Spatial Allocation Of Collection And Delivery Points In Residential Areas

With the global development of information technology,public’s demand for public services has also undergone rapid growth and changes.On the basis of traditional services,various personalized and diversified new services are constantly emerging.New public facility is an effective tool for demand of new public services,and its spatial allocation in residential areas is related to the fair distribution and efficient utilization of social resources,which has an important impact on the quality of life of residents and the operation of related services.However,due to limited land resources and characteristics of emerging demand for new public services,provision of new public facilities poses a great challenge to urban land use and planning.As a product of the emerging demand for postal services,collection and delivery point(CDP)has become a kind of essential public service facility in urban residential areas of China,which is a typical representative of emerging public service facilities.However,CDPs in China lack rational allocation during fast development in recent years,which calls for attention and participation of public administrators.Therefore,taking CDP as the research object,this paper attempts to answer and explain the question "why CDPs show diversity in their spatial allocation in residential areas ",so as to provide theoretical analysis tools and practical reference for explanation and improvement of spatial allocation of emerging public facilities.Firstly,the characteristics of spatial allocation of CDPs his paper is clarified as diverse governance structure,diverse customers’ preference,diverse location and diverse evaluation perspectives,on the basis of which this paper constructs the theoretical framework of spatial allocation of CDPs in residential areas,systematically explaining the logical chain from allocating behavior and allocation result to allocation optimization;Secondly,taking the practice of CDPs in the residential area of the study area,(former)Shangcheng District of Hangzhou as an example,this paper explores the diversity in supply and demand,accessibility and performance,as well as the differentiation of fairness and efficiency among various governance structure in CDPs’ spatial allocation;Finally,basing on the theoretical framework of “MotivationOpportunity-Ability(MOA)” model,this paper explores participants’ behavior mechanism from the perspectives of their motivation,opportunity and ability,in order to reveal the formation logic and put forward the optimization path of facility spatial allocation.The conclusions of this study are as follows:(1)Analyzation on characteristics of supply and demand of study area’s CDPs shows that 3 types of CDP(specialized manned CDP(SM-CDP),unspecialized manned CDP(USM-CDP)and automatic parcel station(APS))have different design in their functions and space and urban residents have different preferences for using frequency,service type and spatial design of last mile delivery service,which are mainly reflected in different age groups and have changed from 2018 to 2020.Analyzation on residents’ behavior mechanism shows that individual motivation,ability and opportunity all have a significant impact on the differences and changes of residents’ preferences.Generally speaking,with the rapid development of social economy,e-commerce and logistics industry,opportunity factors like convenience online of shopping,ability factors such as improvement of residents’ consumption capacity and residents’ motivation for convenient shopping have promoted the growth of residents’ usage of online shopping and demand for last-mile delivery services.With the lagging development of door-to-door service’s quality and the rapid popularization of CDP,residents’ motivation and preference for CDP are also increasing year by year.At present,residents’ overall low preference for CDP is mainly due to the lack of differentiated price between door-to-door and CDP services.From the individual level,differences in residents’ preference to home delivery and 3 types of CDP mainly stem from differentiated function design(such as delivery service and time flexibility)and spatial design(like spatial density)of different facilities,as well as the corresponding function and spatial preferences of residents.Under the influence of individual characteristics such as working state and consumption capacity,personalized function and spatial preference of different age groups constitute residents’ motivation in service utilization,which promotes the formation of individual differential preference for differently designed CDP.Not only do youngs and elders respectively show different utilization frequency and preference between manned and unmanned service as well as workplace and homeplace,residents shows different Travel intention to 3 types of CDP.(2)Analyzation on spatial accessibility of study area’s CDPs shows that diversity in fairness of CDPs’ spatial allocation mainly exists among different supply modes.Existing 3 types of supply modes(which are government mode,multi-stakeholder market mode and single-stakeholder market mode)in the study area not only show significant difference in overall fairness and spatial variation,but also have a certain complementary effect on the fairness of facility allocation,as the overall fairness of facility allocation is higher than that of single supply mode and has rapid improvement during 2018-2020.Analyzation on suppliers’ behavior mechanism shows that behaviors of 4 main types of suppliers(residents,property managers,government departments and market stakeholders)determines the formation,differences and changes of existing supply modes and CDPs’ allocation,which are all influenced by their individual motivation,ability and opportunity.Equity of spatial allocation is lowest in SM-CDPs from government mode,which mainly due to negative impact from the backward construction standards of CDP and low binding effect of in existing regulations to the motivation,ability and opportunity of government departments,which leads to the planning and construction of facilities seriously lagging behind the development of residential areas and residents’ needs.Under single-stakeholder market mode,the equity of allocation of SM-CDPs and USM-CDPs is fairly good but stagnant.Profit of facilities affected residents’ demand is the main motivation of market stakeholders to supply CDP,residents’ low preference for manned CDP has led to the slow development of single-stakeholder market mode and the insufficient supply of CDP in low demand areas.And under multi-stakeholder market mode,the equity of allocation of APSs is the best.Compared with the newly-built houses with generally high service level,poor service level of old houses mainly comes from the obstacles of poor environment to market suppliers and the low motivation and ability of property managers under the community governance led by government.As this mode has rapid development X between 2018-2020,the practice of the study area also proves that the improvement of residential environment,the explicitness of responsibility of service supply of property managers,the promotion of managers’ ability and land use support for market suppliers can promote the supply of CDP from property managers and market suppliers,reducing the difference of service level between residential areas.(3)Analyzation on service efficiency of study area’s CDPs shows that diversity in efficiency of CDPs’ spatial allocation mainly exists among different ways of service provision.Under 3 scenarios which have no CDP services,non-mandatory CDP services and mandatory CDP services,the efficiency of last-mile delivery system and CDPs shows significant differences.Both the widely criticized mandatory and nonmandatory CDP services have problems in efficiency.Analyzation on suppliers and demanders’ behavior mechanism shows that behaviors of residents,couriers and facility operators determines the formation of existing service mode and efficiency,which are all influenced by their individual motivation,ability and opportunity.Compared with the scenario with only door-to-door service,the study finds that CDPs can slightly improve the overall social efficiency and economic efficiency of lastmile delivery system under the non-mandatory service mode,but most facilities are in a state of negative profit due to their low utilization;while under the mandatory service mode,economic efficiency of last-mile delivery system and CDP has been greatly improved,but with a great negative impact on social efficiency and a small impact on comprehensive efficiency;Among 3 types of CDP,only APSs can still contribute to the improvement of social and economic efficiency under the mandatory service mode due to their high substitution of door-to-door service and residents’ high preference.Manned CDPs from government mode and single-stakeholder market mode are either causing great loss of residents’ utility through mandatory service,or having poor profitability under non-compulsory mode.The existing compulsory mode of CDP services mainly comes from the passive acceptance of residents,the compulsory behavior of couriers and the cooperation behavior of facility operators for couriers.Under existing unreasonable price mechanism of last-mile delivery services,existing regulations are difficult to control the forced provision of CDP services from couriers,mainly due to the low income of couriers and CDPs’ role in reducing delivery costs.Facility operators’ cooperation with couriers to provide compulsory services comes from the poor profitability of facility under non-compulsory service mode and the lack of their legal liability.Current regulations do not play a sufficient role in improving residents’ ability to complain about compulsory service and reducing residents’ risk from complaint.Therefore,residents generally tend to passively accept compulsory services,which further improves the motivation,ability and opportunity of couriers and facility operators to supply compulsory service,which forms a vicious circle.(4)under different supply mode and service mode,spatial allocation of CDPs shows differences not only in fairness and efficiency,but also key obstacles to participants’ behavior.In order to optimize the equity and efficiency of CDPs’ spatial allocation in residential areas,this paper puts forward differentiated paths for various participants in view of shortcomings and key obstacles of facility allocation,basing on participants’ behavior mechanism.Policy suggestions include: promoting the integration of universal postal services and last-mile delivery services from the level of national legislation,clarifying CDP’s attribute as a kind of public service and improving the motivation,ability and opportunity of government and market suppliers from the aspects of urban planning and financial support to promote the construction and equity of CDPs;Building a diversified supply network of CDPs and selecting supply mode according to local conditions,so as to promote all kinds of suppliers to play their roles and improve the efficiency of CDPs’ allocation;formulating relevant laws and regulations of the express industry to strengthen the control of service standards and prices,guide express enterprises to promote service integration and innovation,avoid vicious competition and seek common cooperation and development,so as to promote the healthy development of the express industry and improve service efficiency.