E-commerce growth is driving the need for novel, more sustainable last-mile delivery strategies. One potential strategy is based on setting up a mobile-depot from where last-mile deliveries are conducted using cargo bikes. This research explores the impacts of this strategy through a microscopic traffic simulation based on a medium-sized European city. The strategy was evaluated at three levels: operational (route length and duration), energy consumption, and emissions. The results showed that adopting a last-mile delivery strategy based on a mobile-depot and cargo bikes leads to significant benefits in terms of energy consumption and emission, which decrease by more than 80 %, but imply lengthier (+49 %) and more time-consuming (+14 %) routes compared to a traditional parcel delivery strategy.
Mobile-Depots and Cargo Bikes Towards a Sustainable Last-Mile Future
Lect.Notes Mobility
Transport Research Arena Conference ; 2024 ; Dublin, Ireland April 15, 2024 - April 18, 2024
Transport Transitions: Advancing Sustainable and Inclusive Mobility ; Chapter : 38 ; 267-273
2025-07-19
7 pages
Article/Chapter (Book)
Electronic Resource
English
Sustainable last mile logistics employing drones and e-bikes
Taylor & Francis Verlag | 2024
|Taylor & Francis Verlag | 2025
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