Special Issue "Sustainable Last Mile Delivery and Returns on E-Commerce Market"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Transportation".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 November 2021.

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Maja Kiba-Janiak
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Strategic Management and Logistics, Faculty of Business and Management, Wroclaw University of Economics and Business, Branch in Jelenia Góra, 58-500 Wroclaw, Poland
Interests: city logistics; logistics in city strategic planning; last mile delivery; e-commerce; supply chain management
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Michael Browne
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Business Administration, University of Gothenburg, 40530 Göteborg, Sweden
Interests: sustainable logistics; retail logistics; city logistics
Prof. Dr. Russell Thompson
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Infrastructure Engineering, University of Melbourne, 3010 Melbourne, Australia
Interests: city logistics; urban and regional planning; transportation and freight services
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Leise de Oliveira
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Transport and Geotechnical Engineering, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, 31515-212 Belo Horizonte, Brazil
Interests: urban freight transport; city logistics; e-commerce; urban mobility
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Dr. Pietro Evangelista
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Guest Editor
Institute for Research on Innovation and Services for Development (IRISS), Italian National Research Council (CNR), 80134 Naples, Italy
Interests: impact of digitalisation and ICT on supply chain management; environmental sustainability in logistics service industry; knowledge management in logistics and supply chain; maritime-port logistics
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue aims to discuss the role of sustainable last mile delivery and returns on the e-commerce market from various stakeholder perspectives.

Sustainable city logistics of last mile delivery and returns on the e-commerce market are playing an increasingly important role. According to the C3 Solutions report, e-commerce has become one of the biggest problems in the supply chain in the 21st century (Braun, 2018). In just five years, from 2012 to 2017, the number of people making purchases over the Internet around the world has increased by more than 200% (Global Web index, 2018). Since COVID-19 has been occurring globally, the number of e-customers has become even more significant.

A fast-growing e-commerce market and the increasing customer requirements in terms of speed and frequency of deliveries contributes to the formation of more and more interference in the last mile of the supply chain (Yu et al., 2016; Vakulenko et al., 2018). Research indicates that the last mile deliveries are more expensive than shopping in a retail store (depending on the package’s size and delivery service). Simultaneously, customers are not willing to pay higher delivery costs (Allen et al., 2018). Organizing delivery to the individual customer within a day or even within a few hours is a growing challenge for transport companies. However, more and more frequent deliveries result in environmental pollution, congestion, road accidents, increased delivery costs, and costs related to increased congestion and environmental pollution (Lemke et al., 2016). Last mile logistics is a problematic issue for the companies delivering products to individual customers and for residents, customers, retailers, and local governments responsible for the city’s quality of life.

We invite you to submit papers from various disciplines that will contribute to this Special Issue. We are looking for both research papers and comprehensive reviews related to sustainable last mile delivery and/or returns from the e-commerce market from various stakeholder perspectives. Research related to the impacts of COVID-19 on sustainable e-commerce delivery are also very welcome. The following potential areas for this Special Issue are welcome; however, the list of research fields is not exhaustive:

  • Organization of sustainable last mile delivery for products bought online;
  • Innovative solutions introduced in terms of sustainable last mile delivery for the e-commerce market;
  • Environmentally friendly transportation means for sustainable last mile delivery;
  • Local/state authority policy in terms of sustainable last mile delivery;
  • Impacts of COViD-19 on e-commerce and last mile delivery;
  • Changes in stakeholder behavior in terms of last mile delivery from the e-commerce market;
  • Sustainable returns from the e-commerce market;
  • Methods and measurements for sustainable last mile delivery and returns on e-commerce market.

Bibliography:

  1. Braun G., 2018,White Paper, The E-commerce Effect: The Modern Supply Chain Disruptor, C3 Solutions, s. 2.
  2. Global Webindex, 2018, https://www.statista.com/statistics/261245/b2c-e-commerce-salesworldwide/file:///F:/badania%20naukowe/Brazylia-polska/raporty/statistic_id274251_worldwideonline-retail-rate-2017-by-country.pdf, access: 20.11.2018
  3. Yu Y., Wang X., Zhong R. Y., Huanga G. Q., 2016, E-commerce Logistics in Supply Chain Management: Practice Perspective, Procedia CIRP 52 179 – 185.
  4. Vakulenko Y., Hellström D., Hjort K., 2018, What's in the parcel locker? Exploring customer value in e-commerce last mile delivery, Journal of Business Research 88 421–427
  5. Lemke J., Iwan S., Korczak J., 2016, Usability of the parcel lockers from the customer perspective – the research in Polish Cities, 2nd International Conference "Green Cities - Green Logistics for Greener Cities", 2-3 March 2016, Szczecin, Poland, Transportation Research Procedia 16, 272 – 287
  6. Allen J., Piecyk M., Piotrowska M., McLeod F., Cherrett T., Ghali K., Nguyen T., Bektas T., Bates O., Friday A., Wise S., Austwick M., 2018, Understanding the impact of e-commerce on last-mile light goods vehicle activity in urban areas: The case of London, Transportation Research Part D 61 325–338

Prof. Dr. Maja Kiba-Janiak
Prof. Dr. Michael Browne
Prof. Dr. Russell Thompson
Prof. Dr. Leise de Oliveira
Dr. Pietro Evangelista
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 papers will be 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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 1900 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
  • sustainable delivery
  • returns, e-commerce
  • stakeholders

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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Article
A Metro-Based System as Sustainable Alternative for Urban Logistics in the Era of E-Commerce
Sustainability 2021, 13(8), 4479; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13084479 - 16 Apr 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 611
Abstract
Business to consumer e-commerce (B2C) has increased sharply in recent years driven by a growing online population and changes in consumer behavior. In metropolitan areas, the “Amazon effect” (online retailers’ vast selection, fast shipping, free returns, and low prices) has led to an [...] Read more.
Business to consumer e-commerce (B2C) has increased sharply in recent years driven by a growing online population and changes in consumer behavior. In metropolitan areas, the “Amazon effect” (online retailers’ vast selection, fast shipping, free returns, and low prices) has led to an increased use of light goods vehicles. This is affecting the rational functioning of the transport system, including a high degree of fragmentation, low load optimization, and, among other externalities, higher traffic congestion. This paper investigates the potential of a metro system, in a big city like Madrid, to provide delivery services by leveraging its existing carrying capacity and using the metro stations to collect parcels in lockers. It would be a new mixed distribution model for last-mile deliveries associated with e-commerce. To that end, the paper evaluates the cost and impacts of two alternative scenarios for managing the unused space in rolling stock (shared trains) or specific full train services (dedicated trains) on existing lines. The external costs of the proposed scenarios are compared with current e-commerce delivery scenario (parcel delivery by road). The results show that underground transport of parcels could significantly reduce congestion costs, accidents, noise, GHG emissions, and air pollution. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Last Mile Delivery and Returns on E-Commerce Market)
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Review

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Review
Trends of Environmentally Sustainable Solutions of Urban Last-Mile Deliveries on the E-Commerce Market—A Literature Review
Sustainability 2021, 13(11), 5894; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13115894 - 24 May 2021
Viewed by 566
Abstract
The growth of e-commerce has increased urban freight transport, bringing negative externalities of emissions, pollution, noise, congestion, and habitat loss. There is a visible effort to make the urban last-mile (LM) deliveries more sustainable, mainly in the environmental aspects; however, the related literature [...] Read more.
The growth of e-commerce has increased urban freight transport, bringing negative externalities of emissions, pollution, noise, congestion, and habitat loss. There is a visible effort to make the urban last-mile (LM) deliveries more sustainable, mainly in the environmental aspects; however, the related literature lacks a synthesis of the up-to-date research trends and available solutions. This paper reviews relevant literature following SRL methodology in terms of topics related to green LM deliveries on the e-commerce market in urban areas, and identifies trends and the research gaps in this field. In addition, current research topics and existing solutions within the e-commerce market, which increase its environmental sustainability are presented. The findings provide an accurate and comprehensive synthesis of research in green LM e-commerce deliveries in cities, identify current and emerging interests of researchers worldwide, and discover areas requiring further studies. The topics of ICT and smart solutions, customer behavior, and performance assessment certainly seem to be underestimated in the current research. In practical terms, it is a source of knowledge and guidelines on the current developments regarding the existing solution for the LM e-commerce deliveries in the urban area, which might help local governments, freight operators, and other stakeholders of last-mile logistics to improve their sustainability. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Last Mile Delivery and Returns on E-Commerce Market)
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