Abstract:
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Major cities need to carry out good delivery operations that coexist with the rest of urban functions. The efficiency in city organisation depends directly on the proper management of logistic networks. In this context, Urban Logistics is born to improve the efficiency in public facilities dealing with the organisation of supply networks, especially in urban freight transport networks. This paper quantitatively models supply chains in the vehicle routing problem with time windows, especially in the delivery of e-commerce companies. Orders are placed through internet, but deliveries are made at the customer’s home. The model takes special account of the effect produced on logistics variables (distances, times, costs, shipments, stops, etc.), by the way in which orders are received, and includes the delivery in time windows in urban areas.
Planners should design parking space and loading/unloading procedures so that the deliveries are made efficiently and with little traffic perturbation, and the industry should start getting ready to understand the high cost of this quality of service: the “picking” process has a high cost that cannot be assumed in high volumes and everyday the good (the street is contemplated as a scarce social good) and bad (double parking, bus lane blocking, etc. causing additional traffic congestion) use of the streets will likely cost more money. An application to Barcelona, Spain, for the food distribution sector (supermarkets) shows that, for the previously stated reasons, the current industry procedures are only feasible for very low demand share (less than 10%). |