Behavioural Influences on the Environmental Impact of Collection/Delivery Points

Abstract

For more than a decade, business-to-consumer parcel deliveries have been growing rapidly. Despite this, the ‘last mile’ of the supply chain, which involves the final physical transfer of goods to the customer, is particularly problematic for many customers, as delivery times are often unpredictable and/or not convenient. An increasingly prevalent alternative to conventional delivery is the collection/delivery point (CDP), where parcels are delivered to a CDP of the customers’ choosing, and picked up at a more convenient time. From an environmental perspective, CDPs can reduce failed deliveries and allow consolidation of the delivery schedules. However, a full environmental assessment should also consider the customers’ movements required to make the pickups. In this chapter, competing delivery and pickup offerings are framed in terms of the utility that each provide to the customer. A random parameter error components logit model is estimated, using stated choice survey data, to uncover what is influencing the choice of these market offerings. The last mile alternatives investigated extend beyond a pickup-conventional delivery dichotomy, to include alternative CDP locations, pickup access modes, and ways in which the pickups might be integrated into existing travel. We find that changing the price, quality and location of the CDP and delivery offerings can disproportionately influence more environmentally friendly means of picking up from CDPs, such as walking, cycling, and integrating the pickup into an existing car trip. This provides the groundwork for a more complete, behaviourally informed quantification of the last mile parcel delivery and pickup environmental footprint.