Crowd-shipping has gained significant attention as a last-mile delivery option over the recent years. In this study, we propose a variant of dynamic crowd-shipping model with in-store customers as crowd-shippers to deliver online orders within few hours. We formulate the problem as a Markov decision process and develop an approximate dynamic programming (ADP) policy using … Read more
Crowd-shipping is an emergent solution to avoid the negative effects caused by the growing demand for last-mile delivery services. Previous research has studied crowd-shipping typically at an operational planning level. However, the study of support infrastructure within a city logistics framework has been neglected, especially from a strategic perspective. We investigate a crowd-sourced last-mile parcel … Read more
This paper proposes a two-tier last-mile delivery model that optimally selects mobile depot locations in advance of full information about the availability of crowd-shippers, and then transfers packages to crowd-shippers for the final shipment to the customers. Uncertainty in crowd-shipper availability is incorporated by modeling the problem as a two-stage stochastic integer program. Enhanced decomposition … Read more
Rapid urban growth, the increasing importance of e-commerce and high consumer service expectations have given rise to new and innovative models for freight delivery within urban environments. Crowdsourced solutions – where drivers are not employed by a carrier but occasionally offer their services through on-line platforms and are contracted as required by carriers – are … Read more
Cities are drivers of economic development, providing infrastructure to support countless activities and services. Today, the world’s 750 biggest cities account for more than 57% of the global GDP and this number is expected to increase to 61% by 2030. More than half of the world’s population lives in cities, or urban areas, and this … Read more
Same-day delivery of online orders is becoming an indispensable service for large retailers. We explore an environment in which in-store customers supplement company drivers and can take on the task of delivering online orders on their way home. Because online orders as well as in-store customers willing to make deliveries arrive throughout the day, it … Read more
Today, around 54% of the world’s population lives in urban areas. By 2050, this share is expected to go up significantly. As a result, city logistics, which focuses on the efficient and effective transportation of goods in urban areas while taking into account the negative effects on congestion, safety, and environment, is critical to ensuring … Read more
We consider a setting in which a company not only has a fleet of capacitated vehicles and drivers available to make deliveries, but may also use the services of occasional drivers who are willing to make a single delivery using their own vehicle in return for a small compensation if the delivery location is not … Read more