Delivery On Demand

Motivation
Virtually no area of freight mobility is grown in recent years so strong as the parcel service: Induced by the rise of online trading, the volume of parcels has risen sharply and will further grow in the next few years. On the other hand, last mile delivery to private recipients is coupled with significantly more effort – these are not always at home and demand ever tighter time windows, especially in the afternoon and evening hours. In addition to that, amazon, Zalando & co. offer same day deliveries within one to two hours and are building their own delivery systems.

So how can a package service respond to these developments? The approach adopted in the present research project is based on a consistent recipient-orientation: Which delivery service model must be offered to the recipients to meet their requirements best? What happens, if the recipient wants all his parcels every Tuesday and Friday, between 19.00 and 20.00 o ́clock. Including picking up the shirts from the cleaning.

Goals
We have to rethink the whole delivery concept. B2B customers must be separated from the private recipients, thus the former will benefit by a faster delivery in the morning. B2C customers will be serviced in the afternoon and evening hours, therefore the system can respond more flexibly to their time window requirements and short-term alterations. It will also be able to include same day-shipments from regional shippers in the second wave- deliveries. Furthermore, due to the inherent reloading process for the second wave, electric vans can be convincingly integrated into the delivery process, primarily in urban areas, as longer trips per day with reloading / recharging breaks and lower total shipment weights are combined in an efficient manner. Just by the way, alternative shift models for the drivers could be implemented, thus reducing the primary source of criticism towards the parcel services, the length of the driver ́s operating time during the day.

The overall concept of the DOD – Delivery On Demand – delivery concept, needs both the logistical and receiver-oriented perspective with an integrated delivery service model. Both elements are linked together with an innovative business model – including a web-based delivery service platform – and are further subject to an extensive validation process using a comprehensive simulation model. Based on the simulation results, the eco-social effects of the DOD-concept on the general transport system, the ecological impact on the environment, business opportunities for regional shippers and alternative drivers’ works shifts are examined.

Results
If the DOD approach does prove valid and viable, it is going to be experimentally implemented in the next step with the main project partner SCHACHINGER parcel service.

Partners i-LOG Integrated Logistics GmbH, HERRY Consult GmbH, Consistix GmbH