Last-Mile Delivery Innovations in Smart Cities
A special issue of Smart Cities (ISSN 2624-6511). This special issue belongs to the section "Smart Urban Mobility, Transport, and Logistics".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2026 | Viewed by 267
Editors
Interests: intelligent vehicle cooperative control; trajectory planning; cooperative search and optimization; UAV-truck collaborative delivery
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: smart mobility and spatial sensing (GPS/GIS/LiDAR/camera/radar); big data and artificial intelligence in transportation; shared and automated mobility and micro-mobility modeling and simulation; transportation sustainability, safety, and electrification
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
As cities evolve into smarter ecosystems, last-mile delivery remains one of the most complex and dynamic components of urban logistics. This Special Issue aims to explore cutting-edge innovations that address the challenges of efficiency, sustainability, and resilience in last-mile delivery within smart cities. We welcome contributions that examine technological, operational, and policy-driven solutions, including autonomous delivery vehicles, drone logistics, crowd-shipping, smart lockers, real-time routing algorithms, and the integration of delivery systems with urban infrastructure.
The objective of this Special Issue is to bridge existing literature gaps by emphasizing interdisciplinary approaches that combine engineering, data science, urban planning, and behavioral insights. It seeks to provide a platform for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to share evidence-based strategies and forward-looking perspectives. By highlighting both theoretical advancements and practical implementations, this Special Issue aims to contribute to the development of smarter, greener, and more inclusive urban freight systems.
We welcome original research articles, reviews, and case studies that push the boundaries of last-mile delivery innovation.
Dr. Wei Yue
Dr. Lei Zhu
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Smart Cities is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2000 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- last-mile delivery
- smart cities
- urban logistics
- autonomous vehicles
- drone delivery
- e-commerce logistics
- intelligent transportation systems
- sustainable freight
- crowd-shipping
- smart lockers
- real-time optimization
- urban mobility
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