01664143

Component

Urban areas pose many challenges to the operations of express courier companies. The efficiency and cost of operating are negatively impacted by urban congestion, compromised road design, and limited available space in the city centers. To overcome these constraints, increased attention has been paid to a variety of city logistics strategies. These strategies are innovative ways for courier companies to structure their urban freight distribution system to better adapt to the challenging conditions. This paper examines the concept of pack stations, mobile hubs and active modes of delivery. These three city logistic strategies are assessed with the context of an express courier company operating in the City of Toronto. The authors develop a model to replicate the distribution network and the inter-shipment flows of this express courier company, and using continuous approximation methods to optimize the costs and routes of the pick-up and delivery. The authors also demonstrate under what operating conditions will each city logistics strategies be practical and economical for the courier company. The methodology developed can be transferred to other express courier companies operating in different service areas by tailoring the parameters.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AT025 Standing Committee on Urban Freight Transportation.

18-05460

English

4p

2018

Transportation Research Board 97th Annual Meeting

Digital/other

Figures

Delivery service; Evaluation and assessment; Freight transportation; Logistics; Package service; Urban areas

Freight Transportation; Planning and Forecasting

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2018 Paper #18-05460

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Jan 8 2018 11:23AM