Technological innovations such as parcel lockers can only contribute to reducing the negative impact of last mile logistics on people, planet and profit outcomes if consumers adopt them. Using the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) as a theoretical lens, the purpose of this study was to design effective interventions in the pre-delivery stage that stimulated consumers to choose to use parcel lockers, focusing on incentives and actions that online retailers and logistic service providers can easily implement. A vignette-based experiment was used to examine the impact of providing consumers with information about sustainability, information about parcel lockers and information about distance to nearest parcel locker on their choice to use a parcel locker instead of receiving their package at home. The originality of the study is twofold. The role of geographical context which is oftentimes overlooked was examined explicitly in this study by conducting the study with participants from the Netherlands and Lithuania. The present study used causal mediation analysis to study the combined effects of interventions and previous experience with parcel lockers through the UTAUT constructs. The findings showed that providing information about sustainability and information about the distance to the nearest parcel locker were effective interventions, however the effect of distance was country specific. Causal mediation analysis showed that familiarity with parcel lockers was positively associated with the choice to use parcel lockers by increasing perceived ease of use, expected performance, and reducing perceived risk.
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The rise of e-commerce has led to an increase in parcel deliveries, increasing the need to address the cost and environmental impact of last-mile delivery. Customers who have become accustomed to next-day free delivery can play an important role therein by choosing more sustainable delivery options. Retailers and logistic service providers could give customers the choice to wait for their delivery or pick up their parcel from collection-and- delivery points. The purpose of this study was to examine how customers (the parcel recipients) can be stimulated to choose a more sustainable delivery option, and how this affects their satisfaction. Using two scenario- based experiments we found that customers can be steered towards more sustainable last mile delivery choices using financial and non-financial incentives. Financial incentives, in the form of a surcharge for the least sustainable option, were found to be very effective at extrinsically motivating customers to choose a more sustainable option yet had a negative impact on their satisfaction. The results provide insights for retailers to include sustainable delivery options at the check-out, and contribute to decision making on urban planning and utilization of urban space for e-commerce activities, as both parcel lockers and pick-up points require urban space
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from the article: "Abstract The way in which construction logistics is organised has considerable impact on production flow, transportation efficiency, greenhouse gas emissions and congestion, particularly in urban areas such as city centres. In cities such as London and Amsterdam municipalities have issued new legislation and stricter conditions for vehicles to be able to access cities and city centres in particular. Considerate clients, public as well private, have started developing tender policies to encourage contractors to reduce the environmental impact of construction projects. This paper reports on an ongoing research project applying and assessing developments in the field of construction logistics in the Netherlands. The cases include contractors and third party logistics providers applying consolidation centres and dedicated software solutions to increase transportation efficiency. The case show various results of JIT logistics management applied to urban construction projects leading to higher transportation efficiencies, and reduced environmental impact and increased production efficiency on site. The data collections included to-site en on-site observations, measurement and interviews. The research has shown considerable reductions of vehicles to deliver goods and to transport workers to site. In addition the research has shown increased production flow and less waste such as inventory, waiting and unnecessary motion on site."
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This research report is a casestudy of horeca logistics in Amsterdam. It shows the complexity, bottlenecks and opportunities in collaboration between market parties and the municipality in improving citylogistics. In March 2020 the Reguliersdwarsstraat in Amsterdam was virtually closed for 8 weeks by construction works in the surrounding streets. This meant the supply of the 30 horeca in would come under pressure. The municipality tried to anticipate these problems and started a project in November 2019 to convince the horeca and their suppliers to adopt an alternative, collaborative sustainable logistics solution. The idea was that the diminished accessibility in combination with stimulating, subsidizing and facilitation of a logistics solution by the municipality would give enough incentives for marketparties to change their behavior: more collaboration and more sustainable city logistics. If successful, this project could become a blueprint for future similar situations in Amsterdam and other cities.Unfortunately, the pilot ended already in the second week. The horeca closed because of Corona. Still important lessons where learned, especially that not logistics but stakeholder management is the main challenge in improving citylogistics. Improving citylogistics can be successful when not only suppliers and logistic service providers but also the receiving customers, policy makers and cityplanners are involved. Moreover, it is a very complex problem that is very case specific and cannot be worked out ‘behind a policymaker’s desk’ using general assumptions or solutions.
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The Physical Internet (PI) is probably the most ambitious and visionary concept towards efficiency and sustainability in transport logistics. PI proposes a full consolidation of logistics flows from independent shippers using vertical and horizontal collaboration. The objective of this paper is to evaluate where the implementation of the Physical Internet concept stands in the practice of city logistics. From our research, it can be concluded that Hubs, Networks, and Extended Inter-networks are developing sufficiently. Access and Adoption, as well as Governance of platforms, seem still to be too complex for big steps on the roadmap.
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City logistics is one of the causes of today's road congestion in our cities, but at the same time its efficiency is affected by the traffic problems. The driving behaviour and mission strategies used by vans and lorries operating in urban areas usually does not exploit modern infomobility solutions. CityLog, a project co-funded by the European Commission within the 7th Framework Programme, aims at increasing the sustainability and the efficiency of urban goods deliveries through an adaptive and integrated mission management and by innovative vehicle features. More particularly, CityLog integrates a wide range of logistics-oriented infomobility services that include an optimized pre-trip planner, a new type of navigation system based on enhanced maps and a last mile parcel tracking service to avoid unsuccessful deliveries. © 2011 IEEE.
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This article delves into the acceptance of autonomous driving within society and its implications for the automotive insurance sector. The research encompasses two different studies conducted with meticulous analysis. The first study involves over 600 participants involved with the automotive industry who have not yet had the opportunity to experience autonomous driving technology. It primarily centers on the adaptation of insurance products to align with the imminent implementation of this technology. The second study is directed at individuals who have had the opportunity to test an autonomous driving platform first-hand. Specifically, it examines users’ experiences after conducting test drives on public roads using an autonomous research platform jointly developed by MAPFRE, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, and Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. The study conducted demonstrates that the user acceptance of autonomous driving technology significantly increases after firsthand experience with a real autonomous car. This finding underscores the importance of bringing autonomous driving technology closer to end-users in order to improve societal perception. Furthermore, the results provide valuable insights for industry stakeholders seeking to navigate the market as autonomous driving technology slowly becomes an integral part of commercial vehicles. The findings reveal that a substantial majority (96% of the surveyed individuals) believe that autonomous vehicles will still require insurance. Additionally, 90% of respondents express the opinion that policies for autonomous vehicles should be as affordable or even cheaper than those for traditional vehicles. This suggests that people may not be fully aware of the significant costs associated with the systems enabling autonomous driving when considering their insurance needs, which puts the spotlight back on the importance of bringing this technology closer to the general public.
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