-drones} model for the last-mile delivery step, in which a truck moves on a predefined path carrying parcels and drones deliver the parcels. We define the \\textsc{online drone scheduling} problem, where the truck moves in a predefined path, and the customer's requests appear online during the truck's movement. The objective is to schedule a drone associated with every request to minimize the number of drones used subject to the battery budget of the drones and compatibility of the schedules. We propose a 3-competitive deterministic algorithm using the next-fit strategy and 2.7-competitive algorithms using the first-fit strategy for the problem with $O(\\log n)$ worst-case time complexity per request, where $n$ is the maximum number of active requests at any time. We also introduce \\textsc{online variable-size drone scheduling} problem (OVDS). Here, we know all the customer's requests in advance; however, the drones with different battery capacities appear online. The objective is to schedule customers' requests for drones to minimize the number of drones used. We propose a $(2α+ 1)$-competitive algorithm for the OVDS problem with total running time $O(n \\log n)$ for $n$ customer requests, where $α$ is the ratio of the maximum battery capacity to the minimum battery capacity of the drones. Finally, we address how to generate intervals corresponding to each customer request when there are discrete stopping points on the truck's route, from where the drone can fly and meet with the truck.", "keywords": [ "Drone", "Mile", "Last mile (transportation)", "Scheduling (production processes)", "Computer science", "Aeronautics", "Engineering", "Operations management", "Geography" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2402.16085" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W7106301516", "doi": "10.1061/jtepbs.teeng-8914", "title": "Exploring Spatial Patterns of Intracity Heavy-Duty Truck Flows in Shanghai Using Large-Scale Trajectory Data: A VSTC-TPS Approach", "year": 2025, "publication_date": "2025-11-22", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Xinghua Li", "Tianzuo Wang", "Yuntao Guo" ], "first_author": "Xinghua Li", "venue": "Journal of Transportation Engineering Part A Systems", "publisher": "American Society of Civil Engineers", "abstract": "Heavy-duty trucks (HDTs) are crucial to the logistics system, and understanding their activity patterns is key for improving logistics performance and addressing challenges in economic, environmental, and infrastructure planning. A critical first step is to pinpoint the specifics of HDT stops—when, where, how long, and why they occur. However, existing methods, whether based on vehicle trajectories or surveys, are limited in processing speed and/or accuracy. This paper proposes the velocity-originated spatio-temporal clustering of trajectory point sequences (VSTC-TPS) method, which effectively uses both spatial and temporal dimensions of GPS data while also having a self-adaptive threshold to account for the diversity in GPS data quality of different HDTs. This method was tested using a data set of 712 million GPS records from more than 100,000 HDTs, representing all HDT operations in Shanghai, China, over a single week. The VSTC-TPS method demonstrated superior performance in terms of speed and accuracy when compared with several existing methods, as validated by ground truth data. Additionally, a network community detection method is applied to the vehicle stops identified by VSTC-TPS as potential applications of this method, revealing significant logistical connections and distinct freight communities within Shanghai. The proposed VSTC-TPS method supports more informed decision making among stakeholders in the logistics sector and provides valuable insights that contribute to sustainable urban development and the welfare of city inhabitants. It offers a comprehensive tool for enhancing the efficiency of urban freight systems and reducing their environmental impact, thereby supporting the development of smarter, safer, and more sustainable cities.", "keywords": [ "Global Positioning System", "Trajectory", "Truck", "Cluster analysis", "Set (abstract data type)", "Key (lock)", "Point (geometry)", "Quality (philosophy)" ], "cited_by_count": 1, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1061/jtepbs.teeng-8914" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4404304659", "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2410.17392", "title": "Experimental Designs for Optimizing Last-Mile Delivery", "year": 2024, "publication_date": "2024-10-22", "type": "preprint", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Nicholas Rios", "Jie Xu" ], "first_author": "Nicholas Rios", "venue": "arXiv (Cornell University)", "publisher": "Cornell University", "abstract": "Companies like Amazon and UPS are heavily invested in last-mile delivery problems. Optimizing last-delivery operations not only creates tremendous cost savings for these companies but also generate broader societal and environmental benefits in terms of better delivery service and reduced air pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions. Last-mile delivery is readily formulated as the Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP), where a salesperson must visit several cities and return to the origin with the least cost. A solution to this problem is a Hamiltonian circuit in an undirected graph. Many methods exist for solving the TSP, but they often assume the travel costs are fixed. In practice, travel costs between delivery zones are random quantities, as they are subject to variation from traffic, weather, and other factors. Innovations such as truck-drone last-mile delivery creates even more uncertainties due to scarce data. A Bayesian D-optimal experimental design in conjunction with a regression model are proposed to estimate these unknown travel costs, and subsequently search for a highly efficient solution to the TSP. This framework can naturally be extended to incorporate the use of drones and any other emerging technology that has use in last-mile delivery.", "keywords": [ "Mile", "Last mile (transportation)", "Computer science", "Geography", "Geodesy" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2410.17392" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W7120074006", "doi": "10.3390/fi18010045", "title": "Linearization Strategies for Energy-Aware Optimization of Single-Truck, Multiple-Drone Last-Mile Delivery Systems", "year": 2026, "publication_date": "2026-01-09", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Ornela Gordani", "Eglantina Kalluçi", "Fatos Xhafa" ], "first_author": "Ornela Gordani", "venue": "Future Internet", "publisher": "Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute", "abstract": "The increasing demand for rapid and sustainable parcel delivery has motivated the exploration of innovative logistics systems that integrate drones with traditional ground vehicles. Among these, the single-truck, multiple-drone last-mile delivery configuration has attracted significant attention due to its potential to reduce both delivery time and environmental impact. However, optimizing such systems remains computationally challenging because of the nonlinear energy consumption behavior of drones, which depends on factors such as payload weight and travel time, among others. This study investigates the energy-aware optimization of truck–drone collaborative delivery systems, with a particular focus on the mathematical formulation as mixed-integer nonlinear problem (MINLP) formulations and linearization of drone energy consumption constraints. Building upon prior models proposed in the literature in the field, we analyze the MINLP computational complexity and introduce alternative linearization strategies that preserve model accuracy while improving performance solvability. The resulting linearized mixed-integer linear problem (MILP) formulations are solved using the PuLP software, a Python library solver, to evaluate the efficacy of linearization on computation time and solution quality across diverse problem instance sizes from a benchmark of instances in the literature. Thus, extensive computational results drawn from a standard dataset benchmark from the literature by running the solver in a cluster infrastructure demonstrated that the designed linearization methods can reduce optimization time of nonlinear solvers to several orders of magnitude without compromising energy estimation accuracy, enabling the model to handle larger problem instances effectively. This performance improvement opens the door to a real-time or near-real-time solution of the problem, allowing the delivery system to dynamically react to operational changes and uncertainties during delivery.", "keywords": [ "Linearization", "Solver", "Benchmark (surveying)", "Energy consumption", "Computation", "Nonlinear system", "Optimization problem" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/18/1/45/pdf?version=1767967836" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4404882388", "doi": "10.1016/j.tre.2024.103877", "title": "Logic-based benders decomposition algorithm for robust parallel drone scheduling problem considering uncertain travel times for drones", "year": 2024, "publication_date": "2024-11-30", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Shakoor Barzanjeh", "Fardin Ahmadizar", "Jamal Arkat" ], "first_author": "Shakoor Barzanjeh", "venue": "Transportation Research Part E Logistics and Transportation Review", "publisher": "Elsevier BV", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Drone", "Benders' decomposition", "Scheduling (production processes)", "Decomposition", "Computer science", "Mathematical optimization", "Algorithm", "Operations research", "Engineering", "Mathematics" ], "cited_by_count": 20, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tre.2024.103877" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4410829345", "doi": "10.52783/jisem.v10i49s.10103", "title": "\"Scalable Truck-Drone Coordination with Reinforcement Learning: Toward Real-Time Last-Mile Delivery Optimization\"", "year": 2025, "publication_date": "2025-05-23", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Ali Abdul Razzaq Taresh" ], "first_author": "Ali Abdul Razzaq Taresh", "venue": "Journal of Information Systems Engineering & Management", "publisher": "Lectito Journals", "abstract": "The study offers a new reinforcement learning contour to adapt the traveling seller problem with a drone (TSP-D), which faces challenges in final delivery logistics. The proposed method benefits from a near proximal political adaptation (PPO) combined with a deep remaining forward nerve architecture to effectively coordinate truck-drainage operations. A large contribution lies in extended state representation, which integrates the position of transit, the remaining travel time and viable drone-causal nodes, which use the algorithm of Dijkstra. The model was evaluated under two scenarios: unlimited and limited drone area. The results show calculation performance on better routing efficiency, solution quality and benchmark algorithms. PPO ensures policy stability and effective learning in a complex urban environment. The residual architecture reduces the disappearance of the disappearance, which enables intensive network training. This approach supports scalable and intelligent decision -making for drone -assisted logistics. The study helps to promote real -time, data -driven distribution systems for final measurement.", "keywords": [ "Drone", "Truck", "Reinforcement learning", "Scalability", "Mile", "Last mile (transportation)", "Computer science", "Reinforcement", "Engineering", "Artificial intelligence", "Automotive engineering", "Operating system" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://jisem-journal.com/index.php/journal/article/download/10103/4643" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4417066762", "doi": "10.2139/ssrn.5871916", "title": "A Bi-Level Heuristic Approach for the Truck-Drone Last-Mile Delivery Problem with Dynamic PID Control", "year": 2025, "publication_date": "2025-01-01", "type": "preprint", "language": null, "authors": [ "Heictor Costa", "Fernando José Von Zuben" ], "first_author": "Heictor Costa", "venue": "SSRN Electronic Journal", "publisher": "RELX Group (Netherlands)", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Control theory (sociology)", "Heuristic", "Control (management)", "Control system", "PID controller", "Optimal control" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5871916" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4404959403", "doi": "10.1016/j.ejor.2024.11.040", "title": "The location routing problem with time windows and load-dependent travel times for cargo bikes", "year": 2024, "publication_date": "2024-12-03", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Alexander Rave", "Pirmin Fontaine" ], "first_author": "Alexander Rave", "venue": "European Journal of Operational Research", "publisher": "Elsevier BV", "abstract": "Last-mile delivery with traditional delivery trucks is ecologically unfriendly and leads to high road utilization. Thus, cities seek for different delivery options to solve these problems. One promising option is the use of cargo bikes in last-mile delivery. These bikes are typically released at micro hubs, which are small containers or facilities located at advantageous places in the city center. Since the bike’s travel speed depends on its remaining load and the street gradient, placing the hubs at valleys might cause additional work for rides. Therefore, the following question arises: How high is the impact of load-dependent travel times on micro hubs’ cost-optimal placements? To answer this question, we introduce the location routing problem with time windows and load-dependent travel times. We formulate the problem as a mixed-integer linear program and introduce an adaptive large neighborhood search with a problem-specific procedure for micro hub placements and problem-specific operators to solve larger instances. In a numerical study, we find that load-dependent travel times significantly influence the location of hubs, following that hubs with a higher elevation are preferably used. Moreover, customers are served from hubs with a similar elevation. This would not be the case if load-dependent travel times are ignored, resulting in an increase in costs by up to 2.7 or, instead, to up to 26 infeasible solutions as time windows are not adhered to.", "keywords": [ "Vehicle routing problem", "Computer science", "Routing (electronic design automation)", "Travel time", "Mathematical optimization", "Operations research", "Transport engineering", "Mathematics", "Computer network", "Engineering" ], "cited_by_count": 19, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2024.11.040" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W2302653306", "doi": "10.14288/1.0072868", "title": "Integrating goods delivery with electrical surface transit networks : the Trum strategy for urban freight transport in Vancouver and elsewhere", "year": 2012, "publication_date": "2012-01-01", "type": "dissertation", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Simon L'Allier" ], "first_author": "Simon L'Allier", "venue": "cIRcle (University of British Columbia)", "publisher": "University of British Columbia", "abstract": "This thesis examines a way to integrate goods movement with Light Rail Transit (LRT) and trolleybus networks used for public transit. In essence, this implies the use of a new concept vehicle to deliver goods within urban areas, named the Trum, for its hybrid nature between a truck and a tramway, that connects with electrical infrastructure also used to power surface transit vehicles. The approach taken in this research is exploratory as its main objectives are to explore the challenges and opportunities related to such an integration, and to present the characteristics of the Trum, a new concept vehicle on which this new approach is based. To grasp the possibilities of implementing such a system in a more tangible manner, the region of Vancouver is used as an example and a reference case throughout the thesis. The general research question answered by this thesis is: could goods movement be effectively integrated with public transport electrical network? Chapter 1 – Introduction sets the context that calls for the integration of goods and people transport, and explains the benefits of using a Trum system rather than vehicles powered with alternative technologies using natural gas, electric batteries or hydrogen fuel cells. Chapter 2 – Freight Transport examines trends and figures of goods movement at different levels of data aggregation. Chapter 3 – Unconventional LRT Uses presents examples non-conventional uses of tramway vehicles by European cities that are using, or have used trams to transport goods within their urban areas. Chapter 4 – The Trum introduces the Trum, a concept vehicle compatible with LRT and trolleybus infrastructure and intended for urban goods delivery, and compares the costs of trumming against those of trucking under different scenarios. Chapter 5 – Vancouver Trum City examines the potential application of a Trum system in Vancouver and its implications for the electrification of TransLink`s surface transit network. Chapter 6 – Conclusion summarizes the rationale articulated in the five preceding chapters and proposes policy measures that would help overcome implementation and operational barriers to make Trum concept a reality.", "keywords": [ "Transit (satellite)", "Transport engineering", "Computer science", "Public transport", "Engineering" ], "cited_by_count": 1, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "http://hdl.handle.net/2429/42629" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W3089136847", "doi": null, "title": "CO2 Emissions of Innovative Last Mile Delivery Solutions", "year": 2020, "publication_date": "2020-08-06", "type": "other", "language": "en", "authors": [ "F. F. Egorov" ], "first_author": "F. F. Egorov", "venue": "DSpace@MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)", "publisher": "Massachusetts Institute of Technology", "abstract": "This work studies the impact of innovative last mile delivery solutions on the amount of produced CO2 emissions. An innovative last mile delivery solution is defined as a truck that carries a drone and together in tandem the truck and drone deliver parcels to the set of customers. The problem of finding the optimal route to serve customers by the truck and drone tandem is known as Travelling Salesman Problem with Drone (TSPD). However, all previously developed approaches for solving TSP-D do not consider the time dependent nature of the problem when the speed of the truck is affected by traffic congestion, infrastructure constraints, etc. To address this task, the genetic algorithm for solving a time dependent TSP-D was developed. The input information for the time dependent TSP-D algorithm is derived through “Simulation of Urban Mobility\" (SUMO) software. SUMO allows realistic simulation of the various infrastructure constraints and calculation of the information required for the time dependent TSP-D algorithm. The computational experiments show that the truck and drone tandem can significantly (more than twice) shorten the delivery time in congested urban areas. The sensitivity analysis reveals that drone speed does not considerably affect delivery time or the amount of produced CO2 emissions. Ultimately this study demonstrates that using the truck and drone tandem contributes to shorter delivery time and less CO2 emissions and provides the model for assessing these benefits.", "keywords": [ "Mile", "Last mile (transportation)", "Environmental science", "Business", "Geography" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/126491" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4407556849", "doi": "10.30574/ijsra.2025.14.2.0391", "title": "Solar powered coordinated drone for last mile delivery", "year": 2025, "publication_date": "2025-02-12", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Olakunle Abimbola Kumuyi" ], "first_author": "Olakunle Abimbola Kumuyi", "venue": "International Journal of Science and Research Archive", "publisher": "GSC Online Press", "abstract": "The rapid growth of e-commerce and urban logistics has intensified challenges in last-mile delivery, including traffic congestion, high operational costs, payload limitation for single drones, and environmental impacts. This study proposes a solar-powered coordinated drone system to address these issues by leveraging renewable energy and multi-drone collaboration. The research focuses on four objectives: (1) developing a coordinated drone system capable of transporting heavy payloads for greater payload capabilities, (2) optimizing energy efficiency through solar panel integration and advanced battery technologies, and (3) calculate environmental impact reduction achieved by using solar-powered, (4) hybrid methodology combining system design, energy consumption modeling, and environmental impact analysis was employed to evaluate technical feasibility and sustainability. (6) Mathematical models for solar energy harvesting, thrust requirements, and power management were developed to optimize payload capacity and flight range. Results indicate that when compared to using fossil-fueled delivery for payloads beyond the capabilities of a single small delivery drone, using coordinated drones instead can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 80% compared to fossil-fueled delivery trucks, with operational costs decreasing by 30-40%. Key innovations include dynamic solar charging analysis, application of Green Vehicle Routing Problem (GVRP) Model for route optimization, and Environmental Impact Analysis (Sustainability Assessment). Challenges such as solar panel efficiency constraints (15-30%), temperature impacts on energy generation. Power and Battery Capacity Relationship. The study concludes that solar-powered coordinated drones offer a scalable, eco-friendly alternative to traditional logistics, aligning with global sustainability goals. Future research should explore advanced solar materials, regulatory frameworks, and AI-driven traffic management to enhance adoption. This work contributes to the evolution of sustainable urban logistics, emphasizing reduced carbon footprints for payloads beyond the capabilities of a single drone, cost efficiency, and improved customer satisfaction through rapid, reliable deliveries.", "keywords": [ "Drone", "Mile", "Last mile (transportation)", "Solar powered", "Aeronautics", "Computer science", "Engineering", "Telecommunications", "Electrical engineering", "Solar energy", "Physics", "Biology" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://journalijsra.com/sites/default/files/fulltext_pdf/IJSRA-2025-0391.pdf" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W641500426", "doi": "10.3141/2478-02", "title": "Impacts of Environmental Access Restrictions on Freight Delivery Activities", "year": 2015, "publication_date": "2015-01-01", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Lætitia Dablanc", "Antoine Montenon" ], "first_author": "Lætitia Dablanc", "venue": "Transportation Research Record Journal of the Transportation Research Board", "publisher": "SAGE Publishing", "abstract": "This study identified the position of goods vehicles in European low emissions zones (LEZs) and analyzed the impact of the access restrictions on transport and logistics firms and on their logistics activities. LEZs are delimited areas of a city or metropolitan area from which the vehicles that pollute the most are banned. Targeted vehicles are often freight vehicles as a result of the high levels of pollution emitted by today's urban delivery fleets. Through a literature review, interviews, and two specific surveys in London and Berlin, analysis of LEZ impacts on the urban freight industry was conducted. The creation of an LEZ was shown to reduce the number of firms making urban deliveries, and this reduction has probably benefited the urban freight market by compelling both public and private stakeholders to finds ways to promote more efficient activities. Such modernization is necessary because the urban freight market is dysfunctional: environmentally because of the old vehicles used until now and socially because of the many small firms that find it difficult to maintain a sufficient level of business activity without breaking the freight sector's labor laws and safety standards.", "keywords": [ "Metropolitan area", "Business", "Modernization theory", "City logistics", "Traffic management", "Position (finance)", "Market access", "Transport engineering", "Economic growth", "Finance", "Economics", "Engineering" ], "cited_by_count": 54, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://hal.science/hal-01252291" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W2020147819", "doi": "10.1016/s0041-1647(69)80022-5", "title": "The minimum route problem for networks with turn penalties and prohibitions", "year": 1969, "publication_date": "1969-09-01", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "R F Kirby", "Renfrey B. Potts" ], "first_author": "R F Kirby", "venue": "Transportation Research", "publisher": "Elsevier BV", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Computer science", "Traffic congestion", "Routing (electronic design automation)", "Service (business)", "Queue", "Operations research", "Metropolitan area", "Queueing theory", "Representation (politics)", "Scheme (mathematics)", "Transport engineering", "Mathematical optimization" ], "cited_by_count": 85, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s0041-1647(69)80022-5" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4226125435", "doi": "10.2139/ssrn.4060911", "title": "Rich Arc Routing Problem in City Logistics: Models and Solution Algorithms Using a Fluid Queue-Based Time-Dependent Travel Time Representation", "year": 2022, "publication_date": "2022-01-01", "type": "preprint", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Jiawei Lu", "Qinghui Nie", "Monirehalsadat Mahmoudi", "Jishun Ou", "Chongnan Li", "Xuesong Zhou" ], "first_author": "Jiawei Lu", "venue": "SSRN Electronic Journal", "publisher": "RELX Group (Netherlands)", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Arc routing", "Queue", "Arc (geometry)", "Representation (politics)", "Computer science", "Routing (electronic design automation)", "Algorithm", "Mathematical optimization", "Mathematics", "Computer network", "Geometry" ], "cited_by_count": 2, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4060911" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W7119131252", "doi": "10.1080/23302674.2025.2611333", "title": "Sustainable last-mile delivery with drones and on-demand outsourcing", "year": 2026, "publication_date": "2026-01-06", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Shouvik Bhattacharyya", "Shalabh Singh", "Shalabh Singh", "Sonia Singh", "Sonia Singh" ], "first_author": "Shouvik Bhattacharyya", "venue": "International Journal of Systems Science Operations & Logistics", "publisher": "Taylor & Francis", "abstract": "This study examines two intriguing aspects of last-mile delivery: on-demand outsourcing and drones. Logistics providers may sometimes rely on on-demand outsourcing, in addition to private fleets, to achieve quicker turnaround times, reduce carbon emissions, or address insufficient fleet capacity. The paper explores the delivery via a private fleet comprising trucks and drones that operate independently from a central depot along with the option of on-demand outsourcing. For on-demand outsourcing, an estimate of the total delivery time together with the associated carbon emissions is known in advance. The problem is formulated as a bi-objective Mixed Integer Linear Programme (MILP) with delivery makespan and carbon emissions as the two objectives. A two-step ϵ-constraint bi-objective method is provided to generate Pareto optimal solutions for small to medium-sized problems. For larger instances, an iterated local search heuristic is developed, which effectively solves all relevant instances from the standard CVRPLIB library, balancing delivery time and carbon emissions.", "keywords": [ "Drone", "Outsourcing", "Context (archaeology)", "Sustainable development", "Sustainability" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1080/23302674.2025.2611333" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W2234629990", "doi": null, "title": "Heuristic methods for the Traveling Salesman Problem with Drone.", "year": 2015, "publication_date": "2015-09-29", "type": "preprint", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Quang Minh Ha", "Yves Deville", "Quang-Dung Pham", "Minh Hoàng Hà" ], "first_author": "Quang Minh Ha", "venue": "arXiv (Cornell University)", "publisher": "Cornell University", "abstract": "Over the past few years, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), also known as drones, have been adopted as part of a new logistic method in the commercial sector called last-mile delivery. In this novel approach, they are deployed alongside trucks to deliver goods to customers to improve the quality of service and reduce the transportation cost. This approach gives rise to a new variant of the traveling salesman problem (TSP), called TSP with drone (TSP-D). A variant of this problem that aims to minimize the time at which truck and drone finish the service (or, in other words, to maximize the quality of service) was studied in the work of Murray and Chu (2015). In contrast, this paper considers a new variant of TSP-D in which the objective is to minimize operational costs including total transportation cost and one created by waste time a vehicle has to wait for the other. The problem is first formulated mathematically. Then, two algorithms are proposed for the solution. The first algorithm (TSP-LS) was adapted from the approach proposed by Murray and Chu (2015), in which an optimal TSP solution is converted to a feasible TSP-D solution by local searches. The second algorithm, a Greedy Randomized Adaptive Search Procedure (GRASP), is based on a new split procedure that optimally splits any TSP tour into a TSP-D solution. After a TSP-D solution has been generated, it is then improved through local search operators. Numerical results obtained on various instances of both objective functions with different sizes and characteristics are presented. The results show that GRASP outperforms TSP-LS in terms of solution quality under an acceptable running time.", "keywords": [ "Travelling salesman problem", "Drone", "Traveling purchaser problem", "Truck", "Mathematical optimization", "Computer science", "2-opt", "Heuristic", "Greedy algorithm", "Service (business)", "Greedy randomized adaptive search procedure", "Local search (optimization)" ], "cited_by_count": 26, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/1509.08764" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4412351362", "doi": "10.2139/ssrn.5348525", "title": "A Variable Neighborhood Search Algorithm for the Truck-Drone Routing Problem Under Uncertainty in Rural Last-Mile Delivery", "year": 2025, "publication_date": "2025-01-01", "type": "preprint", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Jianhua Xiao", "Hang Yu", "Jiuhong Xiao", "Yunyun Niu", "Xiaofan Wu" ], "first_author": "Jianhua Xiao", "venue": "SSRN Electronic Journal", "publisher": "RELX Group (Netherlands)", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Drone", "Mile", "Truck", "Vehicle routing problem", "Variable (mathematics)", "Last mile (transportation)", "Routing (electronic design automation)", "Computer science", "Transport engineering", "Operations research", "Engineering", "Geography" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5348525" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W3159236124", "doi": "10.1016/j.est.2021.102615", "title": "Analyzing the suitability of flywheel energy storage systems for supplying high-power charging e-mobility use cases", "year": 2021, "publication_date": "2021-05-01", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Bernd Thormann", "Philipp Puchbauer", "Thomas Kienberger" ], "first_author": "Bernd Thormann", "venue": "Journal of Energy Storage", "publisher": "Elsevier BV", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Flywheel", "Automotive engineering", "Energy storage", "Peaking power plant", "Electric power", "Power (physics)", "Reliability engineering", "Engineering", "Computer science", "Electrical engineering", "Renewable energy", "Distributed generation" ], "cited_by_count": 27, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.est.2021.102615" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W7155204273", "doi": "10.2139/ssrn.6626997", "title": "How Drones can Complement Trucks for Last-mile Delivery under Aerial Congestion: A Continuum Approximation Study", "year": 2026, "publication_date": "2026-01-01", "type": "preprint", "language": null, "authors": [ "Yuhui Zhai", "Ruifeng She", "Yanfeng Ouyang" ], "first_author": "Yuhui Zhai", "venue": "SSRN Electronic Journal", "publisher": "RELX Group (Netherlands)", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Drone", "Truck", "Leverage (statistics)", "Routing (electronic design automation)", "Complement (music)" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.6626997" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W7162815406", "doi": "10.1108/sasbe-10-2025-0599", "title": "A multi-objective matheuristic framework for sustainable truck-UAV last-mile delivery in smart urban built environments", "year": 2026, "publication_date": "2026-05-29", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Armin Mahmoodi", "Said M. Easa" ], "first_author": "Armin Mahmoodi", "venue": "Smart and Sustainable Built Environment", "publisher": "Emerald Publishing Limited", "abstract": "Purpose This study addresses the escalating challenges of last-mile logistics driven by e-commerce growth and sustainability requirements. Despite recent advances in truck-UAV delivery models, existing studies often treat cost, energy and risk objectives in isolation or rely on purely heuristic or purely exact solution methods. This study explores the integration of hybrid truck-UAV delivery systems as an innovative component of sustainable urban infrastructure, with a focus on jointly balancing cost, service time, energy consumption and safety risk. Design/methodology/approach A hybrid multi-objective matheuristic framework is proposed, combining a metaheuristic-based truck routing phase with a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP)-based UAV assignment and scheduling phase. This integration leverages the scalability of heuristics with the precision of mathematical programming to generate efficient Pareto-optimal solutions. Computational experiments were conducted on benchmark instances of up to 100 customers. Findings Results show that MILP-guided initialization accelerates convergence and improves solution diversity compared to purely heuristic approaches. Sensitivity analyses highlight that configurations with two UAVs per truck and moderate endurance achieve the most balanced performance across sustainability objectives, significantly reducing energy use and delivery risk. Practical implications The framework provides a scalable decision-support tool for logistics operators, urban planners and policymakers to design safe, efficient and climate-responsive last-mile delivery networks that align with sustainable urban development strategies. Social implications By incorporating sustainability and safety risk into the optimization process, the framework supports the transition towards resilient, inclusive and environmentally responsible delivery systems, directly contributing to the achievement of the United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs). Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is among the first to develop a multi-objective matheuristic that integrates exact and heuristic optimization methods for truck-UAV coordination in sustainable last-mile logistics. It advances both methodological innovation and practical relevance for the built environment, bridging operations research with urban sustainability.", "keywords": [ "Sustainability", "Scalability", "Heuristics", "Heuristic", "Energy consumption", "Benchmark (surveying)", "Scheduling (production processes)", "Vehicle routing problem" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1108/sasbe-10-2025-0599" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W7204127130", "doi": "10.1109/jiot.2026.3726625", "title": "Enhancing Last-Mile Delivery: LLM-Evolved Clustering and DRL-Coordinated Routing in Truck–Multi-Drone Systems", "year": 2026, "publication_date": "2026-01-01", "type": "article", "language": null, "authors": [ "Hao Cheng", "Jin Yi", "Jun Luo", "Huayan Pu" ], "first_author": "Hao Cheng", "venue": "IEEE Internet of Things Journal", "publisher": "Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Cluster analysis", "Routing (electronic design automation)", "Algorithm design", "Routing protocol", "Network routing", "Intelligent Network" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1109/jiot.2026.3726625" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4229789339", "doi": "10.3390/wevj6010038", "title": "Implementing electric vehicles in urban distribution: A discrete event simulation", "year": 2013, "publication_date": "2013-03-29", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Philippe Lebeau", "Cathy Macharis", "Joeri Van Mierlo", "Guillaume Maes" ], "first_author": "Philippe Lebeau", "venue": "World Electric Vehicle Journal", "publisher": "Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute", "abstract": "Urban freight transport becomes increasingly important with the development of cities. However, it generates also inefficiencies on social, economic and environmental aspects. A possible solution is the use of urban distribution centres in order to rationalise the deliveries and to operate the last miles with clean vehicles. Electric vehicles are gaining attention lately but some barriers remain. Since costs barriers were already investigated, the paper aimed at evaluating the difference of performances between a centre using a diesel truck and a centre using an electric vehicle. In order to do so, the operations of an urban distribution centre were modelled in a discrete event simulation and different scenarios were evaluated. The results showed that replacing a conventional truck by an electric van generates more traffic due to the limited payload of the van. However, the limited range does not entail the daily operations of the vehicle since a single night charge is sufficient. Better, the depth of discharge is found to be limited to a minimum of 60%. The results on the battery are similar in the second scenario where the conventional truck is replaced by an electric truck. In that scenario though, no influences are identified on the logistics performances of the urban distribution center", "keywords": [ "Truck", "Payload (computing)", "Range (aeronautics)", "Transport engineering", "Automotive engineering", "City logistics", "Electric vehicle", "Discrete event simulation", "Diesel fuel", "Environmental science", "Order (exchange)", "Driving range" ], "cited_by_count": 38, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://www.mdpi.com/2032-6653/6/1/38/pdf?version=1526548488" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W7168415536", "doi": "10.1016/j.trpro.2026.04.134", "title": "Integrating Autonomous Last-mile Deliveries with Public Transit", "year": 2026, "publication_date": "2026-01-01", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Aditya Kumar", "Lokesh Kumar Kalahasthi", "Prajwal Gudadoor", "Abhishek Abhishek", "Iván Sánchez-Díaz" ], "first_author": "Aditya Kumar", "venue": "Transportation research procedia", "publisher": "Elsevier BV", "abstract": "Lately, research has shown the potential of automation in freight transport by reducing energy consumption, emissions, noise, and operating costs—often focused exclusively on either freight (e.g., robots and drones) or passenger (e.g., automobiles and buses) transport. Hence, this research investigates the potential of technological advancements in self-driving and connected vehicles for better coordination between freight and passenger vehicles. To achieve the objective of integrating robotic last-mile deliveries with autonomous minibuses, Chalmers University in Sweden has been chosen as a case study. Pilot tests were conducted to measure the travel, handling, boarding and alighting times, and energy consumption for robots and the minibus. Freight and passenger demand were obtained from the historical daily demand data. Several scenarios for routing and bus stop locations were examined for the energy efficiency of freight deliveries via electric pickup trucks. The minibus required around 34 daily trips, operating two to three buses during peak times. The results demonstrated that robots exhibited superior energy efficiency at lower demand levels, while integrating with minibuses led to a further reduction in energy use by 20-50%. Two-way minibus movement maximised the overlapping of routes between the robot and the minibus, reducing passenger travel time; however, with an increase in the bus kilometres travelled. To reap maximum benefits of integration, it is vital to prepare an optimal plan considering the demand, vehicle size, routing, and bus stops to overlap with freight destinations.", "keywords": [ "Energy consumption", "Automation", "Robot", "Routing (electronic design automation)", "Public transport", "Transit (satellite)", "Plan (archaeology)", "Fuel efficiency" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352146526003960/pdf" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W7125368486", "doi": "10.65151/vti530982", "title": "Fossil-free last-mile delivery in cities: Effects of increased total weight and climate premium for electric trucks", "year": 2026, "publication_date": "2026-01-22", "type": "report", "language": "sv", "authors": [ "Jessica Wehner", "Niklas Arvidsson", "Mary Catherine Osman" ], "first_author": "Jessica Wehner", "venue": null, "publisher": null, "abstract": "Godstransporter i städer utgör en växande andel av vägfordonsutsläppen och är samtidigt det mest kostnadsdrivande och resurskrävande steget i leveranskedjan. Ökad e-handel har intensifierat belastningen på urbana leveranssystem, vilket gör behovet av fossilfria och effektiva transportlösningar särskilt akut. Elektrifiering framstår som en central strategi för att minska utsläpp, men implementeringen påverkas av organisatoriska möjligheter, förändrade regulatoriska förutsättningar och kontext. Syftet med detta projekt är att analysera hur de senaste regulatoriska förändringarna påverkar elektrifieringen av sista milen i Sverige, med särskilt fokus på användningen av ellastbilar med ökad totalvikt upp till 4,25 ton. Projektet testade denna fordonskategori i operativ drift. Genom att analysera både möjliggörare och barriärer kopplade till de regulatoriska förändringarna, införandet av ellastbilar på 4,25 ton samt klimatpremie riktad mot ellastbilar och andra miljölastbilar, genereras underlag som kan stödja utvecklingen av effektiva och fossilfria transportlösningar och ligga till grund för rekommendationer till branschen och relevanta beslutsfattare. Arbetet baseras på fyra parallella studier: (1) en litteraturgenomgång som kartlade forskningsläge, drivkrafter och utmaningar; (2) intervjuer med aktörer inom sista milen för att samla erfarenheter och förväntningar; (3) en pilotstudie där en ellastbil på 4,25 ton testades i daglig drift för dagligvaruleveranser; samt (4) en kartläggning av klimatpremiens ekonomiska effekter på marknaden. Resultaten visar att ellastbilar på 4,25 ton möjliggör lastkapacitet jämförbar med lätta diesellastbilar. Tidigare hinder, såsom räckviddsångest, upplevs inte längre som avgörande, medan ekonomiska, regulatoriska och kompetensrelaterade faktorer fortfarande utgör centrala barriärer. Studien betonar behovet av långsiktiga regelverk, tydliga incitament och satsningar på kompetensutveckling för att främja en effektiv övergång till fossilfria leveranser.", "keywords": [ "Truck", "World class", "Auto industry" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:trafikverket:diva-21950" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W2583949364", "doi": null, "title": "Medium-duty trucks in an e-commerce world : the growth of e-commerce and last-mile delivery is spurring an expanded role for medium-duty trucks", "year": 2016, "publication_date": "2016-10-01", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Sean Kilcarr" ], "first_author": "Sean Kilcarr", "venue": null, "publisher": null, "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Truck", "Mile", "Duty", "Business", "Last mile (transportation)", "Commerce", "E-commerce", "Engineering", "Computer science", "Geography", "Automotive engineering", "Political science" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://trid.trb.org/view/1428484" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4283695239", "doi": "10.1093/imaman/dpac006", "title": "Last mile logistics: Research trends and needs", "year": 2022, "publication_date": "2022-06-29", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Emrah Demir", "Aris A Syntetos", "Tom Van Woensel" ], "first_author": "Emrah Demir", "venue": "IMA Journal of Management Mathematics", "publisher": "Oxford University Press", "abstract": "Abstract Aspiring green agendas in conjunction with tremendous economic pressures are resulting in an increased attention to the environment and technological innovations for improving existing logistics systems. Last mile logistics, in particular, are becoming much more than a consumer convenience necessity and a transportation optimization exercise. Rather, this area presents a true opportunity to foster both financial and environmental sustainability. This paper investigates recent technological advancements and pending needs related to business and social innovations, emphasizing green logistics and city logistics concepts. We discuss various pertinent aspects, including drones, delivery robots, truck platooning, collection and pickup points, collaborative logistics, integrated transportation, decarbonization and advanced transport analytics. From a mathematical perspective, we focus on the basic features of the vehicle routing problem and some of its variants. We provide recommendations around strategies that may facilitate the adoption of new effective technologies and innovations.", "keywords": [ "Last mile (transportation)", "Drone", "Humanitarian Logistics", "Truck", "Sustainability", "Business", "Analytics", "Supply chain", "City logistics", "Mile", "Computer science", "Transport engineering" ], "cited_by_count": 78, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://academic.oup.com/imaman/article-pdf/33/4/549/45047530/dpac006.pdf" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W3134269592", "doi": "10.25417/uic.13475112.v1", "title": "Investigation in Crowdshipping Enabled Urban and Last-mile Delivery Paradigms", "year": 2020, "publication_date": "2020-01-01", "type": "dissertation", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Sudheer Ballare" ], "first_author": "Sudheer Ballare", "venue": "Figshare", "publisher": "Figshare (United Kingdom)", "abstract": "Urban logistics, especially the last mile delivery, is a major urban challenge due to the high density in cities and the use of diesel-powered freight vehicles, resulting in traffic congestion and other negative impacts such as air and noise pollution. With the rise of e-commerce and customer expectation of express delivery, the metropolitan areas are seeking innovative ways to better manage urban freight movement and create an efficient and environment friendly transportation system. Information and communication technology advancement is ushering in a new era of mobility, changing the way people and goods move. Traditionally, freight movement takes the so-called hub-and-spoke delivery model. While the hub-and-spoke model is proven efficient with the economies of scale, it is ill-suited for fulfilling the increasing demand for same-day and even one-hour delivery in urban areas with the inflexible structure and is restricted by the hub capacity. Using real-time information technology for speedy coordination, crowdshipping brings reduction in the transportation costs for the last mile. Crowdshipping provides a feasible alternative in the first and last mile deliveries, provides flexibility of delivery time windows and uses a variety of transport modes for the delivery, for e.g. personal automobiles, taxis, bicycles, cargo cycles, walking etc. In Chapter 3 of this dissertation, an empirical investigation is presented of an existing crowdsourcing delivery company with respect to the operational factors such as parcel size, delivery distance, demand frequency and distribution, the user characteristics including customer and driver profiles, and the pricing model. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses are performed to shed light on the market demand trending and growth opportunities in crowdsourcing deliveries. Another solution to reducing truck trips into busy urban centers is the use of Automated Parcel Station (APS). APS is an automated parcel collection (and sometimes dispatch as well) station located in public spaces. For the ease of access, these APS’ are located at shopping centers, transit stations, gas stations, etc. Parcel recipients travel on foot or by car to collect their parcels from an APS. In Chapter 4 of this dissertation, we propose, formulate, and evaluate a new and innovative delivery paradigm where the last-mile demand fulfilment is done through Microhubs with Crowdshipping (M+C). In this paradigm, an urban service area is divided into a number of smaller service zones (e.g., by zipcode). Within each zone, there is a microhub to temporarily store inbound and outbound parcels of small to medium size. These parcels are collected or distributed by automobile or bicycle crowdshippers between customers (shippers and end receivers) and the zonal microhub. Commercial trucks are dispatched periodically to visit the microhubs in the service area to transfer parcels to their respective destination microhubs. Though, an initiative involving microhubs and dedicated freight bikes has been field tested recently in the Citylab project in Europe for the first time, the performance of a microhubs and crowdshipping paradigm has not been analytically assessed before this dissertation. In Chapter 5 we show that the proposed M+C paradigm is a Many-to-Many Split Pickup and Delivery Problem (M-MSPDP) for truck routing between microhubs. We present a general formulation of M-MSPDP and a Maximum Split-Benefit with Tabu Search (MS-BTS) heuristic to solve the large-scale M-MSPDP. MS-BTS is evaluated with the exact solution methods and other existing heuristics. We further apply the MS-BTS heuristic to solve for two applications of the M-MSPDP: parcel pickup and delivery among parcel stations (i.e., M-MSPDP-FPD) and bike rebalancing in a bike-sharing system (i.e., M-MSPD-OC). The computation time of MS-BTS is considerably improved over the other methods while maintaining a comparable level of the solution quality. Lastly, Chapter 6 considers a futuristic delivery paradigm where all stages of the last-mile demand fulfillment are handled without any involvement of human factor, including for parcel loading/unloading, sorting and transportation between hubs and the customers. This Chapter presents a brief commentary on the impacts of such a proposed delivery paradigm.", "keywords": [ "Last mile (transportation)", "Taxis", "Flexibility (engineering)", "Transport engineering", "Metropolitan area", "Traffic congestion", "Economies of scale", "Mile", "Truck", "Engineering", "Business", "Marketing" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.25417/uic.13475112.v1" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W2588466544", "doi": "10.1016/j.apenergy.2017.02.008", "title": "Thermal analysis and simulation of a Li-ion battery pack for a lightweight commercial EV", "year": 2017, "publication_date": "2017-02-15", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Paolo Cicconi", "Daniele Landi", "Michele Germani" ], "first_author": "Paolo Cicconi", "venue": "Applied Energy", "publisher": "Elsevier BV", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Battery pack", "Battery (electricity)", "Robustness (evolution)", "Automotive engineering", "Electric vehicle", "Simulation", "Electric-vehicle battery", "Engineering", "Computer science", "Reliability engineering", "Power (physics)" ], "cited_by_count": 107, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2017.02.008" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W2472055472", "doi": "10.1016/j.trpro.2016.05.117", "title": "Clean Last Mile Transport and Logistics Management for Smart and Efficient Local Governments in Europe", "year": 2016, "publication_date": "2016-01-01", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Paola Cossu" ], "first_author": "Paola Cossu", "venue": "Transportation research procedia", "publisher": "Elsevier BV", "abstract": "C-LIEGE \"Clean Last mile transport and logistics management for smart and efficient local Governments in Europe\" is a STEER Intelligent Energy Europe Programme 2010 project focused on developing integrated framework for energy-efficient urban freight transport demand management and planning. C-LIEGE is conceived as a showcase for good practices and a helping hand for European cities striving for cleaner and sustainable urban freight transport and logistics. C-LIEGE provides solutions for decision makers and professionals in Local Authorities and for freight operators. C-LIEGE empowers a cooperative approach between public and private stakeholders targeted on the reduction of energetic and environmental impacts of freight transport in European cities and regions. C-LIEGE successfully developed and tested freight transport demand-oriented measures and decision supporting tools towards reduction of energy, environmental and economic impacts of freight transport in urban environments. A set of integrated solutions and measures were implemented and tested by the support of newly developed C-LIEGE tools: the Stakeholder Engagement Manual, Good Practice Database, Push and Pull Measures Database, Guideline for the development of Urban Freight Mobility Plan as well as the C-LIEGE Toolbox for the establishment of a City Logistics Manager. Seven pilot experiments in six European countries assessed effectiveness of the C-LIEGE approach: Bulgaria, Italy, Poland, United Kingdom, Germany and Malta. The pilot cities selected and implemented a package of demand-oriented measures such as access fees and time windows restrictions, environmental zones, recognition schemes, freight maps, Freight Quality Partnerships, etc. A total of 35 demand-oriented measures were implemented in the C-LIEGE pilot cities, based upon the C-LIEGE toolbox and guidelines. The C-LIEGE pilot sites have introduced a wide range of measures aimed at reducing the impacts of urban freight transport: Fleet Operator Recognition Scheme (FORS) in Newcastle (UK), introduction of access restrictions for heavier freight vehicles in Montana (Bulgaria), new freight mapping in Leicester (UK) accessible via smart phone, re-routing measures in Stuttgart (Germany) as well as Hal-Tarxien (Malta), the establishment of Freight Quality Partnerships (FQPs) as well as Local Freight Development Plans (LFDPs) in all pilot cities. The results achieved in each C-LIEGE pilot site is summarized as follows: decreasing of CO, CO2, NOx and PM10 emissions (tons/year) generated by freight vehicles (Leicester: 15.3%; Newcastle: 9.5%; Stuttgart: 13.2%; Szczecin: 27.8%; Montana: 11.9%; Hal-Tarxien: 10.6%; Piacenza/Emilia-Romagna: 41.2%/44.4%), decreasing fossil fuel consumption (Leicester: 10.5%; Newcastle: 9.4%; Stuttgart: 13.1%; Szczecin: 27.8%; Montana: 11.9%; Hal-Tarxien: 10.5%; Piacenza/Emilia-Romagna: 1.7%/1.5%), decreasing operating costs for freight carriers (Leicester: 6.5% Newcastle: 5.4%; Stuttgart: 7.4%; Szczecin: 18.2%; Montana: 7.7%; Hal-Tarxien: 9.1%; Piacenza/Emilia-Romagna: 17.5%/20.1%). C-LIEGE finally filled the existing gap in know-how and professionalism in the sector by designing, fine-tuning and delivering the complimentary capabilities of City Logistics Manager. For the first time in Europe, the well-known Mobility Manager whose duties are focused on passenger transport only can be paired with a City Logistics Manager. We are convinced that the C-LIEGE tools and experiences will be of great value for urban freight transport management and logistics in other European cities and regions.", "keywords": [ "Transport engineering", "Traffic management", "Business", "Stakeholder", "City logistics", "Last mile (transportation)", "Sustainable transport", "Environmental economics", "Engineering", "Mile", "Sustainability", "Economics" ], "cited_by_count": 32, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trpro.2016.05.117" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4412036802", "doi": "10.2139/ssrn.5212857", "title": "An Alternative Last-Mile Delivery System: Leveraging Microhubs and Crowdshipping", "year": 2025, "publication_date": "2025-01-01", "type": "preprint", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Amir Shafiee", "Hanieh Rastegar Moghaddam Bajestani", "Sudheer Ballare", "Jane Lin" ], "first_author": "Amir Shafiee", "venue": "SSRN Electronic Journal", "publisher": "RELX Group (Netherlands)", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Mile", "Last mile (transportation)", "Computer science", "Business", "Geography" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5212857" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4399145584", "doi": "10.2139/ssrn.4846772", "title": "The Truck-Drone Routing Problem Under Uncertainty in Rural Last-Mile Delivery: An Improved Variable Neighborhood Search Metaheuristic", "year": 2024, "publication_date": "2024-01-01", "type": "preprint", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Jianhua Xiao", "Jiuhong Xiao", "Ying Li", "Yunyun Niu", "Xiaofan Wu" ], "first_author": "Jianhua Xiao", "venue": "SSRN Electronic Journal", "publisher": "RELX Group (Netherlands)", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Drone", "Truck", "Mile", "Metaheuristic", "Variable neighborhood search", "Last mile (transportation)", "Vehicle routing problem", "Routing (electronic design automation)", "Variable (mathematics)", "Computer science", "Transport engineering", "Operations research" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4846772" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W2552491024", "doi": null, "title": "Last-mile delivery optimization using GPS data a case study", "year": 2016, "publication_date": "2016-05-01", "type": "dissertation", "language": "en", "authors": [ "García de Dueñas", "Juan Bernardo" ], "first_author": "García de Dueñas", "venue": "USFQ Digital Repository (Universidad San Francisco de Quito)", "publisher": "Universidad San Francisco de Quito", "abstract": "The development of GPS data analysis and processing is contributing to new solutions in urban logistics, such as route characterization or client detection. The city of Quito, Ecuador, has problems regarding freight transportation. The reduction in magnitude of these problems, through the implementation of a responsible enterprise logistics system, can contribute to a better urban and economic development of this Latin-American capital city. This study proposes and analyses a solution in GPS data manipulation methodologies applied to urban freight distribution. The reliability of traditional routing software methods and truck drivers’ empiric knowledge are evaluated by comparing it to mathematical optimization algorithms which consider the city’s transportation network, modeled after the Asymmetric Traveling Salesperson Problem (ATSP). Tools used include Python for manipulating data and optimizing, CartoDB for Graphical Information Systems (GIS), and Compass (a logistics application developed by MIT) for generation of route indicators. The results of this study represent a better understanding of solutions to last-mile delivery operations in Quito, and suggest mathematical optimization is a reliable way to develop freight transportation routes.", "keywords": [ "Global Positioning System", "Truck", "Transport engineering", "Python (programming language)", "Computer science", "Geographic information system", "Compass", "Flow network", "Software", "Vehicle routing problem", "Operations research", "Routing (electronic design automation)" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "http://repositorio.usfq.edu.ec/handle/23000/5868" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W7213512513", "doi": "10.17632/rv2c7768hp.3", "title": "Replication package: Flight Authorization and Emissions Abatement in Truck-Drone Last-Mile Delivery: An Optimization-Based Counterfactual Analysis", "year": 2026, "publication_date": "2026-09-17", "type": "dataset", "language": null, "authors": [ "Armin Mahmoodi", "Mehdi Davoodi", "Seyed Mojtaba Sajadi", "Elnaz Torkamani", "Said Easa" ], "first_author": "Armin Mahmoodi", "venue": "Mendeley Data", "publisher": null, "abstract": "Code and results supporting the article \"Flight Authorization and Emissions Abatement in Truck-Drone Last-Mile Delivery: An Optimization-Based Counterfactual Analysis\", on how airspace flight authorization limits the emissions abatement achievable by hybrid truck-drone last-mile delivery. The code implements a multi-objective truck-UAV routing model in which emissions are an output of the routing decision rather than an assumption about it: a momentum-theory energy model with payload dependence in place of a distance proxy, well-to-wheel emissions accounting, an explicit truck-only counterfactual solved on the same instances, and SORA-derived authorization limits entering as arc eligibility. Twelve operating scenarios vary the authorization ceiling, population density and whether a sheltering mitigation is claimed, repeated across five independently generated service areas. Solutions come from NSGA-II and MOPSO over a shared random-key encoding, validated against proven optima from a mixed-integer program on small instances; a no-aerial control scenario measures the resolution of the comparison. CONTENTS. code/ holds the model package (tdrp/) and the scripts that produce every reported result: run_multigeo.py for the main experiment, run_evan.py for the electric-van counterfactual, seed_scaling.py for the measurement-resolution diagnostic, run_validation.py and test_validation.py for validation against exact optima, run_algorithms.py for the algorithm comparison, run_tuning.py with the tuned parameter files, and make_figs_multigeo.py, make_figs_converged.py and make_fronts.py for the figures. results/ holds the result files behind every table and figure, including same-code Linux re-runs cited as such in the article. logs/ holds the output logs against which each reported value can be checked; two of them regenerate byte-for-byte from the result files. figures/ holds the figure files, sources/ the submitted manuscript, title page, supplementary material and bibliography. ASSUMPTIONS_REGISTER.md documents each modelling choice and its provenance; DEPOSIT_CONTENTS.md is the file inventory. The reported emissions results are in results/results_multigeo_50seed.json: five service areas, twelve scenarios each, 2000 generations, 50 seeds, with the truck-only counterfactual solved once per seed and selected on minimum cost. Reproduction requires Python 3.10 or newer with NumPy pinned to 2.4.4 (code/requirements.txt); NumPy gives no guarantee that its random streams are stable across versions, so a different version changes every seeded run. code/HOW_TO_RUN.md gives the commands, the expected output at each stage and the values to check against. Instances are determined entirely by customer count, scenario and random seed, so any result regenerates exactly on a matching environment. Version 2 replaces the sources with the submitted versions and adds requirements.txt, HOW_TO_RUN.md, the Linux re-run files and the regenerated figures.", "keywords": [ "Counterfactual thinking", "Payload (computing)", "Population", "Replication (statistics)", "Code (set theory)", "Control (management)", "Authorization", "Service (business)" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.17632/rv2c7768hp.3" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4399398462", "doi": "10.46254/an14.20240177", "title": "A Hybrid Approach to Prescribe a Dynamic Operational Location for Stationing a Delivery Truck of LPG Cylinder for Efficient Last Mile Delivery", "year": 2024, "publication_date": "2024-02-12", "type": "conference-paper", "language": "en", "authors": [ "D Prithvirajan", "Muthu Mathirajan" ], "first_author": "D Prithvirajan", "venue": null, "publisher": null, "abstract": "Last Mile Delivery (LMD) relates to all product delivery activities to the end customer in the supply chain. Timely delivery of products to customers is one of the primary objectives of businesses rendering LMD services. LPG cylinder distribution in India is one such business that provides LMD to its subscribed customers through delivery agents employed by distributors. As per the existing system, the cylinders are brought to the office premises from the warehouse using Delivery Trucks (DT) and are delivered to customers using small delivery vehicles (SDV). The orders delivered each day by the SDV exceed their stock holding capacity. So, SDV must reach the office location from the last delivered customer’s location to restock. This current practice of restocking increases the overall distance travelled by SDV and increases. Further, this increases the delivery lead time, which directly affects customer satisfaction. To overcome these logistics issues in the existing system, this study proposes a dynamic operational location (DOL) for stationing each DT around the area, where the delivery is going to happen each day, considering the customers ordering pattern, instead of all the DT stationed at the office premise. To prescribe DOL for stationing each of the DT this study proposes a hybrid approach and does efficient LMD of LPG cylinders. The proposed hybrid approach involves a multi-step process. In the first step, a forecasting model is developed to analyze the customer’s order interval pattern and predict their next ordering date range (i.e., the next order interval). Customers whose next ordering date range is within the next ten days from the decision-making epoch/date are segregated and clustered in the second step. The total number of clusters equals the total number of DT operated. In the final step, the centroid location of the generated cluster is prescribed as the DOL to station a DT. Based on the proposed DOL for each DT, the SDV will stock the cylinders from the DT and proceed for LMD. The proposed hybrid approach is demonstrated using real-life data from a large-scale LPG cylinder distributor in a metro city in Tamilnadu. Accordingly, the dataset used for this study has the customer’s unique consumer numbers, geocoded addresses, and order placement dates for the past five years. Using data pre-processing and feature engineering techniques, the ordering intervals for each customer are obtained, and a forecasting model is developed to predict the next order interval for each customer. Customers’ geolocations with predicted ordering date range within the next ten days are clustered using the K-Means clustering algorithm, and their centroid location is prescribed as DOL for each DT. Finally, both existing practice and the proposed hybrid approach for LMD are compared in terms of the distance travelled by an SDV in the current system with the proposed system.", "keywords": [ "Truck", "Mile", "Last mile (transportation)", "Delivery system", "Automotive engineering", "Computer science", "Food delivery", "Aeronautics", "Engineering", "Marine engineering", "Biomedical engineering", "Physics" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://ieomsociety.org/proceedings/2024dubai/177.pdf" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W7204097285", "doi": "10.17632/rv2c7768hp", "title": "Replication package: Flight Authorization and Emissions Abatement in Truck-Drone Last-Mile Delivery: An Optimization-Based Counterfactual Analysis", "year": 2026, "publication_date": "2026-09-17", "type": "dataset", "language": null, "authors": [ "Armin Mahmoodi", "Mehdi Davoodi", "Seyed Mojtaba Sajadi", "Elnaz Torkamani", "Said M. Easa" ], "first_author": "Armin Mahmoodi", "venue": "Mendeley Data", "publisher": null, "abstract": "Code and results supporting the article \"Flight Authorization and Emissions Abatement in Truck-Drone Last-Mile Delivery: An Optimization-Based Counterfactual Analysis\", on how airspace flight authorization limits the emissions abatement achievable by hybrid truck-drone last-mile delivery. The code implements a multi-objective truck-UAV routing model in which emissions are an output of the routing decision rather than an assumption about it: a momentum-theory energy model with payload dependence in place of a distance proxy, well-to-wheel emissions accounting, an explicit truck-only counterfactual solved on the same instances, and SORA-derived authorization limits entering as arc eligibility. Twelve operating scenarios vary the authorization ceiling, population density and whether a sheltering mitigation is claimed, repeated across five independently generated service areas. Solutions come from NSGA-II and MOPSO over a shared random-key encoding, validated against proven optima from a mixed-integer program on small instances; a no-aerial control scenario measures the resolution of the comparison. CONTENTS. code/ holds the model package (tdrp/) and the scripts that produce every reported result: run_multigeo.py for the main experiment, run_evan.py for the electric-van counterfactual, seed_scaling.py for the measurement-resolution diagnostic, run_validation.py and test_validation.py for validation against exact optima, run_algorithms.py for the algorithm comparison, run_tuning.py with the tuned parameter files, and make_figs_multigeo.py, make_figs_converged.py and make_fronts.py for the figures. results/ holds the result files behind every table and figure, including same-code Linux re-runs cited as such in the article. logs/ holds the output logs against which each reported value can be checked; two of them regenerate byte-for-byte from the result files. figures/ holds the figure files, sources/ the submitted manuscript, title page, supplementary material and bibliography. ASSUMPTIONS_REGISTER.md documents each modelling choice and its provenance; DEPOSIT_CONTENTS.md is the file inventory. The reported emissions results are in results/results_multigeo_50seed.json: five service areas, twelve scenarios each, 2000 generations, 50 seeds, with the truck-only counterfactual solved once per seed and selected on minimum cost. Reproduction requires Python 3.10 or newer with NumPy pinned to 2.4.4 (code/requirements.txt); NumPy gives no guarantee that its random streams are stable across versions, so a different version changes every seeded run. code/HOW_TO_RUN.md gives the commands, the expected output at each stage and the values to check against. Instances are determined entirely by customer count, scenario and random seed, so any result regenerates exactly on a matching environment. Version 2 replaces the sources with the submitted versions and adds requirements.txt, HOW_TO_RUN.md, the Linux re-run files and the regenerated figures.", "keywords": [ "Counterfactual thinking", "Population", "Payload (computing)", "Python (programming language)", "Scripting language", "Replication (statistics)", "Greenhouse gas" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.17632/rv2c7768hp" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W7128702315", "doi": "10.4018/979-8-3373-3997-9.ch001", "title": "The Impact of Last-Mile Delivery Systems on Biodiversity In Urban Areas", "year": 2026, "publication_date": "2026-02-12", "type": "book-chapter", "language": "ng", "authors": [ "Ankita Nayak", "Ipseeta Satpathy", "Sandeep Poddar" ], "first_author": "Ankita Nayak", "venue": null, "publisher": null, "abstract": "The growth of e-commerce and last-mile delivery systems, while improving retail logistics, has detrimentally impacted urban biodiversity. This is primarily due to increased land use for infrastructure and warehouses, emissions from fossil-fuel vehicles, noise pollution, and ecosystem disruptions. The reliance on trucks, excessive packaging, and poor urban planning fragments habitats, leading to declines in urban wildlife. Solutions such as electric vehicles, bike and drone deliveries, centralized pick-up lockers, and green initiatives are being explored. The research concludes that a rapid shift to more sustainable last-mile delivery methods is crucial for urban progress and environmental protection", "keywords": [ "Drone", "Urban planning", "Urban ecosystem", "Biodiversity", "Green infrastructure", "Ecosystem services", "Land-use planning", "Sustainability" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.4018/979-8-3373-3997-9.ch001" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W7213415692", "doi": "10.17632/rv2c7768hp.2", "title": "Replication package: Flight Authorization and Emissions Abatement in Truck-Drone Last-Mile Delivery: An Optimization-Based Counterfactual Analysis", "year": 2026, "publication_date": "2026-09-16", "type": "dataset", "language": null, "authors": [ "Armin Mahmoodi", "Mehdi Davoodi", "Seyed Mojtaba Sajadi", "Elnaz Torkamani", "Said Easa" ], "first_author": "Armin Mahmoodi", "venue": "Mendeley Data", "publisher": null, "abstract": "Code and results supporting the article \"Flight Authorization and Emissions Abatement in Truck-Drone Last-Mile Delivery: An Optimization-Based Counterfactual Analysis\", on how airspace flight authorization limits the emissions abatement achievable by hybrid truck-drone last-mile delivery. The code implements a multi-objective truck-UAV routing model in which emissions are an output of the routing decision rather than an assumption about it: a momentum-theory energy model with payload dependence in place of a distance proxy, well-to-wheel emissions accounting, an explicit truck-only counterfactual solved on the same instances, and SORA-derived authorization limits entering as arc eligibility. Twelve operating scenarios vary the authorization ceiling, population density and whether a sheltering mitigation is claimed, repeated across five independently generated service areas. Solutions come from NSGA-II and MOPSO over a shared random-key encoding, validated against proven optima from a mixed-integer program on small instances; a no-aerial control scenario measures the resolution of the comparison. CONTENTS. code/ holds the model package (tdrp/) and the scripts that produce every reported result: run_multigeo.py for the main experiment, run_evan.py for the electric-van counterfactual, seed_scaling.py for the measurement-resolution diagnostic, run_validation.py and test_validation.py for validation against exact optima, run_algorithms.py for the algorithm comparison, run_tuning.py with the tuned parameter files, and make_figs_multigeo.py, make_figs_converged.py and make_fronts.py for the figures. results/ holds the result files behind every table and figure, including same-code Linux re-runs cited as such in the article. logs/ holds the output logs against which each reported value can be checked; two of them regenerate byte-for-byte from the result files. figures/ holds the figure files, sources/ the submitted manuscript, title page, supplementary material and bibliography. ASSUMPTIONS_REGISTER.md documents each modelling choice and its provenance; DEPOSIT_CONTENTS.md is the file inventory. The reported emissions results are in results/results_multigeo_50seed.json: five service areas, twelve scenarios each, 2000 generations, 50 seeds, with the truck-only counterfactual solved once per seed and selected on minimum cost. Reproduction requires Python 3.10 or newer with NumPy pinned to 2.4.4 (code/requirements.txt); NumPy gives no guarantee that its random streams are stable across versions, so a different version changes every seeded run. code/HOW_TO_RUN.md gives the commands, the expected output at each stage and the values to check against. Instances are determined entirely by customer count, scenario and random seed, so any result regenerates exactly on a matching environment. Version 2 replaces the sources with the submitted versions and adds requirements.txt, HOW_TO_RUN.md, the Linux re-run files and the regenerated figures.", "keywords": [ "Counterfactual thinking", "Payload (computing)", "Population", "Replication (statistics)", "Code (set theory)", "Control (management)", "Authorization", "Service (business)" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.17632/rv2c7768hp.2" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W3080713681", "doi": null, "title": "Last Mile Delivery Cargo Trike & Microhub Marketing Plan", "year": 2020, "publication_date": "2020-01-01", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Jesse Fritz", "Yuqian Pan", "Jongyoung Jo", "Aaron Cavanaugh", "Jillrietnefertiti Lilithcleopatra" ], "first_author": "Jesse Fritz", "venue": "PDXScholar (Portland State University)", "publisher": "Portland State University", "abstract": "According to the global logistics market report in 2018-2022 the industry will grow at a rate over 7%-year with $357B increase in revenue. A major area of focus during this period is the adoption of the Fifth Party Logistics (5PL) distribution model, meaning a switch from supply chains to supply networks. The 5PL model is often associated with E-Commerce and relies tremendously on integration of new technology such as big data analytics, Blockchain security / contracting, and the Internet of Things (IoT’s). The final trickle down of goods to end users in the 5PL model is also critically dependent on efficient and reliable last mile delivery having a total market value of nearly $40B. Consumers are driving increases in services provided by big names in E-commerce such as Amazon and Walmart. Timely doorstep delivery once considered only for consumer goods is evolving daily to include everything from groceries to medicines. The end user market is now expecting orders to be 100% accurate as well as just in time (JIT). For logistic companies to take full advantage of the 5PL model, an efficient and reliable method for last mile delivery must be secured. An attractive solution to the last mile delivery problem in high population density areas is a high capacity, Eco friendly cargo vehicle, combined with a microhub refill station containing pre-loaded cargo boxes of parcel goods. The vehicle would be highly maneuverable and capable of hauling up to 400 pounds of cargo nearly 30 miles per working shift. The cargo box can be detachable and replaced from a larger trailer system called a microhub containing 4-9 cargo boxes and stationed approximately every 5 miles. The innovative technological solution will be versatile in cost effectively solving last mile delivery in both controlled environments such as college campuses and large venues as well as in less controlled and highly volatile urban environments. If electric or electric assist, additional batteries can be carried to double the daily range or for emergency backup to other vehicles. The success of the product requires relatively nice travel routes similar to the paths used by normal bicycles. Excessively challenging terrain or geography can be expected to reduce battery life. Fit employees of average weight are ideal operators of the system as they will have physical demand and excessive weight would reduce battery life. The system must be capable of delivering to homes, apartments, businesses, and taller buildings that have elevators or lower level delivery stations / lockers. Performance level of the product is equivalent or greater than the car, bike, pedestrian, moped, scooter, van, truck delivery in terms of efficiency and cost. The technology should be quiet, flexible in delivery route options including no car zones, and accommodating to normal parking spots. If designed as a bike vehicle, operation of the vehicle will not require a driver's license, vehicle registration, and have lower maintenance costs than engine powered vehicles. In other words, it will have the capability of a small delivery car/truck but is only limited by bicycle regulations.", "keywords": [ "Mile", "Business", "Last mile (transportation)", "Plan (archaeology)", "Marketing", "Marketing plan", "Geography" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/etm_studentprojects/2291" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4395468537", "doi": "10.56642/brdu.v03i04.012", "title": "Design a last mile delivery (Model for e-commerce firm)", "year": 2024, "publication_date": "2024-04-01", "type": "article", "language": "ca", "authors": [ "Yash Mishra", "Gaurav Gupta" ], "first_author": "Yash Mishra", "venue": "Poonam Shodh Rachna", "publisher": null, "abstract": "In the era of e-commerce becoming a pervasive integral part in different retail business sectors, lastmile delivery is now a major problem across urban areas globally.Supply chain customers are increasingly demanding their orders to be sent home.The increase in truck traffic causing traffic jams, emissions, and health problems associated with the incessant presence of delivery vehicles in city centers is a matter of growing concern.As a result, interesting new conceptions of the last mile delivery come as no wonder and arise in last thirty years.Unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) and autonomous pods for parcels are the most prominent inventions of robots directed to the kindest modification of parcel deliveries.This paper offers an extensive review of for-public last-mile delivery types and operations in terms of decision making.The review will pay a special attention to the process of establishing and operating last mile delivery types.Achieving this goal will require us to systematically present the various delivery concepts, organize them using a concise notation scheme, and discuss problems pertaining to the decision-making process while considering existing research findings relating to operations research methods that were used toward the solving of these problems.Additionally, we also consider possible layouts for upcoming research, focusing on the directions for future investigation in this particular area.", "keywords": [ "Mile", "Last mile (transportation)", "Business", "Computer science", "Geography" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.56642/brdu.v03i04.012" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W2991438271", "doi": null, "title": "A predictive model for parcel classification in the context of last-mile delivery", "year": 2019, "publication_date": "2019-01-01", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Grace Grace Priskila Kastanya" ], "first_author": "Grace Grace Priskila Kastanya", "venue": null, "publisher": null, "abstract": "Last-mile delivery for shipments in the B2B (business-to-business) market make use of two types of last-mile delivery mode, van and truck, as the number of shipments per consignee is various in size, weight, and volume. A parcel classification task exists to make an optimum classification of the parcel, toward which last-mile delivery mode. The classification principally is made by combining rule-based system and human correction, after information of all parcels per consignee is known. In this paper, a parcel classification by using a predictive model is proposed to make classification fully automatic and done without information of all shipments to the same consignee. The parcel classification system in this paper is based on the system of DHL Parcel and the model is tested by using data of last-mile delivery by the company in the area of Den Bosch. The proposed design of a predictive model for parcel classification is made by including information of the parcel characteristics and historical information of the intended consignee that are extracted as features. Furthermore, the model implements the decision tree algorithm as the learning method for the training data. From testing the predictive model, features of consignee address occur as the most important features, however, the piece features cannot be excluded. The decision tree model reaches accuracy 89.5%, given the last-mile delivery of parcel on one-week period. The main advantage of using the predictive model is faster and earlier classification systems which could lead to better last-mile capacity planning.", "keywords": [ "Last mile (transportation)", "Mile", "Decision tree", "Computer science", "Context (archaeology)", "Volume (thermodynamics)", "Data mining", "Geography" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://repository.tudelft.nl/islandora/object/uuid%3Adb4ac829-277b-469f-ac92-829e3b6e3e59?collection=education" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W2764151790", "doi": "10.1007/s12544-017-0267-3", "title": "Data stories from urban loading bays", "year": 2017, "publication_date": "2017-10-14", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Giacomo Dalla Chiara", "Lynette W. Cheah" ], "first_author": "Giacomo Dalla Chiara", "venue": "European Transport Research Review", "publisher": "Springer Science+Business Media", "abstract": "Freight vehicle parking facilities at large urban freight traffic generators, such as urban retail malls, are often characterized by a high volume of vehicle arrivals and a poor parking supply infrastructure. Recurrent congestion of freight parking facilities generates environmental (e.g. pollution), economic (e.g. delays in deliveries) and social (e.g. traffic) negative externalities. Solutions aimed at either improving or better managing the existing parking infrastructure rely heavily on data and data-driven models to predict their impact and guide their implementation. In the current work, we provide a quantitative study of the parking supply and freight vehicle drivers’ parking behaviour at urban retail malls. We use as case studies two typical urban retail malls located in Singapore, and collect detailed data on freight vehicles delivering or picking up goods at these malls. Insights from this data collection effort are relayed as data stories. We first describe the parking facility at a mall as a queueing system, where freight vehicles are the agents and their decisions are the parking location choice and the parking duration. Using the data collected, we analyse (i) the arrival rates of vehicles at the observed malls, (ii) the empirical distribution of parking durations at the loading bays, (iii) the factors that influence the parking duration, (iv) the empirical distribution of waiting times spent by freight vehicle queueing to access the loading bay, and (v) the driver parking location choices and how this choice is influenced by system congestion. This characterisation of freight driver behaviour and parking facility system performance enables one to understand current challenges, and begin to explore the feasibility of freight parking and loading bay management solutions.", "keywords": [ "Transport engineering", "Truck", "Traffic congestion", "Queueing theory", "Externality", "Duration (music)", "Business", "Computer science", "Engineering", "Automotive engineering", "Economics" ], "cited_by_count": 50, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s12544-017-0267-3" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4391449396", "doi": "10.1287/ijoc.2022.0390", "title": "Decremental State-Space Relaxations for the Basic Traveling Salesman Problem with a Drone", "year": 2024, "publication_date": "2024-02-01", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Marcos Blufstein", "Gonzalo Lera‐Romero", "Francisco J. Soulignac" ], "first_author": "Marcos Blufstein", "venue": "INFORMS journal on computing", "publisher": "Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences", "abstract": "Truck-and-drone routing problems have become an important research topic in the last decade because of their applications for last-mile deliveries. Despite the many publications in this area, the most efficient exact algorithms designed thus far struggle to solve the benchmark instances with 39 or more customers. This fact holds even for one of the simplest variants involving one truck and one drone whose routes must synchronize at customers’ locations: the basic traveling salesman problem with a drone (TSP-D). In this article, we devise a new algorithm for the TSP-D that solves every benchmark instance with up to 59 customers, and it scales up to 99 customers when the drone is much faster than the truck. The core of our method is a dynamic programming algorithm that is applied for column generation and variable fixing within tailored decremental state-space relaxation strategies. History: Accepted by Andrea Lodi, Area Editor for Design & Analysis of Algorithms–Discrete. Funding: This work was supported by Fondo para la Investigación Científica y Tecnológica [Grant PICT-2018-2961] (Ministry of Science, Argentina). Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/ijoc.2022.0390 .", "keywords": [ "Travelling salesman problem", "Drone", "Traveling purchaser problem", "2-opt", "State space", "Mathematical optimization", "Bottleneck traveling salesman problem", "Space (punctuation)", "Computer science", "State (computer science)", "Mathematics", "Algorithm" ], "cited_by_count": 16, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1287/ijoc.2022.0390" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W2611780819", "doi": "10.1080/15568318.2018.1503380", "title": "An urban consolidation center in the city of Copenhagen: A simulation study", "year": 2019, "publication_date": "2019-02-22", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Wouter van Heeswijk", "Rune Berg Larsen", "Allan Larsen" ], "first_author": "Wouter van Heeswijk", "venue": "International Journal of Sustainable Transportation", "publisher": "Taylor & Francis", "abstract": "Urban consolidation centers (UCCs) have a key role in many initiatives in urban logistics, yet few of them are successful in the long run. The high costs often prevent attracting a sufficient number of UCC users. In this paper, we study sustainable business models and the supporting role of administrative policies. We perform an agent-based simulation applied to the city of Copenhagen and collect data from a variety of sources to model the agents. Both the data and case setup are validated by means of expert interviews. We test 1,458 schemes that combine several administrative measures and cost settings. Most schemes yield significant environmental benefits; many of them reduce the truck kilometers driven by about 65% and emissions by about 70%. The key challenge is to identify schemes that are also financially sustainable. We show the importance of committing carriers to the UCC as soon as possible, as carriers potentially generate the bulk of the revenue. Subsequent revenues may be generated by offering value-adding services to receivers. Based on the numerical experiments, we pose various propositions that aid in providing favorable conditions for a UCC, improving its chances of long-term success.", "keywords": [ "Consolidation (business)", "Revenue", "Truck", "City logistics", "Variety (cybernetics)", "Transport engineering", "Business", "Environmental economics", "Data center", "Environmental planning", "Operations research", "Computer science" ], "cited_by_count": 81, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/15568318.2018.1503380?needAccess=true" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4407871667", "doi": "10.2139/ssrn.5117161", "title": "Tactical Routing and Fleet Planning in Drone-Assisted Last-Mile Delivery", "year": 2025, "publication_date": "2025-01-01", "type": "preprint", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Bahar D. Viniche", "Opher Baron", "Oded Berman", "Mehdi Nourinejad" ], "first_author": "Bahar D. Viniche", "venue": "SSRN Electronic Journal", "publisher": "RELX Group (Netherlands)", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Drone", "Mile", "Last mile (transportation)", "Routing (electronic design automation)", "Aeronautics", "Computer science", "Transport engineering", "Engineering", "Operations management", "Computer network", "Geography" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5117161" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W2610450154", "doi": null, "title": "City Logistics and Pooling Solutions: Obvious, Environmental friendly, Good acceptability, Winner- winner Strategies: Why Think more about it ?", "year": 2016, "publication_date": "2016-11-01", "type": "book-chapter", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Laurent Guihéry" ], "first_author": "Laurent Guihéry", "venue": "HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe)", "publisher": "Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique", "abstract": "City logistics projects and research on pooling logistics activities, especially in urban area, are nowadays on the agenda of land use planners and transport economist researchers. There is a general agreement on the relevancy, success and implementation of these strategies: acceptability of urban population is good, as (diesel motorized) trucks entering cities are considered as damaging the environment and generating strong nuisances on the neighbourhood. Local politicians and public policy designers have integrated these projects in new urban plans and future city modelling. Setting up an organization between shippers, transport companies, logisticians, supported by local authorities, needs a clear and rigorous analysis. Do we have to take into account the long term impact on innovation and possible distortion of competition and cartelization?", "keywords": [ "Pooling", "Winner-take-all", "Environmentally friendly", "Operations research", "Computer science", "Business", "Marketing", "Engineering", "Artificial intelligence" ], "cited_by_count": 1, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://hal.science/hal-01476465" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W7138932141", "doi": "10.1016/j.trip.2026.101941", "title": "Parking patterns of last-mile delivery vehicles: a comparison between light-duty trucks and electric cargo tricycles in downtown Toronto", "year": 2026, "publication_date": "2026-03-18", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Farah Ghizzawi", "Usman Ahmed", "Matthew J. Roorda" ], "first_author": "Farah Ghizzawi", "venue": "Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives", "publisher": "Elsevier BV", "abstract": "Electric cargo (e-cargo) tricycles provide an alternative mode for freight deliveries in dense urban areas. This study develops a data fusion framework to analyze and compare the parking patterns of delivery trucks and e-cargo tricycles conducting courier deliveries in downtown Toronto. Global Positioning System (GPS) data are processed to identify trip ends and stop locations. Shipment records are fused with the GPS trajectories to distinguish stops associated with delivery activities. The resulting dataset is used to develop parking duration models for trucks and e-cargo tricycles and quantify the influence of trip, shipment, and parking location attributes on the parking duration. Results show that e-cargo tricycles park for shorter periods than delivery trucks yet stop more frequently per tour. Parking durations increase with the number of receivers served, the number and weight of parcels handles, morning deliveries, high stop-frequency tours, and greater walking distances between parking locations and delivery destinations.", "keywords": [ "Truck", "Downtown", "Global Positioning System", "NonStop", "Duration (music)", "Kilometer", "Time of day" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trip.2026.101941" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W2110342725", "doi": "10.3141/1964-13", "title": "Modeling Impact of Technological Changes on Urban Commercial Trips by Commercial Activity Routing Type", "year": 2006, "publication_date": "2006-01-01", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Miguel Figliozzi" ], "first_author": "Miguel Figliozzi", "venue": "Transportation Research Record Journal of the Transportation Research Board", "publisher": "SAGE Publishing", "abstract": "Several noteworthy developments in logistics practice have taken place without an equivalent and comprehensive development in urban freight transportation modeling. Part of the problem is the lack of deep understanding of the workings of distribution processes in relation to the generation of truck traffic. This study emphasizes the role and importance that distribution network size and information and communications technology have on the truck traffic flows that materialize as the supply chain flows over the public infrastructure. A concept is developed of commercial activity routing types that characterize the interplay between transportation demand requests and routing characteristics. This research contributes to the field by proposing a novel and detailed characterization of truck flows in a supply chain context. With well-known, yet simple, models and formulas from vehicle routing, operations research, and management science literature, behavioral insights are derived about distributors’ and carriers’ routing and order-sizing decisions, since routing constraints and second-order effects are important drivers of truck flows. The main contribution is to bring a new commercial activity-routing perspective and a deeper level of operational decision-making analysis to cope with the intricacies of freight transportation modeling.", "keywords": [ "TRIPS architecture", "Transport engineering", "Routing (electronic design automation)", "Engineering", "Environmental science", "Embedded system" ], "cited_by_count": 32, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cengin_fac/273" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W995376278", "doi": "10.1016/j.trc.2015.07.004", "title": "Deliveries to residential units: A rising form of freight transportation in the U.S.", "year": 2015, "publication_date": "2015-07-23", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Xiaokun Wang", "Yiwei Zhou" ], "first_author": "Xiaokun Wang", "venue": "Transportation Research Part C Emerging Technologies", "publisher": "Elsevier BV", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "TRIPS architecture", "Transport engineering", "Business", "Truck", "Trip generation", "Engineering" ], "cited_by_count": 63, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trc.2015.07.004" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4393382014", "doi": "10.1016/j.trb.2024.102907", "title": "Scheduling shared passenger and freight transport for an underground logistics system", "year": 2024, "publication_date": "2024-04-01", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Siqiao Li", "Xiaoning Zhu", "Pan Shang", "Li Wang", "Tianqi Li" ], "first_author": "Siqiao Li", "venue": "Transportation Research Part B Methodological", "publisher": "Elsevier BV", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Scheduling (production processes)", "Business", "Transport engineering", "Traffic management", "Industrial organization", "Computer science", "Operations management", "Engineering" ], "cited_by_count": 49, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trb.2024.102907" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W2887654240", "doi": "10.21078/jssi-2018-302-18", "title": "Application of Drone in Solving Last Mile Parcel Delivery", "year": 2018, "publication_date": "2018-08-13", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Jiashi Liu", "Zhongliang Guan", "Jennifer S. Shang", "Xiang Xie" ], "first_author": "Jiashi Liu", "venue": "系统科学与信息学报(英文)", "publisher": null, "abstract": "Abstract The article is about solving the last mile delivery problem in rural town or village. We want to test the drone’s potential in parcel delivery. The objectives are 1) to introduce the cluster and truck-drone in tandem delivery method, 2) to compare the new method with the traditional TSP method in aspect of truck running distance, energy using and time occupation. The parcel delivery demand is sparse, so it is not dense enough for a truck to carry on delivery. We try to identify the best route for the drone to deliver the goods. We use k-mean method to carry on clustering, then we use enumeration method to fulfill the centroids delivery, which comes from the depot. We design a model and calculate the energy, time and distance saving between drone using method (DTSP) and traditional TSP method. The drone attended delivery saves truck delivery distance, energy consumption and time. The truck running distance of DTSP method saves 91.87%, the truck running distance is shortened from 189.69 km to 15.4252 km. The DTSP method saves 90.45% of energy. The DTSP method brings a 29.75% cutoff in time aspect when there are two drone in running. The research introduces the cluster and TSP combination method, which is a good way to carry on last mile delivery. The result shows a bright future for drone to attend parcel delivery. The e-commerce corporation can apply this method in practice.", "keywords": [ "Drone", "Truck", "Last mile (transportation)", "Computer science", "Cluster analysis", "Mile", "Cluster (spacecraft)", "Operations research", "Simulation", "Engineering", "Artificial intelligence", "Automotive engineering" ], "cited_by_count": 8, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.21078/jssi-2018-302-18" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W3202090826", "doi": "10.1145/3477084.3484952", "title": "SOSChain", "year": 2021, "publication_date": "2021-10-07", "type": "conference-paper", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Sahaya Beni Prathiba", "Gunasekaran Raja", "Sudha Anbalagan", "Renuka Narayanan", "K. Bhavani Venkata Karthik" ], "first_author": "Sahaya Beni Prathiba", "venue": null, "publisher": null, "abstract": "Global climate change has led to a steep rise in natural disasters. In these times, it is essential to provide emergency last-mile delivery to disaster-affected populations using connected delivery trucks; however, this gives rise to several challenges. There is an unpredictable demand for resources and the need for fault-tolerant path planning in case the trucks are subjected to attack or breakdowns. There is also the need to track resources to ensure no theft or maldistribution during critical situations. To achieve these objectives, we use a hybrid UAV-Truck architecture for last-mile relief distribution. To increase the delivery operation's robustness, we propose a Self-Optimizing StreamChain (SOSChain) that tracks and controls the status of trucks and their onboard resources. During failure scenarios, the use of information in the SOSChain enables other vehicles to optimally re-route and redistribute resources from damaged vehicles. Extensive simulation shows that SOSChain achieves over 25% improvement in throughput and up to 50% reduction in ordering latency compared to StreamChain approach in a simulated disaster environment with up to 50% vehicle failure rate.", "keywords": [ "Truck", "Robustness (evolution)", "Computer science", "Fault tolerance", "Natural disaster", "Mile", "Architecture", "Transport engineering", "Last mile (transportation)", "Failure rate", "Engineering", "Automotive engineering" ], "cited_by_count": 12, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1145/3477084.3484952" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W3107336733", "doi": "10.1016/j.eastsj.2020.100028", "title": "A Monte Carlo tree search for traveling salesman problem with drone", "year": 2020, "publication_date": "2020-01-01", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Minh Anh Nguyen", "Kazushi Sano", "Vu Tu Tran" ], "first_author": "Minh Anh Nguyen", "venue": "Asian Transport Studies", "publisher": "Elsevier BV", "abstract": "The use of drones and trucks working collaboratively has gained drastically attentions in recent years. We develop a new Monte Carlo Tree Search algorithm (MCTS) to solve the Traveling Salesman Problem with Drone (TSP-D) arising in the management of parcel last-mile-delivery systems. The approach seeks to find optimal decisions by taking random samples in decision space and building a search tree based on the results. We address several major issues in adapting the tree search concept to solve the TSP-D in this paper. The solution approach, aimed to minimize the total completion time, is tested on various problem instances derived from the well-known TSPLIB benchmark. Experimental results show a very promising performance of the proposed search method where it outperforms the compared heuristic method, providing new best solutions for 23 instances and an average 12% improvement in terms of solution quality.", "keywords": [ "Travelling salesman problem", "Monte Carlo tree search", "Drone", "Benchmark (surveying)", "Computer science", "Heuristic", "Mathematical optimization", "Tree (set theory)", "Monte Carlo method", "Heuristics", "Local search (optimization)", "Truck" ], "cited_by_count": 18, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2185556020300286/pdf" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W3215110799", "doi": null, "title": "The Increasing Adoption of Electric Vehicles (EVs) in The Last-Mile Delivery Operations", "year": 2021, "publication_date": "2021-01-01", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "George Cosmin Tanase" ], "first_author": "George Cosmin Tanase", "venue": "RePEc: Research Papers in Economics", "publisher": "Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis", "abstract": "Global demand for electric vehicles is accelerating as consumers become more eco-conscious and countries set new targets for cutting carbon emissions. The rise of e-commerce has catapulted electric vehicles to prominence. Concern about greenhouse gas emissions is driving the move away from diesel delivery vehicles towards trucks and vans using alternative power sources. Electric vehicles with a range of up to 150 miles are ideally suited to last mile deliveries, those with a limited radius. As global couriers and retail giants take steps to become more energy efficient, more of them are turning to electric vehicles for the last mile section of the delivery journey. Charging is one of the key considerations; substations with charging points for vehicles need to be incorporated into existing warehouse plots. While it won t necessarily change the structure of many existing buildings, those with more space available will be a step ahead.", "keywords": [ "Truck", "Last mile (transportation)", "Mile", "Greenhouse gas", "Business", "Electric vehicle", "Transport engineering", "Diesel fuel", "Electric power", "Range (aeronautics)", "Automotive engineering", "Environmental science" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "http://crd-aida.ro/RePEc/rdc/v12i3/3.pdf" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4292572072", "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2306.04219", "title": "A Decomposition Approach to Last Mile Delivery Using Public Transportation Systems", "year": 2023, "publication_date": "2023-06-07", "type": "preprint", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Minakshi Punam Mandal", "Claudia Archetti" ], "first_author": "Minakshi Punam Mandal", "venue": "arXiv (Cornell University)", "publisher": "Cornell University", "abstract": "This study explores the potential of using public transportation systems for freight delivery, where we intend to utilize the spare capacities of public vehicles like buses, trams, metros, and trains, particularly during off-peak hours, to transport packages within the city instead of using dedicated delivery vehicles. The study contributes {to the growing} literature on innovative strategies for performing sustainable last mile deliveries. We study an operational level problem called the Three-Tier Delivery Problem on Public Transportation, where packages are first transported from the Consolidation and Distribution Center (CDC) to nearby public vehicle stations by delivery trucks. From there, public vehicles transport them into the city area. The last leg of the delivery is performed to deliver the packages to their respective customers using green vehicles or eco-friendly systems. We propose mixed-integer linear programming formulations to study the transport of packages from the CDC to the customers, use decomposition approaches to solve them, and provide numerical experiments to demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of the system. Our results show that this system has the potential to drastically reduce the length of trips performed by dedicated delivery vehicles, thereby reducing the negative social and environmental impacts of existing last mile delivery systems.", "keywords": [ "Mile", "Decomposition", "Last mile (transportation)", "Public transport", "Computer science", "Transport engineering", "Engineering", "Geography", "Geodesy", "Chemistry" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2306.04219" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4412409198", "doi": "10.29121/ijetmr.v10.i12.2023.1642", "title": "E-COMMERCE AND THE EVOLUTION OF LAST-MILE DELIVERY: MEETING CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS", "year": 2023, "publication_date": "2023-12-19", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Prakash Divakaran", "Vandana Mishra Chaturvedi" ], "first_author": "Prakash Divakaran", "venue": "International Journal of Engineering Technologies and Management Research", "publisher": "Granthaalayah Publications and Printers", "abstract": "E-commerce has transformed retail, offering customers ease and accessibility like never before. However, the last-mile delivery, the product's last leg from the distribution center to the customer's doorstep, has become a major hurdle for e-commerce enterprises. This abstract examines how e-commerce businesses are adapting to shifting consumer expectations in last-mile delivery. The abstract opens with e-commerce's fast expansion and influence on conventional retail methods. It underlines the trend toward online buying, which increases demand for efficient and rapid delivery services. The abstract then discusses last-mile delivery and consumer satisfaction. Delivery speed, adaptability, openness, and sustainability affect client expectations. The abstract also discusses last-mile delivery improvements. Drones, autonomous trucks, and smart lockers improve delivery efficiency and convenience. Crowd shipping, which uses local resources to improve last-mile operations, is also examined. The abstract highlights e-commerce enterprises' last-mile delivery issues. It covers urban congestion, unsuccessful deliveries, refunds, and transportation environmental effect. To satisfy client expectations, sustainable and eco-friendly delivery options are needed. Finally, the abstract emphasizes customer-centric last-mile delivery. Real-time monitoring, proactive communication, and customizable delivery choices improve customer experience. To maximize last-mile operations, e-commerce enterprises, logistics providers, and local stakeholders should collaborate. This abstract illuminates e-commerce last-mile delivery. It emphasizes the necessity of satisfying consumer expectations in this key phase of the delivery process and gives insights into the methods and technologies used by e-commerce enterprises to improve last-mile delivery and customer happiness.", "keywords": [ "Mile", "Last mile (transportation)", "Business", "Mobile commerce", "Marketing", "Geography" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://www.granthaalayahpublication.org/ijetmr-ojms/ijetmr/article/download/1642/1361" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W7125351660", "doi": null, "title": "Differentiated Pickup Point Offering for Emission Reduction in Last-Mile Delivery", "year": 2026, "publication_date": "2026-01-20", "type": "preprint", "language": null, "authors": [ "Albina Galiullina", "Wouter van Heeswijk", "Tom Van Woensel" ], "first_author": "Albina Galiullina", "venue": "arXiv (Cornell University)", "publisher": "Cornell University", "abstract": "Pickup points are widely recognized as a sustainable alternative to home delivery, as consolidating orders at pickup locations can shorten delivery routes and improve first-attempt success rates. However, these benefits may be negated when customers drive to pick up their orders. This study proposes a Differentiated Pickup Point Offering (DPO) policy that aims to jointly reduce emissions from delivery truck routes and customer travel. Under DPO, each arriving customer is offered a single recommended pickup point, rather than an unrestricted choice among all locations, while retaining the option of home delivery. We study this problem in a dynamic and stochastic setting, where the pickup point offered to each customer depends on previously realized customer locations and delivery choices. To design effective DPO policies, we adopt a reinforcement learning-based approach that accounts for spatial relationships between customers and pickup points and their implications for future route consolidation. Computational experiments show that differentiated pickup point offerings can substantially reduce total carbon emissions. The proposed policies reduce total emissions by up to 9% relative to home-only delivery and by 2% on average compared with alternative policies, including unrestricted pickup point choice and nearest pickup point assignment. Differentiated offerings are particularly effective in dense urban settings with many pickup points and short inter-location distances. Moreover, explicitly accounting for the dynamic nature of customer arrivals and choices is especially important when customers are less inclined to choose pickup point delivery over home delivery.", "keywords": [ "Pickup", "Point (geometry)", "Point of sale", "Truck", "Data striping" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2601.14196" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W7125168470", "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2601.14196", "title": "Differentiated Pickup Point Offering for Emission Reduction in Last-Mile Delivery", "year": 2026, "publication_date": "2026-01-20", "type": "preprint", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Albina Galiullina", "Wouter van Heeswijk", "Tom Van Woensel" ], "first_author": "Albina Galiullina", "venue": "TU/e Research Portal", "publisher": null, "abstract": "Pickup points are widely recognized as a sustainable alternative to home delivery, as consolidating orders at pickup locations can shorten delivery routes and improve first-attempt success rates. However, these benefits may be negated when customers drive to pick up their orders. This study proposes a Differentiated Pickup Point Offering (DPO) policy that aims to jointly reduce emissions from delivery truck routes and customer travel. Under DPO, each arriving customer is offered a single recommended pickup point, rather than an unrestricted choice among all locations, while retaining the option of home delivery. We study this problem in a dynamic and stochastic setting, where the pickup point offered to each customer depends on previously realized customer locations and delivery choices. To design effective DPO policies, we adopt a reinforcement learning-based approach that accounts for spatial relationships between customers and pickup points and their implications for future route consolidation. Computational experiments show that differentiated pickup point offerings can substantially reduce total carbon emissions. The proposed policies reduce total emissions by up to 9% relative to home-only delivery and by 2% on average compared with alternative policies, including unrestricted pickup point choice and nearest pickup point assignment. Differentiated offerings are particularly effective in dense urban settings with many pickup points and short inter-location distances. Moreover, explicitly accounting for the dynamic nature of customer arrivals and choices is especially important when customers are less inclined to choose pickup point delivery over home delivery.", "keywords": [ "Pickup", "Point (geometry)", "Point of sale", "Truck", "Data striping" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://research.tue.nl/en/publications/0c40025c-a94b-4cb8-9562-a47a2177c02f" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W7129110204", "doi": "10.2139/ssrn.6249653", "title": "Differentiated Pickup Point Offering for Emission Reduction in Last-Mile Delivery", "year": 2026, "publication_date": "2026-01-01", "type": "preprint", "language": null, "authors": [ "Albina Galiullina", "Wouter van Heeswijk", "Tom Van Woensel" ], "first_author": "Albina Galiullina", "venue": "SSRN Electronic Journal", "publisher": "RELX Group (Netherlands)", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Pickup", "Point (geometry)", "Point of sale", "Representation (politics)", "Truck", "Data striping" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.6249653" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4381143934", "doi": "10.2139/ssrn.4484149", "title": "Approximation Algorithms to Find Minimum Number of Drones for Last-Mile Delivery", "year": 2023, "publication_date": "2023-01-01", "type": "preprint", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Partha Sarathi Mandal", "Saswata Jana", "Partha Sarathi Mandal" ], "first_author": "Partha Sarathi Mandal", "venue": "SSRN Electronic Journal", "publisher": "RELX Group (Netherlands)", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Drone", "Mile", "Last mile (transportation)", "Computer science", "Algorithm", "Mathematics", "Geography", "Geodesy" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4484149" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W7208807344", "doi": "10.5281/zenodo.22297604", "title": "When truck-paired drones save time and energy: capability interactions and a power-ratio boundary in last-mile delivery (solver + experiments)", "year": 2026, "publication_date": "2026-09-04", "type": "software", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Yifu Zhao", "Xiaofan Zou", "Junhao Wei", "Yanxiao Li", "Haochen Li", "Baili Lu", "Sio‐Kei Im", "Yapeng Wang", "Xu Yang" ], "first_author": "Yifu Zhao", "venue": "Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)", "publisher": "European Organization for Nuclear Research", "abstract": "Reproducibility release for the Scientific Reports manuscript “When truck-paired drones save time and energy: capability interactions and a power-ratio boundary in last-mile delivery.” The archive contains the truck–drone routing solver, exact and diagnostic validation code, experiment and analysis drivers, pinned Python and Julia environments, cached road-network inputs, all retained seed-level results and routes, checkpoints, revision figures, protocol and deviation records, a release manifest, and per-file SHA-256 checksums. It supports the reported capability-interaction, operational-sensitivity, time–energy boundary, fixed-density, comparator, and road-geometry analyses. Larger-instance solutions are heuristic estimates and carry no optimality or near-optimality claim.", "keywords": [ "Drone", "Boundary (topology)", "Python (programming language)", "Heuristic", "Protocol (science)", "Reproducibility" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22297604" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W7208807647", "doi": "10.5281/zenodo.22297603", "title": "When truck-paired drones save time and energy: capability interactions and a power-ratio boundary in last-mile delivery (solver + experiments)", "year": 2026, "publication_date": "2026-09-04", "type": "software", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Yifu Zhao", "Xiaofan Zou", "Junhao Wei", "Yanxiao Li", "Haochen Li", "Baili Lu", "Sio‐Kei Im", "Yapeng Wang", "Xu Yang" ], "first_author": "Yifu Zhao", "venue": "Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)", "publisher": "European Organization for Nuclear Research", "abstract": "Reproducibility release for the Scientific Reports manuscript “When truck-paired drones save time and energy: capability interactions and a power-ratio boundary in last-mile delivery.” The archive contains the truck–drone routing solver, exact and diagnostic validation code, experiment and analysis drivers, pinned Python and Julia environments, cached road-network inputs, all retained seed-level results and routes, checkpoints, revision figures, protocol and deviation records, a release manifest, and per-file SHA-256 checksums. It supports the reported capability-interaction, operational-sensitivity, time–energy boundary, fixed-density, comparator, and road-geometry analyses. Larger-instance solutions are heuristic estimates and carry no optimality or near-optimality claim.", "keywords": [ "Drone", "Boundary (topology)", "Python (programming language)", "Heuristic", "Protocol (science)", "Reproducibility" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22297603" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W2922565647", "doi": "10.1016/j.trb.2019.02.008", "title": "The multi-objective Steiner pollution-routing problem on congested urban road networks", "year": 2019, "publication_date": "2019-03-20", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Ramin Raeesi", "Konstantinos G. Zografos" ], "first_author": "Ramin Raeesi", "venue": "Transportation Research Part B Methodological", "publisher": "Elsevier BV", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Truck", "Computer science", "Pareto principle", "Vehicle routing problem", "Fuel efficiency", "Integer programming", "Mathematical optimization", "Duration (music)", "Scheduling (production processes)", "Operations research", "Routing (electronic design automation)", "Transport engineering" ], "cited_by_count": 64, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/id/eprint/131609/1/TheSPRP_RaeesiZografos_TRB.pdf" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W7126032662", "doi": "10.5281/zenodo.18417916", "title": "A Novel Framework for Optimizing the Routes of Drones During the Last Mile Delivery Process", "year": 2023, "publication_date": "2023-06-01", "type": "article", "language": null, "authors": [ "Archit Agarwal", "Ayush Goyal", "Dinesh Kumar Vishwakarma" ], "first_author": "Archit Agarwal", "venue": "Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)", "publisher": "European Organization for Nuclear Research", "abstract": "The growing e-commerce industry and demand for fast deliveries have led to the exploration of alternative lastmile delivery methods, including drone delivery systems. Optimising the routes for drone delivery presents a formidable challenge due to the intricate nature of the problem. This research paper introduces a novel solution that combines the Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) and the Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP) to tackle the last-mile drone delivery issue. A mathematical model and a heuristic algorithm are devised, incorporating clustering of delivery locations, TSP routing for the truck, and VRP routing for the drones. Two approaches are employed to determine the most efficient truck-drone route. The first approach is the flying sidekick Travelling Salesman Problem (FSTSP), which employs a single drone alongside the truck. The second approach is the parallel drone scheduling Travelling Salesman Problem (PDSTSP), which involves two or more drones. Each drone can fly between its designated delivery location and the depot. In both variations, the objective is to deliver packages from a warehouse to a group of customer locations using a truck and a cluster of drones. To enhance the PDSTSP, we propose a modified approach where the truck serves as a dynamic drone depot, releasing drones at each cluster of delivery locations. The proposed solution is evaluated using real-world data, and the results demonstrate a significant optimization in terms of distance travelled and delivery time compared to traditional delivery methods.", "keywords": [ "Drone", "Travelling salesman problem", "Vehicle routing problem", "Cluster analysis", "Routing (electronic design automation)", "Scheduling (production processes)", "Truck", "Heuristic" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18417916" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W7126081051", "doi": "10.5281/zenodo.18417915", "title": "A Novel Framework for Optimizing the Routes of Drones During the Last Mile Delivery Process", "year": 2023, "publication_date": "2023-06-01", "type": "article", "language": null, "authors": [ "Archit Agarwal", "Ayush Goyal", "Dinesh Kumar Vishwakarma" ], "first_author": "Archit Agarwal", "venue": "Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)", "publisher": "European Organization for Nuclear Research", "abstract": "The growing e-commerce industry and demand for fast deliveries have led to the exploration of alternative lastmile delivery methods, including drone delivery systems. Optimising the routes for drone delivery presents a formidable challenge due to the intricate nature of the problem. This research paper introduces a novel solution that combines the Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) and the Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP) to tackle the last-mile drone delivery issue. A mathematical model and a heuristic algorithm are devised, incorporating clustering of delivery locations, TSP routing for the truck, and VRP routing for the drones. Two approaches are employed to determine the most efficient truck-drone route. The first approach is the flying sidekick Travelling Salesman Problem (FSTSP), which employs a single drone alongside the truck. The second approach is the parallel drone scheduling Travelling Salesman Problem (PDSTSP), which involves two or more drones. Each drone can fly between its designated delivery location and the depot. In both variations, the objective is to deliver packages from a warehouse to a group of customer locations using a truck and a cluster of drones. To enhance the PDSTSP, we propose a modified approach where the truck serves as a dynamic drone depot, releasing drones at each cluster of delivery locations. The proposed solution is evaluated using real-world data, and the results demonstrate a significant optimization in terms of distance travelled and delivery time compared to traditional delivery methods.", "keywords": [ "Drone", "Travelling salesman problem", "Vehicle routing problem", "Cluster analysis", "Routing (electronic design automation)", "Scheduling (production processes)", "Truck", "Heuristic" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18417915" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4392999284", "doi": "10.1111/itor.13452", "title": "Traveling salesman problem with drone and bicycle: multimodal last‐mile e‐mobility", "year": 2024, "publication_date": "2024-03-20", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Erfan Babaee Tırkolaee", "Emre Çakmak", "Saliha Karadayi‐Usta" ], "first_author": "Erfan Babaee Tırkolaee", "venue": "International Transactions in Operational Research", "publisher": "Wiley", "abstract": "Abstract Recently, the multimodal last‐mile e‐mobility concept has been at the center of attention for cleaner, greener, and more accessible urban deliveries. As part of sustainable transportation systems, multimodal e‐mobility is proper for a variety of logistics operations as well as medical applications. This work tries to address a novel application of multimodal e‐mobility through introducing and modeling the traveling salesman problem with drone and bicycle (TSP‐D‐B). Therefore, a novel mixed integer linear programming model is developed to formulate the problem wherein the total traveling time is minimized. As part of the last‐mile delivery, a fleet of three vehicles including a truck, a drone, and a bicycle is taken into account to serve the customers in a single visit. The truck is considered as the main vehicle, while the drone and bicycle can be preferred in case of emergencies such as traffic or route failures. In order to assess the complexity, validity and applicability of the offered model, a dataset including 64 different benchmarks is generated, and according to the findings, the model is able to efficiently solve the benchmarks for up to 50 customers in 685 s maximum. A comparison is also made between TSP‐D‐B, the classic version of the TSP and the TSP‐D, which reveals that TSP‐D‐B provides appropriate service time savings in all benchmarks. Finally, another comparative analysis is made using several instances adapted from the literature. It is revealed that TSP‐D‐B leads to significant time savings in most instances.", "keywords": [ "Drone", "Travelling salesman problem", "Mile", "Computer science", "Geography", "Biology", "Algorithm", "Botany" ], "cited_by_count": 20, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/itor.13452" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4388842218", "doi": "10.1016/j.trd.2023.103983", "title": "Spatiotemporal characteristics and driving factors of CO2 emissions from road freight transportation", "year": 2023, "publication_date": "2023-11-20", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Pengjun Zhao", "Zhaoxiang Li", "Zuopeng Xiao", "Shixiong Jiang", "Zhangyuan He", "Mengzhu Zhang" ], "first_author": "Pengjun Zhao", "venue": "Transportation Research Part D Transport and Environment", "publisher": "Elsevier BV", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Truck", "Transport engineering", "Sustainability", "Greenhouse gas", "Environmental science", "Business", "Environmental economics", "Engineering", "Economics", "Automotive engineering" ], "cited_by_count": 56, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trd.2023.103983" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W3083731300", "doi": "10.1080/0305215x.2020.1808973", "title": "A hub-and-spoke architecture for a parcel delivery system using the cross-docking distribution strategy", "year": 2020, "publication_date": "2020-09-03", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Hamidreza Arbabi", "Mohammad Mahdi Nasiri", "Ali Bozorgi-Amiri" ], "first_author": "Hamidreza Arbabi", "venue": "Engineering Optimization", "publisher": "Taylor & Francis", "abstract": "Hamidreza Arbabi , Mohammad Mahdi Nasiri* & Ali Bozorgi-Amiri School of Industrial Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, IranCONTACT Mohammad Mahdi Nasiri mmnasiri@ut.ac.irThis article develops a hub-and-spoke architecture for a parcel delivery system using a network that includes a distribution centre and several cross-dock facilities. Several real-world assumptions, including an electric truck fleet, mobile charging station, third-party logistics, capacity constraints, last-mile deliveries and customer dissatisfaction, are incorporated in this problem. Besides, because of the high complexity of the problem, a novel matheuristic algorithm based on the combination of the fix-and-relax algorithm (FARA) and genetic algorithm (GA), namely Mb-FARGA, is developed to solve large-sized instances. A comprehensive computational analysis is accomplished to validate the proposed mathematical models and evaluate the performance of the Mb-FARGA method. According to the results, the Mb-FARGA method demonstrates a very favourable performance. Moreover, the results show that considering a distribution centre with appropriate capacity in the cross-docking system is an excellent strategy to enhance customer satisfaction, improve the system’s performance and reduce capacity shortages.", "keywords": [ "Architecture", "Engineering", "Docking (animal)", "Distribution (mathematics)", "Mathematics", "Geography", "Medicine" ], "cited_by_count": 20, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/A_hub-and-spoke_architecture_for_a_parcel_delivery_system_using_the_cross-docking_distribution_strategy/12911651" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W7131932987", "doi": null, "title": "A Decision Approach for Evaluation of Last Mile Delivery Methods: A Case Study in Istanbul", "year": 2025, "publication_date": "2025-08-01", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Rahman Filar", "ESİN MUKUL TAYLAN", "Nazlı Göker Mutlu" ], "first_author": "Rahman Filar", "venue": "Galatasaray University - AVESIS", "publisher": null, "abstract": "The rapid increase in demand for e-commerce has changed and transformedthe logistics sector and made the integration of sustainability criterianecessary. This study addresses the sustainable assessment of differenttransportation modes used for last-mile delivery in Istanbul, especially in thecontext of e-commerce. The aim is to analyze the environmental impacts ofdelivery vehicles, such as carbon emissions, energy consumption, and trafficdensity, in order to help decision makers make more sustainable choices. Acomparison is made among bicycles, motorcycles, pickup trucks, andmultimodal/hybrid vehicles, which are commonly used for last-mile delivery, byconsidering their environmental performances. In order to better manageuncertainties and subjective evaluations, the fuzzy multi-criteriadecision-making method was chosen, allowing for a more realistic and accurateanalysis of transportation alternatives.", "keywords": [ "Sustainability", "Order (exchange)", "Fuzzy logic", "Sustainable development", "Environmental impact assessment", "Decision support system", "Carbon footprint", "Last mile (transportation)" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://avesis.gsu.edu.tr/publication/details/1229a635-6ec0-4b5d-9348-a167642e56c9/oai" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W3135977922", "doi": null, "title": "Simulation Test Bed for Drone-Supported Logistics Systems", "year": 2019, "publication_date": "2019-01-01", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Brent A. McCunney", "Kristof P. Van Cauwenberghe" ], "first_author": "Brent A. McCunney", "venue": "DSpace@MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)", "publisher": "Massachusetts Institute of Technology", "abstract": "Same-day delivery is an increasingly relevant logistics service because of a continued boom in e- commerce. As customer orders are submitted dynamically during the day, companies need to dispatch vehicles from distribution centers to fulfill these orders as they come in. Given their advantages over conventional vehicles such as direct flight, no road traffic, and no driver/operator requirements, autonomous drones have recently been proposed for last mile package delivery. This study examines in what situations drones could be used to resupply trucks to reduce the time and/or cost of delivery. Drones can be used to dispatch packages from the distribution center to transshipment points where trucks can pick up packages instead of returning to the distribution center. The use of drones requires a new transportation network and routing. A simulation using SIMIO was developed to assess the impact of using drones to resupply trucks through transshipment points. Both a subset of the city of Boston and a portion of the rural area around Pittsfield, MA were used with package delivery orders arriving throughout the simulated time. Through dynamic dispatching for same-day delivery, orders were delivered significantly faster when transshipment points were resupplied by drones than in conventional last mile delivery. In the Pittsfield region analysis, the baseline with one transshipment point was 36% faster than conventional package delivery. The total truck distance traveled while delivering packages was also reduced by 24% or on average 80km per 8-hour work day. In the Boston case study, the baseline scenario of 4 transshipment points was 66% faster (2 hours) at delivering packages than conventional package delivery. Four transshipment points also resulted in a 10% or 60km a day less distance traveled for the trucks. Our research indicates that last mile package delivery companies can use drones and transshipment points to reduce package delivery time as well as truck travel distance.", "keywords": [ "Drone", "Test (biology)", "Aeronautics", "Computer science", "Engineering", "Geology" ], "cited_by_count": 16, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/121281" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W3184187325", "doi": "10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2021.101686", "title": "A systematic review of agent-based models for autonomous vehicles in urban mobility and logistics: Possibilities for integrated simulation models", "year": 2021, "publication_date": "2021-07-23", "type": "review", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Jingjun Li", "Evy Rombaut", "Lieselot Vanhaverbeke" ], "first_author": "Jingjun Li", "venue": "Computers Environment and Urban Systems", "publisher": "Elsevier BV", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Computer science", "Flexibility (engineering)", "Truck", "Transport engineering", "Transparency (behavior)", "Systems engineering", "Operations research", "Engineering", "Computer security" ], "cited_by_count": 100, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2021.101686" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4411433101", "doi": "10.1007/978-3-031-77723-3_30", "title": "Travel and Service Time Prediction in Last Mile Delivery Using GPS Data", "year": 2025, "publication_date": "2025-01-01", "type": "conference-paper", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Emiliano Bodean", "Gabriela Patricia Henning" ], "first_author": "Emiliano Bodean", "venue": "Lecture notes in production engineering", "publisher": "Springer Nature", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Global Positioning System", "Mile", "Last mile (transportation)", "Computer science", "Service (business)", "Real-time computing", "Geography", "Telecommunications", "Business", "Geodesy", "Marketing" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-77723-3_30" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4385611569", "doi": "10.3390/systems11080403", "title": "Modeling a Carbon-Efficient Road–Rail Intermodal Routing Problem with Soft Time Windows in a Time-Dependent and Fuzzy Environment by Chance-Constrained Programming", "year": 2023, "publication_date": "2023-08-06", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Yan Sun", "Guohua Sun", "Baoliang Huang", "Jie Ge" ], "first_author": "Yan Sun", "venue": "Systems", "publisher": "Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute", "abstract": "This study explores a road–rail intermodal routing problem. To improve the carbon efficiency of transportation, reducing CO2 emissions is considered by the routing. Soft time windows are incorporated into the routing to optimize the timeliness of the first-mile pickup and last-mile delivery services in intermodal transportation. The routing is further modeled in a time-dependent and fuzzy environment where the average truck speeds of the road depend on the truck departure times and are simultaneously considered fuzzy along with rail capacities. The fuzzy truck speed leads to the fuzziness of three aspects, including speed-dependent CO2 emissions of the road, a timetable-constrained transfer process from road to rail, and delivery time window violation. This study formulates the routing problem under the above considerations and carbon tax regulation as a combination of transportation path planning problem and truck departure time and speed matching problem. A fuzzy nonlinear optimization model is then established for the proposed routing problem. Furthermore, chance-constrained programming with general fuzzy measure is used to conduct the defuzzification of the model to make the problem solvable, and linearization techniques are adopted to linearize the model to enhance the efficiency of problem-solving. Finally, this study presents an empirical case to demonstrate the effectiveness of the designed approach. This case study evaluates the performance of carbon tax regulation by comparing it with multi-objective optimization. It also focuses on sensitivity analysis to discuss the influence of the optimistic–pessimistic parameter and confidence level on the optimization results. Several managerial insights are revealed based on the case study.", "keywords": [ "Fuzzy logic", "Routing (electronic design automation)", "Mathematical optimization", "Truck", "Computer science", "Vehicle routing problem", "Operations research", "Path (computing)", "Transport engineering", "Engineering", "Automotive engineering", "Mathematics" ], "cited_by_count": 14, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://www.mdpi.com/2079-8954/11/8/403/pdf?version=1691313973" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W3020067313", "doi": "10.7922/g21z42pk", "title": "Analytical Modeling Framework to Assess the Economic and Environmental Impacts of Residential Deliveries, and Evaluate Sustainable Last-Mile Strategies", "year": 2020, "publication_date": "2020-01-01", "type": "preprint", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Miguel Jaller" ], "first_author": "Miguel Jaller", "venue": "RePEc: Research Papers in Economics", "publisher": "Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis", "abstract": "In the last decade, e‐commerce has grown substantially, increasing business‐to‐business, business‐to‐consumer, and consumer‐to‐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.View the NCST Project Webpage", "keywords": [ "Last mile (transportation)", "Mile", "Sustainability", "Noise pollution", "Externality", "Environmental economics", "Business model", "Business", "Econometric model", "Prosperity", "Truck", "Transport engineering" ], "cited_by_count": 6, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4143j4pr" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4318964370", "doi": "10.2172/1844322", "title": "Connected Energy Management System to Enable Battery Electric Last-Mile Delivery Vehicles", "year": 2022, "publication_date": "2022-08-29", "type": "report", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Toni R. Farley", "William F. Northrop" ], "first_author": "Toni R. Farley", "venue": null, "publisher": null, "abstract": "In this SBIR project Phase I project, Exergi Predictive, LLC (Exergi) developed a connected energy management system (c-EMS) for application in the nascent electrified lastmile delivery truck market, building previous work in range-extended hybrid delivery trucks.", "keywords": [ "Truck", "Mile", "Last mile (transportation)", "Energy management", "Battery (electricity)", "Delivery system", "Automotive engineering", "Work (physics)", "Range (aeronautics)", "Transport engineering", "Engineering", "Computer science" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1844322" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4411438627", "doi": "10.1016/j.tre.2025.104231", "title": "To ride or to fly: Optimal freight-on-transit operations using drones", "year": 2025, "publication_date": "2025-06-19", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Jesus Osorio", "Yanfeng Ouyang" ], "first_author": "Jesus Osorio", "venue": "Transportation Research Part E Logistics and Transportation Review", "publisher": "Elsevier BV", "abstract": "With the rapid growth of e-commerce, urban areas are facing increasing congestion, particularly from last-mile deliveries. This challenge has prompted the exploration of innovative solutions. One such promising approach is freight-on-transit (FoT) operations, which utilize existing high-capacity urban transit networks to transport goods to designated transit stations, where more energy-efficient and flexible modes complete the last-mile delivery. This paper proposes a modeling framework for optimizing FoT operations using drones. The proposed mixed-integer linear program formulation accounts for fixed transit vehicle schedules, capacity constraints, and drone battery limitations. The problem is decomposed into a min-cost flow and drone vehicle routing problem with time windows, and a Lagrangian relaxation with a column generation algorithm is proposed as the solution method. Numerical experiments on hypothetical networks demonstrate the system’s effectiveness, highlighting the importance of buffer capacity in transit vehicles and extended drone battery life. A real-world case study in Chicago’s Metra system reveals significant cost savings and operational benefits compared to traditional truck-based or drone-only delivery methods.", "keywords": [ "Drone", "Transit (satellite)", "Transport engineering", "Engineering", "Aeronautics", "Computer science", "Operations research", "Business", "Public transport" ], "cited_by_count": 10, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tre.2025.104231" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W7127080930", "doi": "10.1109/ieem63636.2025.11357717", "title": "Optimizing Last-Mile Delivery Efficiency through a Multi-Vehicle and MultiArea Collaboration Model", "year": 2025, "publication_date": "2025-12-07", "type": "conference-paper", "language": null, "authors": [ "S. H. Lu", "C. C. Chang", "R. Raj" ], "first_author": "S. H. Lu", "venue": null, "publisher": null, "abstract": "The rapid growth of e-commerce has heightened the need for logistics companies to improve package delivery efficiency. In conventional delivery models, vehicle speed is often constrained by urban speed regulations and the difficulty of locating available parking spaces. Unlike previous studies that focus on trucks collaborating with a single type of auxiliary vehicle, this paper explores a multivehicle approach by integrating a truck with two distinct types of delivery vehicles—a drone and a robot—and determining the most suitable deployment scenario for each. To address this problem, a heuristic algorithm is proposed to solve the Multiple Area and Multiple Vehicle Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP-MAMV). Experimental results show that deploying robots for deliveries in high-density urban areas can significantly enhance efficiency, while in lower- density regions, drones outperform robots in executing last- mile deliveries.", "keywords": [ "Drone", "Truck", "Heuristic", "Software deployment", "Travelling salesman problem", "Focus (optics)", "Robot" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1109/ieem63636.2025.11357717" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4414567898", "doi": "10.1016/j.ifacol.2025.09.437", "title": "Autonomous Delivery Vehicles in Two-Echelon Routing for Sustainable Last-Mile Logistics", "year": 2025, "publication_date": "2025-01-01", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Nima Moradi", "Vahid Kayvanfar", "Roberto Baldacci" ], "first_author": "Nima Moradi", "venue": "IFAC-PapersOnLine", "publisher": "Elsevier BV", "abstract": "The rapid growth of e-commerce has intensified the demand for Efficient and sustainable urban logistics systems. This study introduces the two-echelon vehicle routing problem with autonomous delivery vehicles (2E-VRP-ADV) to optimize last-mile delivery by integrating conventional trucks in the first echelon and autonomous delivery vehicles in the second. A mixed-integer linear programming model is developed to minimize routing costs while considering ADV-Specific parameters such as battery and load capacity constraints. Computational experiments on newly generated instances were performed, and sensitivity analyses revealed the impact of ADV battery and load capacities on delivery efficiency, providing actionable insights for improving environmental sustainability.", "keywords": [ "Truck", "Vehicle routing problem", "Routing (electronic design automation)", "Battery (electricity)", "Linear programming", "City logistics" ], "cited_by_count": 6, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ifacol.2025.09.437" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W7163349315", "doi": "10.5281/zenodo.20491477", "title": "Dataset for Last-Mile Delivery Energy Consumption: Insights from a Simulation-Based Analysis", "year": 2026, "publication_date": "2026-06-01", "type": "dataset", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Michał Kłodawski", "Konrad Lewczuk", "Jiajing Gao" ], "first_author": "Michał Kłodawski", "venue": "Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)", "publisher": "European Organization for Nuclear Research", "abstract": "The purpose of this dataset is to enable the replication and interpretation of the simulation research results presented in the article: Kłodawski, M., Lewczuk, K., & Gao, J. (2025). Last-Mile Delivery Energy Consumption: Insights from a Simulation-Based Analysis. In Q. Xiaobo, W. Zhang, Y. Liu, & Y. Yiping (Eds.), Proceedings of the 14th Asia-Pacific Conference on Transportation and the Environment (APTE 2025), pp. 176-187. Atlantis Press. https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-972-8_17 The article presents a simulation-based analysis of energy consumption in last-mile delivery systems. The analysed variants include:- courier-to-customer delivery,- courier-to-parcel-locker delivery with customers collecting packages,- courier-to-parcel-locker delivery with drones assigned to parcel lockers,- courier-to-parcel-locker delivery with drones operating in the whole service area. The dataset contains input data and simulation output tables used to analyse delivery time, distance, energy consumption and CO2 emissions for the considered last-mile delivery variants. The dataset was created as part of the E-Laas project (Energy optimal urban logistics As A Service).Project implemented as part of the call ERA-NET Cofund Urban Accessibility and Connectivity (ENUAC China Call) organized by JPI Urban Europe and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 875022. E-Laas project is carried out in an international consortium. Project coordinator in Europe: Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden), project coordinator in China: Shanghai University (China), consortium members: Tsinghua University (China), Warsaw University of Technology (Poland), cooperation partners: Stockholms stad, Trafikkontoret (Sweden), ParkUnload (Spain), Metropolis GZM (Poland), Shanghai Urban-Rural Construction and Transportation Department (China), Volvo Group Trucks Technology and Operations (Sweden).- The Chinese part of the project is funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China.- The Swedish part of the project is funded by Swedish Energy Agency.- The Polish part of the project is funded by the National Science Centre, Poland (project no. 2022/04/Y/ST8/00134). The value of the co-financing is PLN 878,107.00. Project duration 27/04/2023 - 26/04/2026 (36 months).", "keywords": [ "Energy consumption", "Drone", "China", "Consumption (sociology)", "Service (business)", "Integrated project delivery", "Efficient energy use" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20491477" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W7163416220", "doi": "10.5281/zenodo.20491476", "title": "Dataset for Last-Mile Delivery Energy Consumption: Insights from a Simulation-Based Analysis", "year": 2026, "publication_date": "2026-06-01", "type": "dataset", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Michał Kłodawski", "Konrad Lewczuk", "Jiajing Gao" ], "first_author": "Michał Kłodawski", "venue": "Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)", "publisher": "European Organization for Nuclear Research", "abstract": "The purpose of this dataset is to enable the replication and interpretation of the simulation research results presented in the article: Kłodawski, M., Lewczuk, K., & Gao, J. (2025). Last-Mile Delivery Energy Consumption: Insights from a Simulation-Based Analysis. In Q. Xiaobo, W. Zhang, Y. Liu, & Y. Yiping (Eds.), Proceedings of the 14th Asia-Pacific Conference on Transportation and the Environment (APTE 2025), pp. 176-187. Atlantis Press. https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-972-8_17 The article presents a simulation-based analysis of energy consumption in last-mile delivery systems. The analysed variants include:- courier-to-customer delivery,- courier-to-parcel-locker delivery with customers collecting packages,- courier-to-parcel-locker delivery with drones assigned to parcel lockers,- courier-to-parcel-locker delivery with drones operating in the whole service area. The dataset contains input data and simulation output tables used to analyse delivery time, distance, energy consumption and CO2 emissions for the considered last-mile delivery variants. The dataset was created as part of the E-Laas project (Energy optimal urban logistics As A Service).Project implemented as part of the call ERA-NET Cofund Urban Accessibility and Connectivity (ENUAC China Call) organized by JPI Urban Europe and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 875022. E-Laas project is carried out in an international consortium. Project coordinator in Europe: Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden), project coordinator in China: Shanghai University (China), consortium members: Tsinghua University (China), Warsaw University of Technology (Poland), cooperation partners: Stockholms stad, Trafikkontoret (Sweden), ParkUnload (Spain), Metropolis GZM (Poland), Shanghai Urban-Rural Construction and Transportation Department (China), Volvo Group Trucks Technology and Operations (Sweden).- The Chinese part of the project is funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China.- The Swedish part of the project is funded by Swedish Energy Agency.- The Polish part of the project is funded by the National Science Centre, Poland (project no. 2022/04/Y/ST8/00134). The value of the co-financing is PLN 878,107.00. Project duration 27/04/2023 - 26/04/2026 (36 months).", "keywords": [ "Energy consumption", "Drone", "China", "Consumption (sociology)", "Service (business)", "Integrated project delivery", "Efficient energy use" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20491476" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4403794757", "doi": "10.1080/15568318.2024.2419378", "title": "Sustainable last mile logistics employing drones and e-bikes", "year": 2024, "publication_date": "2024-10-01", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Stephanie Santiago-Montaño", "Daniel F. Silva", "Alice E. Smith" ], "first_author": "Stephanie Santiago-Montaño", "venue": "International Journal of Sustainable Transportation", "publisher": "Taylor & Francis", "abstract": "Last mile delivery is an important and growing part of the supply chain that has a sizeable negative environmental impact. This paper considers more sustainable approaches to home-delivery that are pragmatic for many non-rural environments. We address the two-echelon, multi-trip, capacitated vehicle routing problem with home-delivery and optional self-pickup services using different combinations of drones, trucks, and electric-assisted bikes (i.e. e-bikes). In the proposed approach, parcels are transported from a depot to parcel lockers by either drones or trucks and are then delivered to customer locations by either e-bikes or trucks. The four approaches range from the most sustainable (drones then e-bikes) to partly green (drone then truck or truck then e-bike) to finally the traditional (truck then truck). We formulate a mathematical model that determines the vehicle routes to minimize the total cost, which consists of vehicle operational cost and operator wages. The four types of delivery networks are assessed and compared for both costs and emissions. Experimental results suggest that with a modest increase in total cost (as little as 13%), emission reductions of up to 92%, on average, can be achieved when using the greenest delivery strategy of drones and e-bikes. The other delivery options have varying tradeoffs between costs and environmental impact. The percentage of self-pickup customers is an influencing factor to consider when choosing the delivery strategy that best meets the organization’s budget and environmental goals, especially when using e-bikes in the second echelon.", "keywords": [ "Drone", "Mile", "Last mile (transportation)", "Transport engineering", "Aeronautics", "Business", "Sustainable transport", "Engineering", "Sustainability", "Geography" ], "cited_by_count": 11, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1080/15568318.2024.2419378" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W290344646", "doi": "10.1016/j.trb.2015.04.007", "title": "A time-dependent freight tour synthesis model", "year": 2015, "publication_date": "2015-05-18", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Iván Sánchez-Díaz", "José Holguín‐Veras", "Xuegang Jeff Ban" ], "first_author": "Iván Sánchez-Díaz", "venue": "Transportation Research Part B Methodological", "publisher": "Elsevier BV", "abstract": "This paper introduces a model of urban freight demand that seeks to estimate tour flows from secondary data sources e.g., traffic counts, to bypass the need for expensive surveys. The model discussed in this paper, referred as Freight Tour Synthesis (FTS), enhances current techniques by incorporating the time-dependent tour-based behavior of freight vehicles , and the decision maker’s (e.g., metropolitan planning agency planner) preferences for different sources of information. The model, based on entropy maximization theory, estimates the most likely set of tour flows, given a set of freight trip generation estimates, a set of traffic counts per time interval, and total freight transportation cost in the network. The type of inputs used allows the assessment of changes in infrastructure, policy and land use. The ability of the model to replicate actual values is assessed using the Denver Region (CO) as a case study .", "keywords": [ "Planner", "Transport engineering", "Entropy maximization", "Replicate", "Operations research", "Maximization", "Metropolitan area", "Computer science", "Interval (graph theory)", "Set (abstract data type)", "Principle of maximum entropy", "Geography" ], "cited_by_count": 51, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trb.2015.04.007" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W7170059545", "doi": "10.22215/etd/2026-17008", "title": "Integrating Hybrid Models and Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems for Enhancing Last-Mile Delivery Logistics", "year": 2026, "publication_date": "2026-01-01", "type": "dissertation", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Armin Mahmoodi" ], "first_author": "Armin Mahmoodi", "venue": null, "publisher": null, "abstract": "The ability for a rapid growth of e-commerce and the increasing demand for fast, cost-effective, and sustainable last-mile logistics have accelerated interest in hybrid delivery systems integrating trucks and Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS). This thesis develops a comprehensive multi-objective optimization framework for hybrid truck–RPAS networks, aiming to minimize operational cost, delivery time, energy consumption, and CO₂ emissions while incorporating quantitative risk assessment to ensure safety and regulatory compliance. The research progresses through four major applications of increasing complexity. The first stage formulates a static hybrid location routing model solved using a matheuristic approach that combines Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP) with the Non-Dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II). Results demonstrate improvements in efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and emission reduction compared to conventional truck-only or RPAS-only strategies. The second stage extends the model to dynamic environments, integrating Bayesian Belief Networks (BBN) for probabilistic risk quantification and enabling adaptive decision-making under traffic and weather uncertainty. Subsequent chapters focus on multimodal extensions, developing frameworks for truck–RPAS delivery systems applicable to both urban and rural settings, and exploring swarm-based coordination models for RPAS fleets. These models address task allocation, route coordination, and decentralized control mechanisms, further enhancing robustness and fault tolerance in large-scale delivery operations. Finally, CO₂ emissions from various fleet configurations including diesel trucks, hybrid trucks, quadcopters, and fixed-wing RPAS are analyzed and compared, providing actionable insights for sustainability-driven logistics planning. Comprehensive computational experiments and sensitivity analyses validate the proposed models, confirming that hybrid truck–RPAS systems can improve logistics efficiency, reduce environmental impacts, and enhance the resilience of last-mile delivery networks. This work delivers a decision-support framework that assists municipalities, logistics providers, and policymakers in evaluating and optimizing hybrid truck–RPAS delivery strategies, enabling data driven decisions toward more resilient, energy-efficient, and future-ready logistics systems.", "keywords": [ "Work (physics)", "Key (lock)", "Automation", "Data collection", "Field (mathematics)" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.22215/etd/2026-17008" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W2160840110", "doi": "10.3141/1653-05", "title": "Getting the Goods Delivered in Dense Urban Areas: A Snapshot of the Last Link of the Supply Chain", "year": 1999, "publication_date": "1999-01-01", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Anne G. Morris", "Alain L. Kornhauser", "Mark J. Kay" ], "first_author": "Anne G. Morris", "venue": "Transportation Research Record Journal of the Transportation Research Board", "publisher": "SAGE Publishing", "abstract": "Data were analyzed from 74 “Freight Mobility Interviews”—surveys conducted with key transportation executives whose products and services are shipped into New York City’s central business district (CBD). Quantitative data collected included company profiles, defined by product category; kind of transportation service; type of distribution channel; characteristics of dispatched truck trip; and time and cost for last leg of trip. Major barriers to freight mobility identified by logistics/distribution/ transportation managers were widespread congestion, theft/vandalism, inadequate docking space, and insufficient curbside parking for commercial vehicles. Recommendations to increase productivity in the CBD included off-peak and extended delivery hours, additional truck parking zones, and incentives to upgrade docking areas. Barriers to freight mobility were consistent across industry sectors. Initiatives that have the potential to increase the efficiency of urban goods movement include improved law enforcement to deter theft/vandalism, information-based improvements such as accurate signage, the use of ITS technology and management systems to actively manage curbside commercial parking zones, and improved road maintenance. The nontraditional methodology developed for collecting urban freight mobility data provides process-oriented data that reflect changing supply chain strategies of private-sector shippers and carriers.", "keywords": [ "Truck", "Business", "Transport engineering", "Supply chain", "Incentive", "Traffic congestion", "Law enforcement", "Enforcement", "Marketing", "Engineering", "Economics" ], "cited_by_count": 39, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.3141/1653-05" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W2545628884", "doi": "10.1109/evs.2013.6914770", "title": "Implementing electric vehicles in urban distribution: A discrete event simulation", "year": 2013, "publication_date": "2013-11-01", "type": "conference-paper", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Philippe Lebeau", "Cathy Macharis", "Joeri Van Mierlo", "Guillaume Maes" ], "first_author": "Philippe Lebeau", "venue": null, "publisher": null, "abstract": "Urban freight transport becomes increasingly important with the development of cities. However, it generates also inefficiencies on social, economic and environmental aspects. A possible solution is the use of urban distribution centres in order to rationalise the deliveries and to operate the last miles with clean vehicles. Electric vehicles are gaining attention lately but some barriers remain. Since costs barriers were already investigated, the paper aimed at evaluating the difference of performances between a centre using a diesel truck and a centre using an electric vehicle. In order to do so, the operations of an urban distribution centre were modelled in a discrete event simulation and different scenarios were evaluated. The results showed that replacing a conventional truck by an electric van generates more traffic due to the limited payload of the van. However, the limited range does not entail the daily operations of the vehicle since a single night charge is sufficient. Better, the depth of discharge is found to be limited to a minimum of 60%. The results on the battery are similar in the second scenario where the conventional truck is replaced by an electric truck. In that scenario though, no influences are identified on the logistics performances of the urban distribution center.", "keywords": [ "Truck", "Payload (computing)", "Automotive engineering", "Range (aeronautics)", "Transport engineering", "Discrete event simulation", "Electric vehicle", "City logistics", "Battery (electricity)", "Diesel fuel", "Order (exchange)", "Environmental science" ], "cited_by_count": 25, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1109/evs.2013.6914770" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4416613035", "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2505.23584", "title": "Collaborative Last-Mile Delivery: A Multi-Platform Vehicle Routing Problem With En-route Charging", "year": 2025, "publication_date": "2025-05-29", "type": "preprint", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Sumbal Malik", "Majid Khonji", "Khaled Elbassioni", "Jorge M.M. Dias" ], "first_author": "Sumbal Malik", "venue": "arXiv (Cornell University)", "publisher": "Cornell University", "abstract": "The rapid growth of e-commerce and the increasing demand for timely, cost-effective last-mile delivery have increased interest in collaborative logistics. This research introduces a novel collaborative synchronized multi-platform vehicle routing problem with drones and robots (VRP-DR), where a fleet of $\\mathcal{M}$ trucks, $\\mathcal{N}$ drones and $\\mathcal{K}$ robots, cooperatively delivers parcels. Trucks serve as mobile platforms, enabling the launching, retrieving, and en-route charging of drones and robots, thereby addressing critical limitations such as restricted payload capacities, limited range, and battery constraints. The VRP-DR incorporates five realistic features: (1) multi-visit service per trip, (2) multi-trip operations, (3) flexible docking, allowing returns to the same or different trucks (4) cyclic and acyclic operations, enabling return to the same or different nodes; and (5) en-route charging, enabling drones and robots to recharge while being transported on the truck, maximizing operational efficiency by utilizing idle transit time. The VRP-DR is formulated as a mixed-integer linear program (MILP) to minimize both operational costs and makespan. To overcome the computational challenges of solving large-scale instances, a scalable heuristic algorithm, FINDER (Flexible INtegrated Delivery with Energy Recharge), is developed, to provide efficient, near-optimal solutions. Numerical experiments across various instance sizes evaluate the performance of the MILP and heuristic approaches in terms of solution quality and computation time. The results demonstrate significant time savings of the combined delivery mode over the truck-only mode and substantial cost reductions from enabling multi-visits. The study also provides insights into the effects of en-route charging, docking flexibility, drone count, speed, and payload capacity on system performance.", "keywords": [ "Drone", "Payload (computing)", "Scalability", "Heuristic", "Truck", "Vehicle routing problem", "Routing (electronic design automation)", "Robot" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2505.23584" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W7118160202", "doi": "10.1007/978-3-032-15621-1_10", "title": "Bayesian Optimization for Two Echelon Vehicle Routing Problem Using Drone for Last Mile Delivery", "year": 2026, "publication_date": "2026-01-01", "type": "conference-paper", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Preetam Kumar Sur", "Anubrata Naskar", "Sunirmal Khatua" ], "first_author": "Preetam Kumar Sur", "venue": "Lecture notes in computer science", "publisher": "Springer Science+Business Media", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Drone", "Vehicle routing problem", "Cluster analysis", "Benchmark (surveying)", "Hyperparameter", "Truck", "Routing (electronic design automation)", "Bayesian optimization" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-15621-1_10" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W7166319597", "doi": "10.5281/zenodo.20966218", "title": "Dataset for Clustering-based estimation of Last-Mile Delivery KPIs across Traffic Analysis Zones", "year": 2026, "publication_date": "2026-06-27", "type": "dataset", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Emilian Szczepański", "Jakub Murawski", "Balaźs Kulcsár", "Fangting Zhou" ], "first_author": "Emilian Szczepański", "venue": "Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)", "publisher": "European Organization for Nuclear Research", "abstract": "The purpose of this dataset is to enable the replication of the research results presented in the article: Szczepański, E., Murawski, J., Kulcsar, B., Zhou, F.: Clustering-based estimation of Last-Mile Delivery KPIs across Traffic Analysis Zones. The dataset contains Excel files with input data and results that allow reproduction of the analysis presented in the manuscript KPI estimation. The dataset was created as part of the E-Laas project (Energy optimal urban logistics As A Service).Project implemented as part of the call ERA-NET Cofund Urban Accessibility and Connectivity (ENUAC China Call) organized by JPI Urban Europe and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 875022. E-Laas project is carried out in an international consortium. Project coordinator in Europe: Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden), project coordinator in China: Shanghai University (China), consortium members: Tsinghua University (China), Warsaw University of Technology (Poland), cooperation partners: Stockholms stad, Trafikkontoret (Sweden), ParkUnload (Spain), Metropolis GZM (Poland), Shanghai Urban-Rural Construction and Transportation Department (China), Volvo Group Trucks Technology and Operations (Sweden).- The Chinese part of the project is funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China.- The Swedish part of the project is funded by Swedish Energy Agency.- The Polish part of the project is funded by the National Science Centre, Poland (project no. 2022/04/Y/ST8/00134). The value of the co-financing is PLN 878,107.00. Project duration 27/04/2023 - 26/04/2026 (36 months).", "keywords": [ "Truck", "China", "Duration (music)", "Performance indicator", "Estimation", "Project management" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20966218" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W7166347564", "doi": "10.5281/zenodo.20966217", "title": "Dataset for Clustering-based estimation of Last-Mile Delivery KPIs across Traffic Analysis Zones", "year": 2026, "publication_date": "2026-06-27", "type": "dataset", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Emilian Szczepański", "Jakub Murawski", "Balaźs Kulcsár", "Fangting Zhou" ], "first_author": "Emilian Szczepański", "venue": "Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)", "publisher": "European Organization for Nuclear Research", "abstract": "The purpose of this dataset is to enable the replication of the research results presented in the article: Szczepański, E., Murawski, J., Kulcsar, B., Zhou, F.: Clustering-based estimation of Last-Mile Delivery KPIs across Traffic Analysis Zones. The dataset contains Excel files with input data and results that allow reproduction of the analysis presented in the manuscript KPI estimation. The dataset was created as part of the E-Laas project (Energy optimal urban logistics As A Service).Project implemented as part of the call ERA-NET Cofund Urban Accessibility and Connectivity (ENUAC China Call) organized by JPI Urban Europe and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 875022. E-Laas project is carried out in an international consortium. Project coordinator in Europe: Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden), project coordinator in China: Shanghai University (China), consortium members: Tsinghua University (China), Warsaw University of Technology (Poland), cooperation partners: Stockholms stad, Trafikkontoret (Sweden), ParkUnload (Spain), Metropolis GZM (Poland), Shanghai Urban-Rural Construction and Transportation Department (China), Volvo Group Trucks Technology and Operations (Sweden).- The Chinese part of the project is funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China.- The Swedish part of the project is funded by Swedish Energy Agency.- The Polish part of the project is funded by the National Science Centre, Poland (project no. 2022/04/Y/ST8/00134). The value of the co-financing is PLN 878,107.00. Project duration 27/04/2023 - 26/04/2026 (36 months).", "keywords": [ "Truck", "China", "Duration (music)", "Performance indicator", "Estimation", "Project management" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20966217" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W2050291901", "doi": "10.1016/j.trpro.2014.10.032", "title": "Reduced Urban Traffic and Emissions within Urban Consolidation Centre Schemes: The Case of Bristol", "year": 2014, "publication_date": "2014-01-01", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Daniela Paddeu", "Paolo Fadda", "Gianfranco Fancello", "Graham Parkhurst", "Miriam Ricci" ], "first_author": "Daniela Paddeu", "venue": "Transportation research procedia", "publisher": "Elsevier BV", "abstract": "Urban freight consolidation centres (UFCCs) can provide a significant contribution to reducing the negative impacts of freight transport to city centres whilst at the same time providing a more seamless, higher-value logistics experience for their users. The paper draws on the experiences of the Bristol-Bath freight consolidation centre (BBFCC), established in 2002 to serve Bristol city centre and uniquely extended in 2011 to cover Bath, each served by electric lorries; it appraises the benefits of shared ‘final mile’ freight services, presenting a model for the evaluation of the reduction in traffic and polluting emissions based on Bristol, with a view to optimising future UFCC design. Data about the number of deliveries made by heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) of different types to the BBFCC and the number of deliveries made from the BBFCC to the two shopping centres covering a period of 17 months are analysed. The correlation between the type and number of HGVs delivering to the BBFCC and the number of deliveries made to the retailers by the BBFCC is explicated by means of a multiple linear regression model. Its development is based on analysing parameters as R Square value (total and adjusted), F-statistics and p-values for each coefficient. An estimation of the number of HGVs re-routing to the BBFCC and the pollutant emissions avoided in the urban centre is appraised. The pollutant emissions reduction is based on factors drawn from the UK National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory. Results suggest that the proposed approach may yield HGV movements avoided in Bristol city centre of 75.5% on average. Also, by considering the whole study period, reductions amount calculated is equivalent to 28,677 Kg of CO2, 122.29 Kg of NOx, 2.31 Kg of PM10, 20.32 Kg of CO and 9,854 Kg of fuel. Nevertheless, emissions reductions are significant, but currently limited by small scale, due to the low number of participants. Emissions reductions in the host cities are identified as a result of sharing delivery vehicles for the final leg. The regression model showed high correlation coefficient values (over 85%) for deliveries to the Bristol city centre thanks to the BBFCC. The linear regression models developed provide a useful tool for local authorities and logistics/transport planners in optimising the planning of UFCCs to reduce freight traffic, associated emissions and to improve logistics and transport performance.", "keywords": [ "Truck", "Consolidation (business)", "City centre", "Transport engineering", "City logistics", "Kilometer", "Environmental science", "Travel time", "Pollutant", "Urban area", "Business", "Operations management" ], "cited_by_count": 30, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/science/article/pii/S2352146514001951/pdf?md5=bbaa6e5d171d5985a4853bfbddd9ef29&pid=1-s2.0-S2352146514001951-main.pdf" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4398776737", "doi": "10.1007/s10479-024-06019-z", "title": "Vehicle routing with multiple UAVs for the last-mile logistics distribution problem: hybrid distributed optimization", "year": 2024, "publication_date": "2024-05-24", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Abdeljawed Sadok", "Jalel Euchi", "Patrick Siarry" ], "first_author": "Abdeljawed Sadok", "venue": "Annals of Operations Research", "publisher": "Springer Science+Business Media", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Vehicle routing problem", "Last mile (transportation)", "Mile", "Computer science", "Routing (electronic design automation)", "City logistics", "Distribution (mathematics)", "Transport engineering", "Computer network", "Engineering", "Geography", "Mathematics" ], "cited_by_count": 21, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s10479-024-06019-z" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W7167919312", "doi": "10.2139/ssrn.7097204", "title": "Empty-Return Energy Waste in Drone Last-Mile Delivery: Diagnostic Benchmarking and Factor Decomposition", "year": 2026, "publication_date": "2026-01-01", "type": "preprint", "language": null, "authors": [ "Zhou Huaiyuan" ], "first_author": "Zhou Huaiyuan", "venue": "SSRN Electronic Journal", "publisher": "RELX Group (Netherlands)", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Benchmarking", "Drone", "Intuition", "Terrain", "Waste heat", "Efficient energy use", "Municipal solid waste" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.7097204" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W2760366578", "doi": "10.3141/2610-01", "title": "Solution of Two-Echelon Facility Location Problems by Approximation Methods", "year": 2017, "publication_date": "2017-01-01", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Mahyar Jahangiriesmaili", "Sina Bahrami", "Matthew J. Roorda" ], "first_author": "Mahyar Jahangiriesmaili", "venue": "Transportation Research Record Journal of the Transportation Research Board", "publisher": "SAGE Publishing", "abstract": "The two-echelon delivery structure is a strategy that can be implemented in urban areas to lower delivery costs by reducing the movement of heavy goods vehicles. In a two-echelon delivery structure, large trucks deliver shipments from a consolidation center to several terminals, where packages are transferred to smaller trucks for last-mile deliveries. This paper formulates a model that solves the two-echelon delivery structure by the use of approximation techniques. Several potential terminal locations and demand areas were identified, and the optimal number and locations of the terminals were examined, as the model evaluated the most cost-effective routes between the consolidation center, potential terminals, and demand areas. Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada, was chosen as the case study area to assess the model, and a cost analysis of the number and locations of the terminals was performed. The experiments showed that the number and the locations of the terminals were greatly influenced by the opening cost of the terminals and the transportation cost of the delivery trucks. It was also discovered that the likelihood of selection of terminals that were positioned near both the consolidation center and the center of the service area was higher than the likelihood of selection of terminals at any other location.", "keywords": [ "Truck", "Facility location problem", "Transport engineering", "Consolidation (business)", "Site selection", "Downtown", "Operations research", "Computer science", "Travel time", "Operations management", "Engineering", "Business" ], "cited_by_count": 5, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.3141/2610-01" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W2293482718", "doi": "10.1007/978-3-319-23512-7_48", "title": "Comparative Analysis of European Examples of Freight Electric Vehicles Schemes—A Systematic Case Study Approach with Examples from Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK", "year": 2015, "publication_date": "2015-12-21", "type": "book-chapter", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Tessa T. Taefi", "Jochen Kreutzfeldt", "Tobias Held", "Rob Konings", "Richard Kötter", "Sara Lilley", "Hanna Baster", "Nadia Green", "Michael Stie Laugesen", "Stefan Jacobsson", "Martin Borgqvist", "Camilla Nyquist" ], "first_author": "Tessa T. Taefi", "venue": "Lecture notes in logistics", "publisher": "Springer Nature", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Electrification", "Transport engineering", "Regional science", "Public transport", "Transport policy", "Engineering", "Environmental planning", "Business", "Geography", "Electricity" ], "cited_by_count": 29, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23512-7_48" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W7136324054", "doi": "10.1109/itsc60802.2025.11423255", "title": "Last-Mile Delivery Optimisation with Autonomous Vehicles and Drones for Trust-Aware Multimodal Medical Logistics in Urban Environments", "year": 2025, "publication_date": "2025-11-18", "type": "conference-paper", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Yanyu Long", "Safaa Sindi", "Stewart A. Birrell", "Seng W. Loke", "Bahareh Nakisa" ], "first_author": "Yanyu Long", "venue": null, "publisher": null, "abstract": "This study addresses last-mile urban medical logistics through a multimodal fleet of autonomous vehicles and drones, including autonomous vans and trucks. We propose an environment-aware optimisation framework for last-mile delivery optimisation that integrates trust quantification, adaptive algorithm selection, and real-time decision-making. The system models road and environmental conditions using multi-source data and selects path-planning strategies, such as Dijkstra, A* or Greedy Best-First Search, according to delivery urgency and context. A trust evaluation mechanism fuses subjective perceptions with objective performance to embed trust scores into the optimisation process. Machine-learning models predict delivery delays and guide vehicle scheduling under dynamic urban logistics network conditions. In simulations based on Coventry, UK; integrating trust metrics with environment-sensitive routing reduces mean delivery time by 28%, while delay-prediction error drops to ±3.04 s; drones deliver insulin 90% faster than trucks despite slightly lower trust scores (-1.6%). These findings underscore the value of incorporating socio-technical factors, especially trust in time-sensitive, safety-critical multimodal urban logistics.", "keywords": [ "Drone", "Key (lock)", "Action (physics)", "Public transport" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://pure.coventry.ac.uk/ws/files/119923519/Long2026AAM.pdf" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W3162392774", "doi": "10.1177/03611981211012694", "title": "Simulation of the Impacts of a Zero-Emission Zone on Freight Delivery Patterns in Rotterdam", "year": 2021, "publication_date": "2021-05-15", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Michiel de Bok", "Lóránt Antal Tavasszy", "Ioanna Kourounioti", "Sebastiaan Thoen", "Larissa Eggers", "Victor Mayland Nielsen", "Jos Streng" ], "first_author": "Michiel de Bok", "venue": "Transportation Research Record Journal of the Transportation Research Board", "publisher": "SAGE Publishing", "abstract": "As part of a broader vision for emission-free city logistics, the city of Rotterdam plans to introduce a zero-emission zone in combination with urban consolidation centers (UCCs) on the outskirts of the city to generate a shift to zero-emission vehicles. For the design of this zero-emission zone, several research questions arise that require a systematic analysis of the impacts of the transition scenarios on freight demand patterns, the use and market shares of new (zero-emission) vehicles, and the impacts of truck flow and emissions. As a case study, we implemented heterogenous transition scenarios for each logistic segment into the Tactical Freight Simulator from the HARMONY project and analyzed the systemwide impacts. This model is multiagent, empirical, and shipment based and simulates long-term tactical choices (distribution channel choice, shipment size and vehicle type choice, sourcing) and short-term tactical choices (tour formation, delivery times). Results showed that the impact of UCCs is not trivial: we observed a small increase in vehicle kilometers traveled overall of +0.25%, which can be attributed to the rerouting of shipments through the UCCs. Calculations confirmed that emissions reduced dramatically, by 90%, inside the zero-emission zone. At the city scale this corresponds to a reduction of almost 10%, as most freight-related traffic is generated by the port and involves long-haul heavy goods vehicle transport that does not enter the city center. At a regional level, impact reduction was very small. More measures are needed if more ambitious reductions in emissions are to be achieved.", "keywords": [ "Truck", "Zero emission", "Kilometer", "Transport engineering", "Vehicle miles of travel", "Environmental science", "Engineering", "Automotive engineering" ], "cited_by_count": 25, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/03611981211012694" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4293240185", "doi": "10.1177/03611981221086632", "title": "First and Last Miles by Cargo Bikes: Ecological Commitment or Economically Feasible? The Case of a Parcel Service Company in Paris", "year": 2022, "publication_date": "2022-04-28", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Antoine Robichet", "Patrick Niérat", "François Combes" ], "first_author": "Antoine Robichet", "venue": "Transportation Research Record Journal of the Transportation Research Board", "publisher": "SAGE Publishing", "abstract": "Urban logistics is a key step in distribution chains. It implies the use of trucks in congested areas, and generates numerous externalities (congestion, noise, pollution, etc.). Supply chain configurations and consumer behaviors are undergoing deep changes, with a significant increase in the intensity of urban logistics and a diversification of delivery channels within cities. This is an important challenge for city sustainability, as urban logistics is an essential economic activity, and yet the source of intense negative externalities. Numerous directions are currently being explored to rethink urban logistics, such as drones, cargo bikes, crowd logistics, and so forth. However, the economic and environmental relevance of these technologies is not yet perfectly clear. This paper focuses on the conditions for the financial sustainability of cargo bikes compared with electric light commercial vehicles (LCVs). The analysis is based on real data, provided by the parcel service company DB Schenker. The dataset consists of 600,000 operations made in Paris over two months. Operations with electric LCV are assumed to be identical to conventional LCV; the cost comparison is based on a total cost of ownership approach. Operations with cargo bikes assumes that eligible shipments are first brought to micro hubs within the city by electric LCV, then delivered by cargo bike. The numbers and locations of micro hubs are optimized. Results show that a cargo bike solution can be more cost-efficient than electric LCV with a few micro hubs located where the demand is densest, but they can only be relevant financially in those conditions.", "keywords": [ "Truck", "Service (business)", "Business", "Externality", "Sustainability", "Supply chain", "Transport engineering", "Diversification (marketing strategy)", "Industrial organization", "Environmental economics", "Marketing", "Economics" ], "cited_by_count": 32, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1177/03611981221086632" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W2279848114", "doi": "10.1016/j.trpro.2016.02.071", "title": "Evaluate the Viability of Urban Consolidation Centre with Regards to Urban Morphology", "year": 2016, "publication_date": "2016-01-01", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Lucile Faure", "Patrick Burlat", "Guillaume Marquès" ], "first_author": "Lucile Faure", "venue": "Transportation research procedia", "publisher": "Elsevier BV", "abstract": "City logistics is a difficult topic for public decision makers who often lack relevant information and knowledge to make their decisions. Among all available solutions, Urban Consolidation Centre is an appreciated one. Indeed, it is supposed to reduce pollution, trucks’ congestion and to improve the livelihood of city centre. Nevertheless, it is far from obvious that UCC are efficient and viable. The aim of this study is to provide answers to two questions: can an UCC be viable? Does the shape of a city affect the profitability of an UCC? We present a preliminary work based on a comparison between three morphologies to give some clues.", "keywords": [ "Consolidation (business)", "Profitability index", "Livelihood", "City logistics", "Business", "City centre", "Truck", "Environmental planning", "Transport engineering", "Engineering", "Civil engineering", "Geography" ], "cited_by_count": 32, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352146516000727/pdf" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4416545249", "doi": "10.15446/dyna.v92n239.120412", "title": "Mapping the evolution of drone-based last-mile delivery: a bibliometric analysis with field insights from Colombia", "year": 2025, "publication_date": "2025-11-11", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Luz Maribel Guevara-Ortega", "Juan Enrique Hidalgo-Urrea", "Luz Mireya Candil-Parra", "William Rafael Navarro-Zúñiga" ], "first_author": "Luz Maribel Guevara-Ortega", "venue": "DYNA", "publisher": "National University of Colombia", "abstract": "The article combines a bibliometric analysis of 301 studies (2019–2025) with a survey of 70 Colombian logistics leaders. It identifies an annual scientific growth rate of 14.96 %, with emerging emphasis on sustainability, optimized routes, and hybrid truck-drone fleets. Respondents report key barriers: air-space regulation (80 %), limited payload capacity (65.7 %), insufficient infrastructure (64.3 %), and concerns about security, privacy, and high up-front costs. Integrating both approaches, the authors propose an urban pilot inspired by Milan, tailored to the Colombian context, profitable even at 50 % utilization and yielding a return above 90 % in the first year. They conclude that last-mile drone adoption demands clear regulatory frameworks, infrastructure investment, and risk-management strategies to build trust among users and operators.", "keywords": [ "Payload (computing)", "Field (mathematics)", "Drone", "Key (lock)", "Bibliometrics" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://revistas.unal.edu.co/index.php/dyna/article/download/120412/96105" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4405697148", "doi": "10.3390/app142412005", "title": "Two-Stage Genetic Algorithm for Optimization Logistics Network for Groupage Delivery", "year": 2024, "publication_date": "2024-12-22", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Ivan Pavlovich Malashin", "В С Тынченко", "Igor S. Masich", "Denis A. Sukhanov", "Daniel Ageev", "Vladimir Nelyub", "Andrei Gantimurov", "А. С. Бородулин" ], "first_author": "Ivan Pavlovich Malashin", "venue": "Applied Sciences", "publisher": "Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute", "abstract": "This study explored the optimization of groupage intercity delivery using a two-stage genetic algorithm (GA) framework, developed with the BaumEvA Python library. The primary objective was to minimize the transportation costs by strategically positioning regional branch warehouses within a logistics network. In the first stage, the GA selected optimal branch warehouse locations from a set of candidate cities. The second stage addressed the vehicle routing problem (VRP) by employing a combinatorial GA to optimize the delivery routes. The GA framework was designed to minimize the total costs associated with intercity and last-mile deliveries, factoring in warehouse locations, truck routes, and vehicle types for last-mile fulfillment while ensuring capacity constraints are adhered to. By solving both line haul and last-mile delivery subproblems, this solution adjusted variables related to warehouse placement, cargo volumes, truck routing, and vehicle selection. The integration of such optimization techniques into the logistics workflow allowed for streamlined operations and reduced costs.", "keywords": [ "Computer science", "Stage (stratigraphy)", "Genetic algorithm", "Mathematical optimization", "Algorithm", "Mathematics", "Biology", "Machine learning" ], "cited_by_count": 5, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/14/24/12005/pdf?version=1734851806" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4404279551", "doi": "10.35409/ijbmer.2024.3616", "title": "ROLE OF TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION ON ENHANCING THE LAST-MILE DELIVERY AND ENVIRONMENT CONSERVATION SUSTAINABILITY POST COVID-19", "year": 2024, "publication_date": "2024-01-01", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Olta Myslimi", "Paul Muinde Maweu", "Premilla Padayachee" ], "first_author": "Olta Myslimi", "venue": "International journal of business management and economic review", "publisher": null, "abstract": "The purpose of the study was to assess the role technology on enhancing the last-mile delivery and environment conservation sustainability. Specifically, it focused on providing answers to the following questions: Is technology enhancing last mile deliveries post Covid-19 pandemic? Are businesses using technology solutions to mitigate last mile delivery challenges? Is use of technology in last mile delivery helping in environment conservation sustainability? Does technology enhance effective B2B and B2C deliveries? The study adopted desktop research design and used secondary data based on analysing published scientific papers through platforms; Web of Science, Scopus and Emerald with majority of information derived from journals or conference proceedings not more than three years after covid-19 i.e. 2023 from the internet sources. The study found that technology enhanced last mile delivery, due to the accelerating pace of digital innovation, increased online participation, rapid growth in data analytics and transmission, and platforms facilitating innovation. The sampled papers proved that new technological development increased the efficiency, visibility, transparency of inventory levels, demand forecasting, production processes, and logistics which emphasized the role of technology as a facilitator of supply chain. The findings showed that, Technology on e-commerce experienced a massive growth within the years after Covid-19 and more and more businesses headed to the online system to sell their products and services and more customers turned to online due to convenience of the online purchase system. The results showed that, technology use in last mile delivery enhanced environmental conservation sustainability by reducing traffic in roads since orders for one location can be delivered by one truck. The study also, found challenges of last-mile delivery and presented a detailed understanding on the technology innovative solutions to mitigate the challenges. As depicted by the sampled researches last mile delivery challenges included delivery inefficiency, high costs, delayed deliveries, low-visibility, outdated technology, inaccurate route planning. Therefore, modern technology proved to be a main facilitator in addressing these challenges by providing faster deliveries, higher visibility and better quality and environment conservation sustainability. The study recommended increase of use of modern technology to enhance further last mile delivery and environment conservation sustainability.", "keywords": [ "Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)", "Sustainability", "Business", "2019-20 coronavirus outbreak", "Last mile (transportation)", "Mile", "Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)", "Geography", "Ecology", "Medicine", "Virology", "Biology" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "http://dx.doi.org/10.35409/ijbmer.2024.3616" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W204511888", "doi": null, "title": "Demand models for the estimation of urban goods movements: an application to the city of Rome", "year": 2010, "publication_date": "2010-10-31", "type": "conference-paper", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Agostino Nuzzolo", "Umberto Crisalli", "Antonio Comi", "S Galuppi" ], "first_author": "Agostino Nuzzolo", "venue": "Cineca Institutional Research Information System (Tor Vergata University)", "publisher": "University of Rome Tor Vergata", "abstract": "This paper presents a specific modelling system which simulates the commodity, delivery and vehicle goods movements, developed in order to support ex-ante assessment of city logistics measures. \\nA review of models developed to simulate the urban freight transport demand is also reported. The review analysis highlights the limits of models for the ex-ante assessment of city logistics measures. For this reason this paper proposes a new modelling system made of different steps approaching problems related to: quantity OD flows, service-type OD flows, delivery OD flows, delivery OD flows for delivery time and vehicle type, and vehicle OD flows. This modelling system has been specified and calibrated using some surveys carried out in the inner area of Rome, where more than 500 truck drivers and more than 600 retailers have been interviewed.", "keywords": [ "Truck", "Commodity", "Transport engineering", "Order (exchange)", "Ex-ante", "Operations research", "Estimation", "Computer science", "City logistics", "Service (business)", "Business", "Economics" ], "cited_by_count": 12, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "http://hdl.handle.net/2108/12530" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W3161967852", "doi": "10.2139/ssrn.3767870", "title": "The Time-Dependent Multiple Flying Sidekicks Traveling Salesman Problem: Parcel Delivery with Traffic Congestion", "year": 2021, "publication_date": "2021-01-01", "type": "preprint", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Ritwik Raj", "Chase C. Murray" ], "first_author": "Ritwik Raj", "venue": "SSRN Electronic Journal", "publisher": "RELX Group (Netherlands)", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Travelling salesman problem", "Traffic congestion", "Computer science", "Transport engineering", "Simulation", "Engineering", "Algorithm" ], "cited_by_count": 8, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3767870" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4401028087", "doi": "10.1007/978-3-031-60313-6_20", "title": "Critical Evaluation of Full Droneload (FDL) and Less-Than Droneload (LDL) in Drone-Based Last Mile Delivery", "year": 2024, "publication_date": "2024-01-01", "type": "conference-paper", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Selwyn Piramuthu" ], "first_author": "Selwyn Piramuthu", "venue": "Progress in IS", "publisher": "Springer International Publishing", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Mile", "Drone", "Last mile (transportation)", "Computer science", "Geography", "Biology", "Geodesy" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-60313-6_20" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W2086768965", "doi": "10.1109/soli.2014.6960765", "title": "An auction with rolling horizon for urban consolidation centre", "year": 2014, "publication_date": "2014-10-01", "type": "conference-paper", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Chen Wang", "Stephanus Daniel Handoko", "Hoong Chuin Lau" ], "first_author": "Chen Wang", "venue": null, "publisher": null, "abstract": "A number of cities around the world have adopted urban consolidation centres (UCCs) to address some challenges of their last-mile deliveries. At the UCC, goods are consolidated based on their destinations prior to their deliveries into the city centre. In many examples, the UCC owns a fleet of eco-friendly vehicles to carry out the deliveries. A carrier/shipper who buys the UCC's service hence no longer needs to enter the city centre in which time-window and vehicle-type restrictions may apply. As a result, it becomes possible to retain the use of large trucks for the economies of scale outside the city centre. Furthermore, time which would otherwise be spent in the city centre can then be used to deliver more orders. With possibly tighter regulation and thinning profit margin in near future, requests for the use of the UCC's service shall become more and more common. In [1], the authors proposed a profit-maximizing auction mechanism for the use of the UCC's last-mile delivery service. In this paper, we extend that work with the idea of a rolling horizon to give bidders greater flexibility in competing for the UCC's resources in advance. In particular, it addresses the challenge that many shippers/carriers plan their deliveries many weeks ahead, and simultaneously allows last-minute bidders to compete for the UCC's resources.", "keywords": [ "Truck", "Last mile (transportation)", "Business", "Profit (economics)", "Transport engineering", "Consolidation (business)", "Profit margin", "Operations research", "Operations management", "Finance", "Engineering", "Economics" ], "cited_by_count": 8, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3671&context=sis_research" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4408014712", "doi": "10.1016/j.cor.2025.107032", "title": "Autonomous delivery vehicle routing problem with drones based on multiple delivery modes", "year": 2025, "publication_date": "2025-02-27", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Jili Kong", "Hao Wang", "Minhui Xie" ], "first_author": "Jili Kong", "venue": "Computers & Operations Research", "publisher": "Elsevier BV", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Drone", "Vehicle routing problem", "Computer science", "Routing (electronic design automation)", "Operations research", "Mathematical optimization", "Computer network", "Mathematics" ], "cited_by_count": 14, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cor.2025.107032" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4413009044", "doi": "10.1016/j.tre.2025.104347", "title": "The traveling salesman problem with drone based on vehicle mobile parking for customer self-pickup", "year": 2025, "publication_date": "2025-08-06", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Lingrui Hong", "Lin Zhou", "Roberto Baldacci" ], "first_author": "Lingrui Hong", "venue": "Transportation Research Part E Logistics and Transportation Review", "publisher": "Elsevier BV", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Drone", "Pickup", "Travelling salesman problem", "Computer science", "Engineering", "Transport engineering", "Artificial intelligence" ], "cited_by_count": 13, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1366554525003886?via=ihub" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4406972807", "doi": "10.1007/978-3-031-78238-1_36", "title": "Last Mile Drone Delivery: Complexity and Research Challenges", "year": 2025, "publication_date": "2025-01-01", "type": "conference-paper", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Fatos Xhafa", "Cristian Domínguez", "Angel Alejandro Juan" ], "first_author": "Fatos Xhafa", "venue": "Lecture notes in computer science", "publisher": "Springer Science+Business Media", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Drone", "Computer science", "Mile", "Last mile (transportation)", "Geography" ], "cited_by_count": 2, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-78238-1_36" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4407561019", "doi": "10.3390/app15042007", "title": "Reinforcement Learning for Efficient Drone-Assisted Vehicle Routing", "year": 2025, "publication_date": "2025-02-14", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Aigerim Bogyrbayeva", "Bissenbay Dauletbayev", "Meraryslan Meraliyev" ], "first_author": "Aigerim Bogyrbayeva", "venue": "Applied Sciences", "publisher": "Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute", "abstract": "Many exact algorithms, heuristics, and metaheuristics have been proposed to solve the Vehicle Routing Problem with Drones, which involves using a fleet of trucks and drones to fulfil customer orders in last-mile delivery. In this study, the problem is formulated using the Markov Decision Process, and a Reinforcement Learning (RL) based solution is proposed. The proposed RL model is based on an attention-encoder and a recurrent neural network-decoder architecture. This approach enhances coordination by determining which vehicles should visit specific customers and where vehicles can rendezvous, effectively leveraging drones and reducing the overall completion time. The RL model has demonstrated competitive performance compared to benchmark algorithms through extensive experiments.", "keywords": [ "Reinforcement learning", "Computer science", "Drone", "Artificial intelligence", "Biology" ], "cited_by_count": 8, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/15/4/2007/pdf?version=1739532726" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4409456794", "doi": "10.1016/j.aei.2025.103324", "title": "A cost-efficiency analysis of drones in revolutionizing intra-city express services", "year": 2025, "publication_date": "2025-04-15", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Xiao Chu", "Shuiwang Chen", "Kai Wang", "Lingxiao Wu", "Gangyan Xu" ], "first_author": "Xiao Chu", "venue": "Advanced Engineering Informatics", "publisher": "Elsevier BV", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Drone", "Computer science", "Engineering", "Computer security", "Biology" ], "cited_by_count": 9, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2025.103324" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W2940605362", "doi": null, "title": "Optimization of Drone-Assisted Delivery System", "year": 2018, "publication_date": "2018-01-01", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Lanyi Liu" ], "first_author": "Lanyi Liu", "venue": "Open Scholarship Institutional Repository (Washington University in St. Louis)", "publisher": "Washington University in St. Louis", "abstract": "Recently, a new parcel delivery method has been emerged, which involves Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, also known as drones, assisting traditional trucks in last-mile delivery across logistic networks. This method generally combines a truck and one drone or more to handle the delivery processes to customers. And this paper tends to calculate the optimal route of this drone-assisted delivery system, the objective is to minimize the operational time and energy cost. I developed a heuristic solution approach which implements an effective Genetic Algorithm to solve and simulate this delivery system of practical size, this program can automatically generate the on-screen best route results and show the total operational time and energy cost.", "keywords": [ "Drone", "Computer science", "Delivery system", "Medicine", "Biology", "Biomedical engineering" ], "cited_by_count": 6, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/mems5001/3" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W2907023825", "doi": null, "title": "The Impact of Truck Electrification on Urban Logistics", "year": 2018, "publication_date": "2018-07-19", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Andrea De Arcangelis" ], "first_author": "Andrea De Arcangelis", "venue": null, "publisher": null, "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Truck", "Electrification", "Business", "Transport engineering", "Electricity", "Engineering", "Automotive engineering" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://webthesis.biblio.polito.it/7742/" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W3006517916", "doi": "10.1109/ictai.2019.00022", "title": "Multi-agent Path Planning with Heterogeneous Cooperation", "year": 2019, "publication_date": "2019-11-01", "type": "conference-paper", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Keisuke Otaki", "Satoshi Koide", "Keiichiro Hayakawa", "Ayano Okoso", "Tomoki Nishi" ], "first_author": "Keisuke Otaki", "venue": null, "publisher": null, "abstract": "Cooperation among different vehicles is a promising concept for Mobility as a Service (MaaS). A principal problem in MaaS is optimizing the vehicle routes to reduce the total travel cost with cooperation. For example, we know that platooning among large trucks could reduce the fuel cost because it decreases the air resistance. Traditional platoons, however, cannot model cooperation among different types of vehicles because the model assumes the homogeneity of vehicle types. We then propose a model that permits heterogeneous cooperation. Targets of our model include a logistic scenario, where a truck for the long-distance delivery also carries small self-driving vehicles for the last mile delivery. For those purposes, we formalize a new route optimization problem with heterogeneous cooperation, and provide its integer programming (IP) formulation as an exact solver. We evaluate our formulation through numerical experiments using synthetic and real graphs. We also validate our concept of heterogeneous cooperation for MaaS with examples.", "keywords": [ "Truck", "Computer science", "Solver", "Distributed computing", "Integer programming", "Mathematical optimization", "Path (computing)", "Operations research", "Computer network", "Engineering", "Mathematics", "Algorithm" ], "cited_by_count": 8, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1109/ictai.2019.00022" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W2118543479", "doi": "10.1007/s13676-012-0004-y", "title": "A bi-objective time-dependent vehicle routing and scheduling problem for hazardous materials distribution", "year": 2012, "publication_date": "2012-04-03", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Konstantinos N. Androutsopoulos", "Konstantinos G. Zografos" ], "first_author": "Konstantinos N. Androutsopoulos", "venue": "EURO Journal on Transportation and Logistics", "publisher": "Springer Science+Business Media", "abstract": "Planning hazardous materials distribution routes for servicing a given set of orders within specified time windows is a problem frequently surfacing in a city logistics environment which is characterized by dynamic travel times. The hazardous materials distribution problem involves the determination of the sequence of deliveries and the corresponding paths assigned to each truck. This paper presents the formulation of the hazardous materials distribution problem as a bi-objective time-dependent vehicle routing problem with time windows. The paper presents the mathematical formulation of the problem as an integer network flow model with multiple objectives. The weighted-sum method is applied decomposing the bi-objective vehicle routing and scheduling problem to a series of single-objective instances of the problem, where the objective function is expressed by the weighted sum of the criteria under consideration. A route-building heuristic algorithm is presented for addressing each of the constituent single-objective problems, where stops are inserted iteratively in the front part of the unfinished route. A label-setting algorithm is integrated in the heuristic algorithm for solving the time-dependent shortest path problem with multiple intermediate stops arising after the insertion of any stop in the route. The proposed solution approach has been applied to a set of solvable test problems to assess the accuracy of the heuristic solutions. The results indicate a tolerable deviation of the heuristic solutions from the actual non-dominated solutions. In addition, the proposed algorithm was applied to a set of test problems resembling real-life problem cases. The average computational time needed for solving this type of test problems is not prohibitive.", "keywords": [ "Mathematical optimization", "Vehicle routing problem", "Scheduling (production processes)", "Job shop scheduling", "Heuristic", "Routing (electronic design automation)", "Hazardous waste", "Shortest path problem", "Set (abstract data type)", "Computer science", "Truck", "Integer programming" ], "cited_by_count": 64, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2192437620600139/pdf" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W2899336361", "doi": "10.1007/978-3-030-01713-2_31", "title": "The Multi-agent Layer of CALMeD SURF", "year": 2018, "publication_date": "2018-01-01", "type": "conference-paper", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Miguel Rebollo", "Adriana Giret", "Carlos Carrascosa", "Vicente Julián" ], "first_author": "Miguel Rebollo", "venue": "Lecture notes in computer science", "publisher": "Springer Science+Business Media", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Computer science", "Layer (electronics)", "Artificial intelligence", "Nanotechnology", "Materials science" ], "cited_by_count": 8, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01713-2_31" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W2179151105", "doi": "10.1007/978-3-319-24264-4_29", "title": "A Rolling Horizon Auction Mechanism and Virtual Pricing of Shipping Capacity for Urban Consolidation Centers", "year": 2015, "publication_date": "2015-01-01", "type": "conference-paper", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Chen Wang", "Hoong Chuin Lau", "Yun Fong Lim" ], "first_author": "Chen Wang", "venue": "Lecture notes in computer science", "publisher": "Springer Science+Business Media", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Truck", "Business", "Profit (economics)", "Last mile (transportation)", "Transport engineering", "Consolidation (business)", "Computer science", "Operations research", "Finance", "Engineering", "Mile", "Economics" ], "cited_by_count": 6, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3795&context=sis_research" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4412584916", "doi": "10.1016/j.ejor.2025.07.027", "title": "Exact solution approaches for the traveling salesman problem with a drone station", "year": 2025, "publication_date": "2025-07-23", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Zhiyuan Shi", "Shaozhi Hong", "Zeling Wang", "Ang Li" ], "first_author": "Zhiyuan Shi", "venue": "European Journal of Operational Research", "publisher": "Elsevier BV", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Travelling salesman problem", "Drone", "Traveling purchaser problem", "Computer science", "Mathematical optimization", "Bottleneck traveling salesman problem", "2-opt", "Operations research", "Mathematics", "Biology" ], "cited_by_count": 12, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2025.07.027" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W3007965316", "doi": "10.1109/access.2020.2975449", "title": "Joint Distribution Center Location Problem for Restaurant Industry Based on Improved K-Means Algorithm With Penalty", "year": 2020, "publication_date": "2020-01-01", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Yuyang Zhou", "Ruxin Xie", "Tianhui Zhang", "José Holguín‐Veras" ], "first_author": "Yuyang Zhou", "venue": "IEEE Access", "publisher": "Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers", "abstract": "The location of joint distribution center (JDC) is of great importance in urban freight system. This work aims to minimize the total cost, including the fixed cost, the transportation cost, and the penalty cost for the missed deliveries, considering the joint distribution willingness (JDW) of restaurant and the coverage radius of JDC. The integer programming model is formulated to select the optimal location of JDC and opens no more than k-JDCs. To solve the problem, an improved K-means (I-K-means) algorithm combining local search with penalty is proposed. The delivery problems obtained by freight survey from 114 restaurants in Beijing, China are taken as a case study. The formulation in this paper can reduce the cost of deliveries in restaurant industry, decrease the number of freight vehicles on road, and promote the joint distribution mode in urban freight system.", "keywords": [ "Beijing", "Computer science", "Joint (building)", "Distribution (mathematics)", "Mode (computer interface)", "Distribution center", "Algorithm", "Operations research", "Mathematical optimization", "Transport engineering", "China", "Mathematics" ], "cited_by_count": 24, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/ielx7/6287639/8948470/09006896.pdf" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W2006189463", "doi": "10.1007/s13762-014-0573-4", "title": "Impacts of high-intensity storms on urban transportation: applying traffic flow control methodologies for quantifying the effects", "year": 2014, "publication_date": "2014-04-09", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Evangelos Mitsakis", "Iraklis Stamos", "Michalis Diakakis", "Josep Maria Salanova Grau" ], "first_author": "Evangelos Mitsakis", "venue": "International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology", "publisher": "Springer Science+Business Media", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Context (archaeology)", "Flooding (psychology)", "Flood myth", "Metropolitan area", "Storm", "Environmental science", "Extreme weather", "Traffic flow (computer networking)", "Meteorology", "Transport engineering", "Geography", "Climate change" ], "cited_by_count": 57, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-014-0573-4" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4409606348", "doi": "10.3390/su17083718", "title": "The Impact of Last-Mile Delivery Fleet Electrification on Emissions, Dispersion, and Health: An Environmental Justice Analysis Based on Dallas County, Texas", "year": 2025, "publication_date": "2025-04-20", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Jaesik Choi", "Kate Kyung Hyun" ], "first_author": "Jaesik Choi", "venue": "Sustainability", "publisher": "Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute", "abstract": "The increasing popularity of online shopping leads to more last-mile deliveries and higher emissions from last-mile delivery trucks. Despite small amounts being emitted from the tailpipe of delivery trucks, there can be a significant amount of fine particulate matter that degrades the health quality of residents from aggregated delivery trucks at the community level. Addressing the environmental impact of last-mile deliveries is needed to achieve the sustainability goals because air pollution mitigation can reduce mortalities. This study employs a comprehensive methodology to assess the health impact of fine particulate matter from last-mile delivery trucks and the benefits of their electrification. It uses a three-tiered modeling approach, incorporating emissions measurement, exposure level evaluation, and health impact assessment. In addition, this paper shows the changes in health impacts at the various levels of the fleet electrification rate using a case study in Dallas County, Texas. The results indicate that higher fine particulate matters are concentrated near or on the major roadways and transportation facilities. This study also shows the relationships between last-mile delivery emissions and socio-economic variables and found that younger, racial minorities and low-income communities are exposed to higher last-mile emissions due to the proximity of their residences to major truck corridors. To evaluate the health impacts of fleet electrification, this study uses 2%, 10%, and 30% market shares of fleet electrification. The results indicate that for 2% of the market share of fleet electrification to last-mile delivery trucks, up to 1 death per year can be prevented, while 70 deaths per year can be prevented with 30% of electrification for the whole traffic.", "keywords": [ "Mile", "Electrification", "Environmental justice", "Dispersion (optics)", "Environmental science", "Environmental impact assessment", "Last mile (transportation)", "Engineering", "Geography", "Political science", "Electricity", "Physics" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/8/3718/pdf?version=1745136365" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W3016576502", "doi": "10.1007/978-3-030-44783-0_36", "title": "Drone Delivery Using Public Transport: An Agent-Based Modelling and Simulation Approach", "year": 2020, "publication_date": "2020-01-01", "type": "conference-paper", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Raheen Khalid", "Stanislav M. Chankov" ], "first_author": "Raheen Khalid", "venue": "Lecture notes in logistics", "publisher": "Springer Nature", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Drone", "Public transport", "Truck", "Last mile (transportation)", "Transport engineering", "Computer science", "Key (lock)", "Delivery Performance", "Food delivery", "Mode (computer interface)", "Engineering", "Operations research" ], "cited_by_count": 6, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44783-0_36" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W7160558303", "doi": "10.18130/r0rb-3j93", "title": "Intelligent Roadway Insight System; Urban Congestion and Last-Mile Delivery: Regulatory Responses in New York City and London", "year": 2026, "publication_date": "2026-05-07", "type": "dissertation", "language": null, "authors": [ "Brian Boner" ], "first_author": "Brian Boner", "venue": "Libra", "publisher": null, "abstract": "Road networks are fundamental to the functioning of modern society, enabling the movement of both people and goods across local and global scales. In recent years, the rapid growth of e-commerce has significantly increased demand for commercial transportation, particularly in last-mile delivery systems. With this shift, logistics companies, government organizations, and other stakeholders are faced with the challenge of maintaining the safety and efficiency of road networks while accommodating rising delivery demands. Commercial vehicles, such as semi-trucks and delivery vans, are essential to supply chains, yet they significantly contribute to congestion and roadway risk. For example, urban logistics account for approximately 20–30% of road traffic and up to 53% of total delivery costs, highlighting both their prevalence and inefficiency. At the same time, crashes involving large commercial vehicles are more likely to result in severe or fatal outcomes, with driver fatigue identified as a major contributing factor due to long and irregular working hours. While infrastructure limitations and other risk factors also shape this issue, they fall outside the scope of this research. Addressing this broader problem requires both technological solutions to improve driver safety and systemic strategies to better manage delivery-driven traffic patterns. To address the safety risks associated with driver fatigue, a research team developed the Intelligent Roadway Insight System (IRIS). IRIS is a wearable driver monitoring device in the form of a hat and was designed to detect drowsiness in real time to ensure users stay attentive while driving. Unlike existing in-vehicle driver monitoring systems, IRIS provides a low-cost, portable device that can be used across vehicles while preserving user privacy. The system is powered by a rechargeable lithium-ion battery and captures data using a camera and an accelerometer. This data is processed on an embedded microcontroller before being discarded. A neural network accelerator on the microcontroller enables the use of a convolutional neural network to classify the state of the wearer’s eyes, while a threshold-based algorithm analyzes accelerometer data to detect head motion associated with drowsiness. The results from the individual sensors are combined on the microcontroller to generate a final drowsiness classification. Based on this classification, a signal is sent to a haptic module to alert the driver when drowsiness is detected. The final prototype successfully demonstrated real-time multimodal sensing and on-device processing, with drowsiness detection through both head movement and eye state exceeding the target accuracy of 75%. However, limitations in hardware integration caused a reliance on evaluation boards and reduced nighttime performance. Despite these challenges, the results validate the feasibility of a wearable, privacy-conscious driver monitoring system and highlight key areas for future refinement, particularly in custom hardware integration. To address the growing impact of last-mile delivery vehicles on urban traffic congestion, an investigation on how the increased use of last-mile deliveries has shaped traffic patterns and regulations in urban environments was conducted. To carry out this investigation, a comparative analysis of New York City and London was conducted using government documents, policy reports, and journalistic sources to evaluate both regulatory intent and public response. New York City and London were selected in part because both have implemented congestion pricing as a central regulatory response and because of their comparable roles as major urban centers. In London, congestion pricing reduced traffic by approximately 15% and delays by 30%, while New York’s program eliminated over 2.1 million monthly vehicle trips into its central business district. However, public acceptance of congestion pricing initially lagged due to concerns over cost and economic impact, highlighting the importance of stakeholder perception in policy success. The findings also show that regulations have been designed not only to reduce traffic volume but also to restructure how and when deliveries occur. New York’s off-hour delivery program serves as an effective way to keep large vehicles off of the road during peak traffic hours. Ultimately, this research argues that effective last-mile regulation requires a combination of economic incentives, operational adjustments, and public buy-in to sustainably reshape urban traffic systems.", "keywords": [ "Scope (computer science)", "Government (linguistics)", "Traffic congestion", "Intelligent transportation system", "City logistics", "Occupational safety and health" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.18130/r0rb-3j93" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4206294085", "doi": "10.1016/j.cstp.2022.01.012", "title": "How Urban Consolidation Centres affect distribution networks: An empirical investigation from the perspective of suppliers", "year": 2022, "publication_date": "2022-01-19", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Anna J. Dreischerf", "Paul Buijs" ], "first_author": "Anna J. Dreischerf", "venue": "Case Studies on Transport Policy", "publisher": "Elsevier BV", "abstract": "An Urban Consolidation Centre (UCC) can decrease the number of freight vehicles and their mileage in urban areas. In practice, however, UCCs often rely on subsidies and seldom make it past their starting period. Understanding about how UCCs affect urban freight transport is mostly based on mathematical models and on the opinions of stakeholders who do not actually use a UCC. The purpose of this paper is to study empirically how the introduction of a UCC influences the logistics processes, costs, and service levels of suppliers. In a multiple case study, we collect data about the distribution networks of nine suppliers (including their receivers, carriers, and the UCC). Analyses of these data show that introducing a UCC affects the logistics processes of many actors in a distribution network, and these effects differ strongly depending on how the distribution network was structured initially. Generally, a UCC does not result in lower logistics costs for suppliers, at least not in the short-term, and often requires new service level agreements with receivers. We hope our study provides stakeholders with a balanced view on the role UCCs can play in making urban freight transport more sustainable.", "keywords": [ "City logistics", "Consolidation (business)", "Subsidy", "Business", "Transport engineering", "Distribution (mathematics)", "Traffic management", "Postal service", "Service (business)", "Marketing", "Economics", "Engineering" ], "cited_by_count": 31, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213624X22000128/pdf" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W2212943769", "doi": null, "title": "Light Freight Vehicles and Urban Logistics", "year": 2014, "publication_date": "2014-04-01", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "J Dudgeon" ], "first_author": "J Dudgeon", "venue": null, "publisher": null, "abstract": "The number of light commercial vehicles in Australia has increased at a faster rate than both population and state economic growth. This report examines the contribution of light commercial vehicles and light rigid trucks to the urban supply chain. It also considers their impact on traffic capacity, network congestion, the environment and road safety. This project defined light freight vehicles (LFVs) as being a LCV or LRT which is used primarily for the carriage of freight. That is, LFVs transport goods from one location to another without adding further value. This project collected traffic flow data from a number of sites during peak and off- peak periods on weekdays in two capital and two regional cities in New South Wales and Queensland. Analysis found LFVs comprise 9.1% of more than 2,100 observed LCVs, and 77.3% of the 251 observed LRTs. These findings are substantially supported by the Melbourne Commercial Vehicle Video Study of 2012. LFVs comprise only 4.1% of all the traffic streams observed in four cities.", "keywords": [ "Truck", "Transport engineering", "Population", "Business", "Traffic congestion", "Geography", "Engineering", "Automotive engineering" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://austroads.com.au/publications/freight/ap-r457-14" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4200002667", "doi": "10.1109/iros51168.2021.9636684", "title": "Combined Routing and Scheduling of Heterogeneous Transport and Service Agents", "year": 2021, "publication_date": "2021-09-27", "type": "conference-paper", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Saaketh R. Narayan", "James Paulos", "Steven W. Chen", "Sandeep Manjanna", "Vijay Kumar" ], "first_author": "Saaketh R. Narayan", "venue": "2021 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)", "publisher": null, "abstract": "This paper investigates servicing waypoints in a wide area using collaborative deployments of vehicles with heterogeneous range and mobility constraints. We formulate a joint planning problem for a single transport truck and multiple service drones in which the truck is constrained to a road and must deploy a team of range-constrained drones to visit waypoints. The need to deploy, collect, and redeploy drones over multiple flights introduces both route finding and scheduling aspects to this problem. We solve large problem instances by decoupling our approach into a service drone route finding phase and a transport truck scheduling phase. Numerical simulations explore the qualitative character of the driving schedule and the quantitative marginal value of adding additional drones to the team as a function of agent number and relative speed. The combination of road network constraints and range constraints make this problem especially relevant to wide area forestry, last-mile delivery, and ecological monitoring applications.", "keywords": [ "Drone", "Computer science", "Scheduling (production processes)", "Truck", "Operations research", "Schedule", "License", "Routing (electronic design automation)", "Distributed computing", "Computer network", "Transport engineering", "Engineering" ], "cited_by_count": 6, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1109/iros51168.2021.9636684" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W2368890775", "doi": "10.1109/smartcity.2015.62", "title": "Feasibility Analysis on Collaborative Platform for Delivery Fulfillment in Smart City", "year": 2015, "publication_date": "2015-12-01", "type": "conference-paper", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Lindawati Lindawati", "Chen Wang", "Wei Hua Cui", "Niveditha Hari" ], "first_author": "Lindawati Lindawati", "venue": null, "publisher": null, "abstract": "As worldwide urban populations grow rapidly, higher volumes and more frequent delivery demands create great challenges for all stakeholders in last mile logistics to balance the efficiency of last mile delivery and sustainability of urban environment holistically. We propose a collaborative platform as virtual consolidation center to encourage collaboration among these stakeholders with minimum information sharing to protect their competitive intelligence. The proposed platform aims to improve the efficiency of last mile logistics by consolidating delivery demands and thus reducing number of trucks needed. Four main features of the platform are anonymizing tool, bundling recommendation engine, auction mechanism and routing engine. We conducted an exploratory field study with various stakeholders in Singapore to assess the feasibility of such platform and summarized the result using SWOT and PESTN analysis.", "keywords": [ "Last mile (transportation)", "Truck", "City logistics", "Computer science", "Sustainability", "Smart city", "Multimodal transport", "SWOT analysis", "Transport engineering", "Cloud computing", "Business", "Process management" ], "cited_by_count": 8, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1109/smartcity.2015.62" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W2803800218", "doi": "10.1002/9781119425526.ch15", "title": "The Potential of Light Electric Vehicles for Specific Freight Flows: Insights from the Netherlands", "year": 2018, "publication_date": "2018-05-30", "type": "other", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Susanne Balm", "E.A. Moolenburgh", "Nilesh Anand", "W. Ploos van Amstel" ], "first_author": "Susanne Balm", "venue": null, "publisher": null, "abstract": "This chapter presents the results of the first half-year of the LEVV-LOGIC project, which is aimed at exploring the potential of light electric freight vehicles (LEFVs) for various urban freight flows. It begins with a definition of LEFV followed by an overview of the research that has been carried out in the field of LEFV. The chapter explains the methodology used in this research. Based on the methodology, it describes the selection of the urban freight flows and discusses future trends and potential of using LEFV for various urban freight flows. The chapter analyzes the expert opinion on the use of LEFV using the multi-actor multi-criteria analysis (MAMCA) method followed by a discussion of the results. It provides examples of current users of LEFVs in the Netherlands. Finally, the chapter ends with conclusions about the results showing directions for further research.", "keywords": [ "Selection (genetic algorithm)", "Transport engineering", "Field (mathematics)", "Operations research", "Computer science", "City logistics", "Management science", "Engineering", "Artificial intelligence", "Mathematics" ], "cited_by_count": 19, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/9781119425526.ch15" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W3014870155", "doi": "10.17863/cam.48820", "title": "An Investigation of Higher Capacity Urban Freight Vehicles", "year": 2019, "publication_date": "2019-11-15", "type": "dissertation", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Eddy, Christopher" ], "first_author": "Eddy, Christopher", "venue": "Apollo (University of Cambridge)", "publisher": "University of Cambridge", "abstract": "Studies have shown that increasing the capacity of Heavy Goods Vehicles is one of the most effective ways of reducing fuel consumption per tonne-kilometre of freight moved, with consequent reductions in greenhouse and noxious emissions. Some of the disadvantages of larger vehicles are more pronounced in urban environments, including safety of other road users, and reduced manoeuvrability. This thesis discusses technologies for improving safety of vulnerable road users, and frameworks for assessing the maximum size of urban freight vehicles. An overview of the freight industry is provided in Chapter 1, with a focus on maximising capacity as a method for reducing emissions. Chapter 2 focusses on the safety of vulnerable road users, through development of a camera-based detection system for cyclists, which is essential for a predictive collision avoidance system. The proposed system is accurate to within 10 cm at distances of greater than 1 m from the vehicle, but suffers from loss of accuracy at close range, and in poor lighting conditions. The logistics of urban freight operations are analysed in Chapter 3, including a comparison between two supermarket home delivery operations, and an analysis of refuse collection schedules. A framework is proposed for selecting an optimum vehicle size for a multi-drop operation, given reductions in driving distance and time spent on other procedures. A potential capacity increase of 80% is demonstrated, requiring a 50% reduction in driving distance, and automation of certain procedures. Chapters 4 to 6 propose a novel framework for assessing the optimum size of Heavy Goods Vehicles, according to the limits of their manoeuvrability. This method is based on simulation of vehicles attempting a library of real-world manoeuvres. Simulation models are described in Chapter 4, and path planning algorithms in Chapter 5. The framework is evaluated on three case studies: a 4.25 t grocery delivery vehicle, a 44 t articulated refuse collection vehicle, and a 44 t general urban vehicle with rear axle steering. A range of potential higher capacity vehicles are proposed in Chapter 6 for those applications The impact of rear axle steering on manoeuvrability is also considered in detail in Chapter 6. It is shown that the use of rear axle steering does not always allow the use of a longer vehicle, because a rear axle steered vehicle cannot compromise between cut-in and tailswing in the way a conventional vehicle can. However, the use of rear axle steering allows reduction in both tyre wear and rear axle load limits, which permits greater vehicle fill before rear axle loads are exceeded. These results are compared, in Chapter 7, to an alternative method for modelling manoeuvrability (Performance-Based Standards). Finally, Chapter 8 presents some concluding remarks and recommendations for future work, including investigation of an improved cyclist detection system fusing cameras and ultrasonic sensors, and increased development of the manoeuvrability models to more accurately reflect real driving.", "keywords": [ "Transport engineering", "Business", "Engineering" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.17863/cam.48820" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W2981484461", "doi": "10.1109/icmsao.2019.8880379", "title": "Autonomous Vehicles Delivery Systems Classification: Introducing a TSP With a Moving Depot", "year": 2019, "publication_date": "2019-04-01", "type": "conference-paper", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Batool Madani", "Malick Ndiaye" ], "first_author": "Batool Madani", "venue": null, "publisher": null, "abstract": "The vast growth in the e-commerce market has increased the attention to resolving the problem of conveying goods from distribution hubs to final destinations (customers) in the supply chain. The process known as the Last Mile Delivery (LMD) problem has significant challenges such as reducing operational cost or ecological impact and increasing supply chain performance. The inclusion of new technologies such as drones, robots, and the internet of things help tackle these challenges by developing new distribution systems to improve from traditional deliveries methods (delivery person, postal/delivery boxes). However, the use of these technologies brings new operational challenges. For instance, in a combined truck-drone delivery system, the truck serves as a depot from where we load the product to the drone for final delivery to the customers. The depot is now moving unlike in a traditional Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) for which we always assume a fixed depot. This research paper deals with the impact of using Autonomous Vehicles (AV) on the logistics of the LMD. We first present a technological review of the use of AVs in logistics and use it to introduce a classification of the delivery systems based on the parcel/product handover at the time of the last handling before delivery to customers. We describe three categories of handovers, namely, machine-to-person, machine-to-machine, and person-to-machine. We present a new class of vehicle routing problems with a moving depot and formulate two variants of a Discrete Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) with a Moving Depot (TSP-MD). We solve the problem using the General Algebraic Modeling System (GAMS) software and discuss some of the problem characteristics.", "keywords": [ "Truck", "Vehicle routing problem", "Travelling salesman problem", "Computer science", "Supply chain", "Drone", "Last mile (transportation)", "Routing (electronic design automation)", "Product (mathematics)", "Depot", "Operations research", "Process (computing)" ], "cited_by_count": 11, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1109/icmsao.2019.8880379" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W7111968455", "doi": null, "title": "Handbook on City Logistics and Urban Freight", "year": null, "publication_date": null, "type": "book", "language": null, "authors": [ "Alan McKinnon" ], "first_author": "Alan McKinnon", "venue": "RePEc: Research Papers in Economics", "publisher": "Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis", "abstract": "This chapter provides an overview of the environmental impact of logistical activity in urban areas, in particular the levels of pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions. The nature and scale of this impact varies with a city’s size, structure, age, planning policies and level of economic development, making generalisation difficult. Macro-level data from several sources is used to assess the environmental impact of urban freight transport and the extent of the emission-reduction challenge. Having defined the problem, the chapter then reviews efforts by public authorities and the private sector to cut these emissions. Most of these initiatives can simultaneously reduce air pollutants, predominantly nitrogen oxides and particulate matter, and greenhouse gases, though some are targeted towards particular externalities. The initiatives are discussed under five headings: switching freight vehicles to cleaner, lower-carbon energy, raising levels of energy efficiency, improving the utilisation of vehicle capacity, increasing the use of less-polluting modes and minimising the amount of urban freight movement. A concluding section reviews data limitations and explores opportunities for future research on this topic.", "keywords": [ "Greenhouse gas", "Environmental impact assessment", "Urban planning", "Public transport", "Scale (ratio)", "Criteria air contaminants", "Private sector", "Air pollutants" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://www.elgaronline.com/view/edcoll/9781800370173/9781800370173.00036.xml" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W3155296176", "doi": "10.18419/opus-10438", "title": "Adoption and diffusion of electric trucks in urban freight transport", "year": 2019, "publication_date": "2019-01-01", "type": "dissertation", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Yasar Güldas" ], "first_author": "Yasar Güldas", "venue": "OPUS Publication Server of the University of Stuttgart (University of Stuttgart)", "publisher": "University of Stuttgart", "abstract": "The year 2018 could be seen as a major milestone in the transition of the trucking industry to electrification.The European Union finally announced the introduction of a CO 2 emission standard and a zero emission vehicle sales mandate for the years 2025 and 2030.By this, the European Union wants to catch up with other markets like the United States, which already has CO 2 emission standards and sales mandates in place.Established truck manufacturers are not only pressured by regulatory measures but are also threatened by new market players like Tesla or Thor Trucks.They reacted with a firework of new electric trucks at the 2018 International Motor Show in Germany.Electric vehicles in urban road freight transport are not new as transport companies were already deploying them at the start of the 20 th century.However, the pace with which the battery technology is improving and the battery cost is falling gives hope that the electric drivetrain has finally overcome its teething troubles.Is the transportation renaissance in freight transport in the form of electric trucks here to stay and how many years will it take until the incumbent diesel engine is dethroned?Despite overall confidence in the electric drivetrain, there is no denying the fact that the truck customer has the final say.Deriving market share forecasts purely from technological advances and assuming that customers have complete information and based on this behave in an economically rational way has produced overoptimistic results for electric vehicles.To improve the market share forecast accuracy, this integrated the rational inattention theory into a System Dynamics Model that can be used as a forecasting tool.This model has been used to forecast the market diffusion of electric trucks in urban transport in the United Kingdom until 2050.To understand the influence of different technical, political and economic model parameters on the market diffusion of electric trucks, different scenarios have been simulated.The simulation results show that electric trucks will gain a considerable market share until 2050 but will not be able to fully displace diesel trucks.IX KURZFASSUNG Das Jahr 2018 könnte als wesentlicher Meilenstein im Übergang des Güterkraftverkehrsgewerbes zur Elektrifizierung betrachtet werden.Die Europäische Union hat schließlich die Einführung von CO 2 -Grenzwerten und eine Verkaufsquote für emissionsfreie Lastkraftwagen für die Jahre 2025 und 2030 angekündigt.Dadurch möchte die Europäische Union zu anderen Märkten wie die Vereinigten Staaten aufschließen, die bereits CO 2 -Grenzwerte und eine Verkaufsquote haben.Auf die etablierten Lastkraftwagenhersteller wird nicht nur durch regulatorische Maßnahmen Druck ausgeübt, sondern sie werden auch durch neue Marktakteure wie Tesla oder Thor Trucks bedroht.Sie reagierten darauf mit einem Feuerwerk an neuen Elektronutzfahrzeugen auf der Internationalen Automobilausstellung Nutzfahrzeuge 2018 in Deutschland.Elektrofahrzeuge sind keine Neuigkeit im urbanen Lieferverkehr, da sie bereits zu Beginn des 20.Jahrhunderts durch Transportunternehmen eingesetzt wurden.Die Geschwindigkeit mit der die Batterietechnologie voranschreitet und die Batteriekosten fallen gibt jedoch Anlass zur Hoffnung, dass der Elektroantrieb letztlich seine Kinderkrankheiten überwunden hat.Ist die Renaissance im Transportwesen gekommen um zu bleiben und wie viele Jahre wird es dauern bis der vorherrschende Dieselantrieb entthront wird?Trotz allem Vertrauen in den Elektroantrieb lässt sich nicht leugnen, dass der Lastkraftwagenkunde das letzte Wort hat.Marktanteilsprognosen allein anhand des technischen Fortschritts abzuleiten und anzunehmen, dass Kunden vollständige Informationen haben und darauf aufbauend sich ökonomisch rational verhalten hat zu überoptimistischen Ergebnissen für Elektrofahrzeuge geführt.Um die Genauigkeit von Marktanteilsprognosen zu verbessern, wurde die Theorie der Rationalen Unaufmerksamkeit in ein System Dynamics Modell integriert, das als Prognosewerkzeug eingesetzt werden kann.Dieses Modell wurde genutzt, um die Marktdiffusion von Elektronutzfahrzeugen im urbanen Lieferverkehr im Vereinigten Königreich bis 2050 zu schätzen.Um den Einfluss von verschiedenen technischen, politischen und ökonomischen Modellparametern auf die Marktdiffusion von Elektronutzfahrzeugen zu verstehen, wurden verschiedene Szenarien simuliert.Die Simulationsergebnisse zeigen, dass Elektronutzfahrzeuge bis 2050 einen X erheblichen Marktanteil erreichen werden aber das Dieselnutzfahrzeug nicht vollständig verdrängen können.", "keywords": [ "Truck", "Transport engineering", "Diffusion", "City logistics", "Road transport", "Business", "Engineering", "Automotive engineering", "Physics" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:93-opus-ds-104554" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W2266303204", "doi": "10.15781/t2sg7p", "title": "An assessment of cargo cycles in varying urban contexts", "year": 2015, "publication_date": "2015-01-01", "type": "dissertation", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Carine Choubassi" ], "first_author": "Carine Choubassi", "venue": "Texas ScholarWorks (Texas Digital Library)", "publisher": "Texas Digital Library", "abstract": "Freight constitutes a large portion of urban daily traffic, contributing to emissions, noise, and safety concerns. Moreover, urban freight logistics and supply chains are often hindered by the \"last mile\" in areas of high population density. Slow traffic speeds and limited parking can lead to significant delays, higher delivery costs, and an over-all unreliable system. Firms in dense urban areas are therefore seeking alternative approaches for transporting their goods and services in a timely and cost-effective manner by looking at more efficient and reliable modes for their last-mile services. One mode of transport which has been gaining widespread interest for urban deliveries is cargo cycles, also known as freight bikes or cargo bikes. Current research on cargo cycles is, however, limited though their success in transporting at least 25% of freight has been recognized. This thesis examines the prospect of using cargo cycles for urban goods delivery. A model is developed to compare the use of different types of cargo cycles in varying urban. A case study that assesses the potential of replacing the United States Postal Service trucks with cargo bikes and cargo trikes for last-mile delivery in three different population densities in the city of Austin, TX is illustrated. The results of the study indicate that electrically-assisted cargo trikes are the most cost-effective mode for urban goods delivery in congested areas with high population densities such as central business districts. Moreover, the competitiveness of the trikes with other existing modes such as the Long Life Vehicle was found to be evident when the depots were located within the boundaries of the delivery area. However, the success of cargo cycles relies on the availability of facilities like consolidation centers and dedicated bike lanes. As such, efforts from both the private and public sector are necessary for the increased adoption of this mode of transport in future urban delivery practices.", "keywords": [ "Environmental planning", "Engineering", "Geography", "Transport engineering" ], "cited_by_count": 10, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "http://hdl.handle.net/2152/31772" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W7165922043", "doi": "10.22260/isarc2026/0330", "title": "A Spatial Multi-Criteria Framework for Assessing Last-Mile Delivery Resilience in Modular Construction Supply Chains: A Network-Based Analysis of Lille", "year": 2026, "publication_date": "2026-06-22", "type": "conference-paper", "language": null, "authors": [ "Saad El Babidi", "Zoubeir Lafhaj" ], "first_author": "Saad El Babidi", "venue": "Proceedings of the ... ISARC", "publisher": null, "abstract": "The resilience of construction supply chains has become a critical issue in dense urban environments, particularly for modular construction systems that rely on large and timesensitive deliveries.While existing studies have extensively addressed construction logistics and supply-chain resilience at strategic and regional levels, the last-mile delivery phase within urban areas remains insufficiently analyzed.This paper proposes a spatially explicit methodological framework to assess last-mile delivery resilience for modular construction in urban contexts.The framework is based on a gridbased, multi-criteria analysis integrating road access suitability, truck-feasible network redundancy, and urban morphology operability.The city of Lille was selected as a representative dense European urban last-mile context and was discretized into a regular grid to ensure spatial comparability and reproducibility.Open geospatial data were used to model road networks and urban form, and normalized indicators were computed for each grid cell.The results showed that, although large portions of the study area remained physically accessible for modular deliveries, the truck-feasible road network exhibited very low redundancy, indicating a high sensitivity to local disruptions.Urban morphology was found to be a secondary limiting factor compared to network structure.The proposed framework enabled the identification of structurally fragile zones and critical corridors, providing a basis for targeted operational, territorial, and regulatory recommendations to improve last-mile delivery resilience for modular construction.", "keywords": [ "Resilience (materials science)", "Modular design", "Key (lock)", "Modular construction", "Field (mathematics)" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://www.iaarc.org/./publications/fulltext/ISARC2026_1253.pdf" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4307561090", "doi": "10.1177/03611981221127282", "title": "Impact of Goods Distribution in the Last Mile: An Investigation in the City of São Paulo", "year": 2022, "publication_date": "2022-10-26", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Luigi Guarino Neto", "Filipe Costa Barros", "José Geraldo Vidal Vieira" ], "first_author": "Luigi Guarino Neto", "venue": "Transportation Research Record Journal of the Transportation Research Board", "publisher": "SAGE Publishing", "abstract": "The number of goods deliveries made in the city of São Paulo has been rising every year. This growth is caused by new consumption habits, as people increasingly opt for online shopping, having goods delivered to their homes or neighborhood markets. However, these deliveries have become increasingly complex because of several issues found in the last-mile distribution of goods. This research sheds light on the interactions among issues related to truck circulation restrictions, receiver characteristics, accessibility and delivery planning, urban road infrastructure, driver behavior, and safety and risk problems that hamper last-mile delivery distribution. Data were collected (via a questionnaire) from drivers who work in the urban distribution of non-durable consumer goods in the city of São Paulo. From the data, structural equation modeling is proposed to evaluate these interactions. Empirical results demonstrate that “lack of accessibility and delivery planning” and “poor urban road infrastructure” are the elements that have the most impact on the “safety and risk problems in urban freight distribution” from the driver’s point of view. These results also contribute to mapping the main problems encountered in the last-mile delivery distribution in the city of São Paulo.", "keywords": [ "Last mile (transportation)", "Mile", "Distribution (mathematics)", "Transport engineering", "Truck", "Business", "Work (physics)", "Urban planning", "City logistics", "Consumption (sociology)", "Geography", "Engineering" ], "cited_by_count": 3, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1177/03611981221127282" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4411019380", "doi": "10.46254/an15.20250087", "title": "Optimization of Collaborative Truck-Drone-Subway Delivery for Urban Logistics", "year": 2025, "publication_date": "2025-02-18", "type": "conference-paper", "language": "en", "authors": [ "So Rim Han", "Byung Duk Song" ], "first_author": "So Rim Han", "venue": null, "publisher": null, "abstract": "The truck-drone hybrid delivery system has been proposed as an alternative for urban logistics due to its advantages in fast delivery, cost-efficiency, and environmental benefits. However, UAVs face limitations in battery capacity and payload, which make it challenging to meet the increasing demand for logistics services. Additionally, there are constraints in building new logistics facilities in urban areas. Underground logistics has emerged as an alternative solution to address these problems. By utilizing the subway network, the system can avoid urban traffic congestion and manage logistics flows efficiently. Moreover, it minimizes the cost of establishing new facilities by making the most of existing infrastructure. In this study, we propose a new urban delivery system that combines the existing truck-drone hybrid model with the subway network. The established subway network and stations are used to transport goods from suburban areas to urban areas, where they also function as urban logistics hubs. A truck and drones handle the last-mile delivery to customers from the subway stations. Both the truck and multiple drones operate independently; the truck does not act as a mothership for the drones, and they perform deliveries across multiple logistics depots. We developed a mathematical optimization model for a multi-depot, multi-trip vehicle routing problem with time windows. The developed model was validated through numerical experiments, demonstrating its practical applicability to urban delivery services.The truck-drone hybrid delivery system has been proposed as an alternative for urban logistics due to its advantages in fast delivery, cost-efficiency, and environmental benefits. However, UAVs face limitations in battery capacity and payload, which make it challenging to meet the increasing demand for logistics services. Additionally, there are constraints in building new logistics facilities in urban areas. Underground logistics has emerged as an alternative solution to address these problems. By utilizing the subway network, the system can avoid urban traffic congestion and manage logistics flows efficiently. Moreover, it minimizes the cost of establishing new facilities by making the most of existing infrastructure. In this study, we propose a new urban delivery system that combines the existing truck-drone hybrid model with the subway network. The established subway network and stations are used to transport goods from suburban areas to urban areas, where they also function as urban logistics hubs. A truck and drones handle the last-mile delivery to customers from the subway stations. Both the truck and multiple drones operate independently; the truck does not act as a mothership for the drones, and they perform deliveries across multiple logistics depots. We developed a mathematical optimization model for a multi-depot, multi-trip vehicle routing problem with time windows. The developed model was validated through numerical experiments, demonstrating its practical applicability to urban delivery services.", "keywords": [ "Truck", "Drone", "Transport engineering", "City logistics", "Computer science", "Aeronautics", "Engineering", "Automotive engineering" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://ieomsociety.org/proceedings/singapore2025/87.pdf" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4387061599", "doi": "10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.138959", "title": "Electric mobility toward sustainable cities and road-freight logistics: A systematic review and future research directions", "year": 2023, "publication_date": "2023-09-25", "type": "review", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Frank Eduardo Alarcón Olalla", "Alejandro Mac Cawley", "Enzo E. Sauma" ], "first_author": "Frank Eduardo Alarcón Olalla", "venue": "Journal of Cleaner Production", "publisher": "Elsevier BV", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Sustainability", "Sustainable transport", "Truck", "Traffic management", "Business", "Transport engineering", "Systematic review", "Scientific literature", "Work (physics)", "Environmental economics", "Engineering", "Economics" ], "cited_by_count": 48, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.138959" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W3157090301", "doi": "10.3390/su13095228", "title": "Reactive UAV Fleet’s Mission Planning in Highly Dynamic and Unpredictable Environments", "year": 2021, "publication_date": "2021-05-07", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Grzegorz Radzki", "Izabela Ewa Nielsen", "Paulina Golińska-Dawson", "Grzegorz Bocewicz", "Zbigniew Antoni Banaszak" ], "first_author": "Grzegorz Radzki", "venue": "Sustainability", "publisher": "Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute", "abstract": "Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) create an interesting alternative for establishing more sustainable urban freight deliveries. The substitution of traditional trucks in the last-mile distribution by a UAV fleet can contribute to urban sustainability by reducing air pollution and increasing urban freight efficiency. This paper presents a novel approach to the joint proactive and reactive planning of deliveries by a UAV fleet. We develop a receding horizon-based approach to reactive, online planning for the UAV fleet’s mission. We considered the delivery of goods to spatially dispersed customers over an assumed time horizon. Forecasted weather changes affect the energy consumption of UAVs and limit their range. Therefore, consideration should be given to plans for follow-up tasks, previously unmet needs, and predictions of disturbances over a moving time horizon. We propose a set of reaction rules that can be encountered during delivery in a highly dynamic and unpredictable environment. We implement a constraint programming paradigm, which is well suited to cope with the nonlinearity of the system’s characteristics. The proposed approach to online reactive UAV routing is evaluated in several instances. The computational experiments have shown that the developed model is capable of providing feasible plans for a UAV fleet’s mission that are robust to changes in weather and customer’s orders.", "keywords": [ "Truck", "Time horizon", "Computer science", "Fuel efficiency", "Constraint (computer-aided design)", "Routing (electronic design automation)", "Transport engineering", "Operations research", "Engineering", "Business", "Automotive engineering" ], "cited_by_count": 26, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/9/5228/pdf?version=1620474506" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4385989177", "doi": "10.1016/j.eswa.2023.121150", "title": "Two-echelon vehicle routing problem with direct deliveries and access time windows", "year": 2023, "publication_date": "2023-08-18", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Saiqi Zhou", "Dezhi Zhang", "Bin Ji", "Shuangyan Li" ], "first_author": "Saiqi Zhou", "venue": "Expert Systems with Applications", "publisher": "Elsevier BV", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Truck", "Vehicle routing problem", "Computer science", "Routing (electronic design automation)", "Integer programming", "Linear programming", "Operations research", "Transport engineering", "Computer network", "Automotive engineering", "Engineering", "Algorithm" ], "cited_by_count": 22, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2023.121150" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W3044800515", "doi": "10.1016/j.tranpol.2020.07.010", "title": "Application of an empirical multi-agent model for urban goods transport to analyze impacts of zero emission zones in The Netherlands", "year": 2020, "publication_date": "2020-07-23", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Michiel de Bok", "Lóránt Antal Tavasszy", "Sebastiaan Thoen" ], "first_author": "Michiel de Bok", "venue": "Transport Policy", "publisher": "Elsevier BV", "abstract": "Reducing emissions caused by urban freight transportation is an increasingly important policy objective for transportation planners around the world. New and innovative ways of data collection provide new possibilities to analyze these issues. In this paper we present MASS-GT, a new multi-agent simulation system for urban goods transport. The empirical basis is provided by an exceptionally large dataset of truck trip travel diaries for The Netherlands that was collected from transportation management systems using an automated data collection interface. The dataset is very dense and includes information on vehicles, routes, and shipments carried. The strategic part of the model simulates the formation of individual shipments based on logistic processes at a strategic level, such as sourcing, distribution channel choice and shipment size choice. At tactical level disaggregate choices are simulated for tour formation, vehicle type- and time of day choice, based on observed distributions. The multi-agent approach allows to implement heterogeneous preferences and thus differentiated responses to new policies. We present an application of the model to study the impacts of urban consolidation centers (UCC) and zero emission zones. The freight transportation volumes transported to these UCC and their impact on logistic indicators are analyzed. Simulation results show that vehicle kilometers travelled within the wider region increase with the introduction of UCC, and at the same time the efficiency of deliveries increases as well. Thus the model allows to study trade-offs between regional and local systems that emerge from different behavioural responses to policies.", "keywords": [ "Truck", "Transport engineering", "Consolidation (business)", "Transportation planning", "Vehicle miles of travel", "Data collection", "Computer science", "Empirical research", "Operations research", "Business", "Engineering" ], "cited_by_count": 47, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0967070X19307383/pdf" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W3022155708", "doi": "10.23919/siceiscs48470.2020.9083498", "title": "Wholistic simulation of an all-electric refrigerated delivery vehicle", "year": 2020, "publication_date": "2020-03-01", "type": "conference-paper", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Agnes Poks", "Elisabeth Luchini", "Filip Kitanoski", "Martin E. Kozek" ], "first_author": "Agnes Poks", "venue": null, "publisher": null, "abstract": "Large amounts of goods have to be discarded because of a disrupted cooling chain, where last mile delivery is often the crucial part. For future refrigerated trucks which are fully electrified the limited battery capacity calls for detailed investigations. The main contribution of this paper is a detailed model of such an electric truck together with an electric cooling unit, which covers both the power consumption of the drive train and the cooling unit for various driving conditions. The proposed simulation framework is parameterized using measured data from literature, it comprises different weather conditions, door openings, traffic volume as well as the driver aggressiveness. The simulation model uses a minimum number of parameters for an easy fit, and due to it computational efficiency it can be used for applications like model predictive control.", "keywords": [ "Truck", "Automotive engineering", "Parameterized complexity", "Computer science", "Electric vehicle", "Mile", "Simulation", "Power (physics)", "Battery (electricity)", "Unit (ring theory)", "Engineering" ], "cited_by_count": 5, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.23919/siceiscs48470.2020.9083498" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W2143550629", "doi": null, "title": "CHANGES IN THE PRODUCTIVITY MIX FOR AUSTRALIAN URBAN FREIGHT VEHICLES", "year": 2003, "publication_date": "2003-01-01", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Kim Peter Hassall", "Russell George Thompson", "M R Wigan" ], "first_author": "Kim Peter Hassall", "venue": null, "publisher": null, "abstract": "Regulators in major urban capital cities are looking towards future freight viability strategies that will dampen the growth in urban demand for trucking and commercial vehicle use. To create these strategies it is necessary to know both the patterns of usage for the specific types of truck usage within, into and out of these major urban conurbations as well as the associated productivity improvements for each of these vehicle classes. \r\nThe trip patterns at the micro level of vehicle use are often poorly understood and, even more important, the productivity interactions between the different vehicle categories and classes. Commercial vehicle numbers by category are driven not only by the more easily seen overall usage trends but also by fleet manager purchasing decisions to swap to higher capacity vehicles. This two dimensional model of commercial vehicle activity by type is rarely examined.Some emerging some fleet trends are becoming apparent in Australian commercial vehicle movements which indicate that switching between fleet categories is the result of operators searching for productivity, and the changing of delivery network demands within the urban environments in which they are operating. Should these trends continue to be realised and facilitated by regulators then a major dampening of the expected urban growth curves for freight vehicle movements could well occur. As well as this 'fleet mix switch' scenario, regulators can further facilitate productivity through the use of performance-based standards, especially within the urban context. Such limited flexibility productivity measures have the ability to make a still further significant productivity benefit to urban commercial vehicle travel and utilisation. A recent Australian case study has demonstrated that the gradual implementation of PBS and fleet productivity benefits could see Urban rigid truck kilometre growth rates being kept to a mere 0.1% increase per annum up until the year 2020. The possibility of constructing such a dampening impact in demand for urban freight transport planners is of major interest for all transport regulators and planners, irrespective of the prescriptive weights and dimension regimes that have been agreed by national regulators", "keywords": [ "Productivity", "Truck", "Context (archaeology)", "Purchasing", "Transport engineering", "Business", "Flexibility (engineering)", "Marketing", "Engineering", "Economics", "Economic growth", "Geography" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/6111" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W2021913089", "doi": "10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2013.10.016", "title": "Localisation of freight consolidation centres serving small road hauliers in a wider urban area: barriers for more efficient freight deliveries in Gothenburg", "year": 2013, "publication_date": "2013-11-21", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Jerry Olsson", "Johan Woxenius" ], "first_author": "Jerry Olsson", "venue": "Journal of Transport Geography", "publisher": "Elsevier BV", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Consolidation (business)", "Business", "Traffic management", "Scope (computer science)", "Transport engineering", "Engineering", "Finance", "Computer science" ], "cited_by_count": 56, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0966692313002147" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W1974040231", "doi": "10.1080/03081067708717114", "title": "An analysis of urban commodity flow", "year": 1977, "publication_date": "1977-01-01", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Kenneth W. Ogden" ], "first_author": "Kenneth W. Ogden", "venue": "Transportation Planning and Technology", "publisher": "Taylor & Francis", "abstract": "Most analyses of urban freight have been concerned with aspects of the supply of freight transport services, such as truck trip or truck fleet characteristics. This paper is concerned with the demand for urban freight, and presents an analysis of the characteristics of commodity consignments. These characteristics are analyzed using data for Melbourne, Australia. It is shown that over one‐half of internal freight tonneage was accounted for by six commodity groups: sand, rock, soil and gravel; bricks, pottery, glass and cement products; waste; processed food and beverages; metals and metal products; and petroleum products. The balance was spread over a wide range of commodity items. Similarly, a wide range of land use activities generated internal urban freight flow, the most significant ones being extractive industries, transport terminals, storage facilities (including petroleum) and residential areas. The paper also reviews the characteristics of the mass of consignments and the length of consignments, by commodity and land use. A wide variation in these parameters is also observed.", "keywords": [ "Truck", "Commodity", "Range (aeronautics)", "Environmental science", "Petroleum", "Agricultural economics", "Business", "Transport engineering", "Engineering", "Economics", "Finance", "Geology" ], "cited_by_count": 11, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1080/03081067708717114" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4408006368", "doi": "10.21203/rs.3.rs-6086101/v1", "title": "AI-Driven Digital Transformation and Sustainable Logistics: Innovations in Global Supply Chain Management", "year": 2025, "publication_date": "2025-02-27", "type": "preprint", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Ghazaleh Kermani Moghaddam", "Mostafa Karimzadeh" ], "first_author": "Ghazaleh Kermani Moghaddam", "venue": "Research Square", "publisher": null, "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Digital transformation", "Business", "Supply chain", "Supply chain management", "Transformation (genetics)", "Industrial organization", "Process management", "Manufacturing engineering", "Computer science", "Engineering", "Marketing", "Chemistry" ], "cited_by_count": 10, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6086101/v1" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4412967503", "doi": "10.1016/j.ifacol.2025.07.033", "title": "Vertical Drone Delivery with Obstacle Avoidance", "year": 2025, "publication_date": "2025-01-01", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Nasser Al-Musallami", "Ryan O’Neil", "Abdelhakim Khatab", "Uday Venkatadri", "Claver Diallo" ], "first_author": "Nasser Al-Musallami", "venue": "IFAC-PapersOnLine", "publisher": "Elsevier BV", "abstract": "This paper introduces a hybrid drone-truck delivery model to optimize UAV-based logistics in last-mile delivery settings. The study combines energy consumption dynamics with advanced route optimization, considering factors such as payload weight, elevation changes, and obstacle avoidance. Utilizing the Theta ⁎ algorithm, the model achieves efficient path-finding while optimizing energy use through a scheme that applies energy over-consumption or under-consumption for ascent and descent, respectively. Additionally, the study incorporates profit modeling for successful deliveries to assess energy-revenue trade-offs. Results confirm the model’s ability to improve the operational efficiency of last-mile delivery systems, thus advancing sustainable urban logistics and addressing limitations in current drone delivery systems.", "keywords": [ "Drone", "Obstacle avoidance", "Obstacle", "Computer science", "Aeronautics", "Psychology", "Artificial intelligence", "Engineering", "History", "Biology", "Mobile robot", "Robot" ], "cited_by_count": 2, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ifacol.2025.07.033" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4200580718", "doi": "10.1016/j.cie.2021.107899", "title": "A combined GA-TS algorithm for two-echelon dynamic vehicle routing with proactive satellite stations", "year": 2021, "publication_date": "2021-12-22", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Guiqin Xue", "Yong Wang", "Xiangyang Guan", "Zheng Wang" ], "first_author": "Guiqin Xue", "venue": "Computers & Industrial Engineering", "publisher": "Elsevier BV", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Computer science", "Genetic algorithm", "Tabu search", "Solver", "Idle", "Truck", "Vehicle routing problem", "Routing (electronic design automation)", "Real-time computing", "Mathematical optimization", "Operations research", "Algorithm" ], "cited_by_count": 38, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cie.2021.107899" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W7213555379", "doi": "10.2139/ssrn.7484847", "title": "Quantifying the impact of truck emissions on urban logistics network resilience", "year": 2026, "publication_date": "2026-01-01", "type": "preprint", "language": null, "authors": [ "Zhu Yao", "Mi Gan", "Xiaoyuan Yang", "Tao Peng", "Tao Wang" ], "first_author": "Zhu Yao", "venue": "SSRN Electronic Journal", "publisher": "RELX Group (Netherlands)", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Truck", "Resilience (materials science)", "City logistics", "Supply chain", "Service (business)", "Psychological resilience", "Node (physics)" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.7484847" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4404530061", "doi": "10.20944/preprints202411.1432.v1", "title": "Integrating ESG Principles into Smart Logistics:Toward Sustainable Supply Chains", "year": 2024, "publication_date": "2024-11-19", "type": "preprint", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Angelo Leogrande" ], "first_author": "Angelo Leogrande", "venue": "Preprints.org", "publisher": null, "abstract": "The integration of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles into smart logistics represents a transformative approach to supply chain management, offering solutions that address 6critical challenges in sustainability, ethical labor practices, and transparency. With the increasingawareness of climate change, social inequalities, and governance issues, companies worldwide areturning to advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), big data, blockchain, and theInternet of Things (IoT) to embed ESG principles into their logistics operations. This article exploresthe role of smart logistics in promoting sustainability and aligning supply chains with ESG goals. Ithighlights the environmental aspect by showcasing how AI and big data-driven route optimizationcan reduce fuel consumption and lower carbon emissions. The use of electric vehicles (EVs) andhybrid trucks is also discussed, particularly for last-mile deliveries, as part of efforts to minimize thecarbon footprint of logistics operations. Additionally, smart warehouses equipped with IoT devices,automation, and AI-driven systems significantly contribute to improving energy efficiency andreducing waste, further advancing the sustainability agenda. Social responsibility in the context ofESG is equally emphasized, particularly regarding labor practices in global supply chains.Technologies such as blockchain enhance transparency by allowing companies to trace the origin ofproducts and verify adherence to fair labor standards. AI and data analytics are also crucial formonitoring supplier compliance with social standards, reducing risks associated with unethicalpractices. Governance, the third pillar of ESG, plays a critical role in promoting transparency andaccountability across supply chains. Smart technologies help improve oversight, ensure compliancewith regulatory requirements, and mitigate risks related to corruption and fraud. In conclusion, thearticle underscores the importance of integrating ESG principles into smart logistics as a strategicimperative for companies looking to enhance their competitiveness, resilience, and long-term successin the global marketplace.", "keywords": [ "Supply chain", "Transparency (behavior)", "Business", "Sustainability", "Big data", "Corporate governance", "Carbon footprint", "Smart city", "Analytics", "Environmental economics", "Process management", "Greenhouse gas" ], "cited_by_count": 17, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202411.1432.v1" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W199327256", "doi": null, "title": "Analysis of Freight Tours in a Congested Urban Area Using Disaggregated Data: Characteristics and Data Collection Challenges", "year": 2007, "publication_date": "2007-01-01", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Miguel Figliozzi", "Lynsey Kingdon", "Andrea Wilkitzki" ], "first_author": "Miguel Figliozzi", "venue": "PDXScholar (Portland State University)", "publisher": "Portland State University", "abstract": "Confidentiality issues are usually an insurmountable barrier that precludes the collection of detailed and complete freight data. However, when detailed disaggregated truck activity data is available, the analysis of commercial vehicle routes and trip chain structures can provide insightful information about urban commercial vehicle tours, travel patterns, and congestion levels. Where truck data is usually aggregated and cross-sectional, this research analyzes several months of detailed truck activity records in a congested urban area and thus contributes a level of investigation unavailable with aggregated data. To the best of the author's knowledge, there is no published research regarding the analysis of disaggregated truck data in congested areas. Data corresponds to the daily activity of less than truckload (LTL) delivery tours in the city of Sydney. The analysis of the data provides insightful information about urban truck tours and congestion levels. This paper identifies route patterns and analyzes their relationship to trip and tour length distribution. Travel between different industrial suburbs explains the shape of multimodal trip length distributions. Variations in daily demand explain the normal-like shape of the tour trip distribution. Tour data indicates that there is no clear relationship between tour distance, percentage of empty trips, and percentage of empty distance. Congestion data indicates that the standard deviation of travel speed is significant. In addition, correlations between travel times are positive and they should be used as an additional congestion measure for trip-chains or urban freight tours. Despite the availability of complete tour data, tour congestion analysis proved challenging due to the large number of customers visited and links traveled during the period of study.", "keywords": [ "Truck", "Transport engineering", "TRIPS architecture", "Data collection", "Trip generation", "Traffic congestion", "Distribution (mathematics)", "Computer science", "Geography", "Engineering", "Statistics", "Mathematics" ], "cited_by_count": 17, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cengin_fac/69" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W4403832723", "doi": "10.3390/futuretransp4040061", "title": "Re-Supplying Autonomous Mobile Parcel Lockers in Last-Mile Distribution", "year": 2024, "publication_date": "2024-10-28", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Sajjad Hedayati", "Mostafa Setak", "Tom Van Woensel", "Emrah Demir" ], "first_author": "Sajjad Hedayati", "venue": "Future Transportation", "publisher": "Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute", "abstract": "This paper investigates a practical last-mile delivery scenario where a fleet of trucks replenishes autonomous mobile parcel lockers (AMPLs) in an urban setting. The lockers move along specified paths within restricted zones to reach customers’ locations. Ensuring seamless coordination between trucks and AMPLs requires the identification of suitable locations to exchange empty or loaded modular lockers. We first introduce a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) formulation for the investigated problem. The proposed formulation establishes the basis for optimizing meeting point selection and routing decisions. Additionally, the study introduces a cluster-based simulated annealing (CSA) algorithm tailored for addressing larger-scale instances of the studied problem. The CSA algorithm incorporates the K-means clustering method with specialized operators rooted in an extensive neighborhood search, aiming to improve the effectiveness of solution discovery. We generated a new set of benchmark instances to assess the MILP formulation’s efficiency and the proposed metaheuristic algorithm and conducted comprehensive numerical experiments.", "keywords": [ "Mile", "Last mile (transportation)", "Computer science", "Geography", "Geodesy" ], "cited_by_count": 6, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://www.mdpi.com/2673-7590/4/4/61/pdf?version=1730094055" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W1580071625", "doi": null, "title": "Global Logistics And Distribution Planning: Strategies for Management", "year": 1999, "publication_date": "1999-04-27", "type": "book", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Donald J. Waters" ], "first_author": "Donald J. Waters", "venue": "Medical Entomology and Zoology", "publisher": "Japan Society of Medical Entomology and Zoology", "abstract": "Contents Notes on contributors List of figures List of tables Introduction 1. Development and trends in supply chain management Donald Waters Introduction Changing views of logistics Integration of the supply chain Logistics strategy Trends in logistics Global logistics Measuring performance Improving performance Conclusions 2. New directions in logistics Martin Christopher The emergence of the value-conscious customer Logistics and supply chain management The new competitive framework: the three Rs The organizational challenge Summary 3. Future trends in supply chain management Peter Hines Abstract Introduction Key area 1: more than just lorries and buyers Key area 2: more than just orders and information Key area 3: more than just fast and efficient Key area 4: more than just textbooks and totebins Summary and conclusion 4. Agile supply chain operating environments Remko van Hoek Summary Introduction Agile supply chain principles Operating circumstances requiring agility The categorization for operating environments Conclusion and reflections 5. Time compression in the supply chain Adrian Beesley Time compression and competition What time compression is The time compression approach: competitive advantage The time compression approach: cost advantage 6. Formulating a logistics strategy Nathalie Fabbes-Costes and Jacques Colin Why formulate logistics strategies A conceptual approach to formulating logistics strategy Illustrated typology of possible logistics strategies Strategic action itineraries in logistics Conclusions 7. Thinking strategically about supply chain relationships management: the issue of incentives Glyn Watson, Andrew Cox, Chris Lonsdale and Joe Sanderson Incentivization and the process of exchange Incentivization and the outsourcing dilemma Incentivization and supplier management Conclusion 8. Supply/demand chain management: the next frontier for competitiveness Dag Ericsson The starting point Perceived customer value The evolution of the logistics concept A new perspective E-logistics Process management Supply chain management Demand chain management Demand/supply chain linkages E-nets Conclusions 9. Internet traders can increase profitability by reshaping their supply chains Robert Duncan How Internet traders can take advantage of the opportunities available from streamlined supply chains and distribution networks The establishment of a vision of the future Reviewing business processes and electronic systems The opportunity is waiting to be exploited 10. Organization, the supply chain and IT Philip Schary and Ashok Chandrashekar The path to the Internet The Internet implications Networks and the new players The new organization Concluding remarks 11. Performance measurement and management in the supply chain Alan Braithwaite Introduction Keeping score - a basic management principle The balanced scorecard: the standard for goal setting and measurement The fundamental concepts of supply chain management and measurement 12. Benchmarking in logistics and supply chain management Tim Randall Introduction What benchmarking is A brief history of benchmarking What it can do for you Scoping benchmarking studies Quantitative versus qualitative benchmarking 13. Outsourcing the logistics function Alan McKinnon Introduction Growth of outsourcing Factors promoting outsourcing The process of externalisation Recent trends in the purchase of logistical services Evolving relationship between providers and users of logistical services Conclusion 14. Delivering sustainability through supply chain management Kirstie McKintyre Background Purchasing or procurement Production or manufacturing Use and maintenance Dispose or reuse and recycle Managerial and financial sustainability Conclusion 15. Retail logistics John Fernie Introduction, The evolution of the logistics concept Logistics and competitive strategy in retailing Efficient consumer response (ECR) Differences in logistics 'culture' in international markets Consumer choice and retail formats Manufacturer-retailer relationships Logistics cost structures Role of the third-party contractor The internationalization of logistics practice The future 16. Managing the financial supply chain: scope, services and problems Lars Stemmler 17. Training in logistics David Granville About learning Business trends Development trends Responding to a changing environment The logistics environment Performance development model Learning foundations If you think training is expensive, try ignorance Conclusion 18. City logistics: the continuing search for sustainable solutions Tony Whiteing, Michael Browne and Julian Allen Introduction: the urban logistics dilemma The EC and UK contexts A range of potential urban freight solutions 19. Global enterprise logistics: one tradition ends and another begins Derek Gittoes and Larry Simcox Introduction Global enterprise logistics Global logistics: current issues Case studies Uncovering value within your logistics organization Conclusion 20. The changing supply of logistics services in the UK Colin G Bamford Introduction UK market trends Market structure: a recent oligopoly 'Europe sans frontiers': new market opportunities and threats UK logistics companies in the rest of Europe Other European logistics operators in the United Kingdom Conclusions 21. Global strategy David Hatherall Introduction Requirements for integration Preparing to integrate the supply chain International partnerships Continuous improvement Cultural differences Balancing price, quality and service Conclusions 22. Developments in Western European logistics strategies Michael Browne and Julian Allen Introduction Changes in the demand for logistics services Market structure of logistics service providers Logistics strategies in the European grocery industry Transportation In Europe Opportunities and pressures for logistics providers in a new Europe Concluding remarks 23. Logistics strategies for central and eastern Europe Grzegorz Augustiniak Introd", "keywords": [ "Supply chain", "Supply chain management", "Process management", "Competitive advantage", "Agile software development", "Service management", "Operations management", "Outsourcing", "Business", "Key (lock)", "Operations research", "Engineering" ], "cited_by_count": 69, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "http://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BA61998568" }, { "id": "https://openalex.org/W7161121184", "doi": "10.1007/s10669-026-10092-z", "title": "Optimizing urban logistics: a boundary-based drone–truck combined operations method", "year": 2026, "publication_date": "2026-05-14", "type": "article", "language": "en", "authors": [ "Akash Mallepula", "Bhawesh Sah" ], "first_author": "Akash Mallepula", "venue": "Environment Systems & Decisions", "publisher": "Springer Science+Business Media", "abstract": null, "keywords": [ "Scalability", "Truck", "Dependency (UML)", "Traffic congestion", "Sustainability", "Cluster analysis" ], "cited_by_count": 0, "is_retracted": false, "is_paratext": false, "open_access_url": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s10669-026-10092-z" } ]