| Recently, e-logistics always could not keep up with the rapid development of e-commerce, especially the last mile delivery which accounts for 30% of total e-logistics cost. Delivery time delay, low customer satisfaction, parcel lost and some other problems have make last mile delivery become one of the bottlenecks of e-commerce. Scientific decision on last mile delivery modes helps improve delivery efficiency and service level effectively, reduce delivery cost and energy consumption. This article aims to explore the competitiveness of three last mile delivery modes--attended home delivery (AHD), reception box (RB) and collection-and-delivery points (CDPs) in different scenarios, especially in high population density scenario.The main contents of this paper are showed as follows:(1) We analyze last mile delivery of e-logistics qualitatively, explain its present situation and difficulties, introduce the detailed operation processes of different delivery modes, and show the importance of last mile delivery to e-commerce transactions. In addition, suitable scenarios to different modes are preliminarily analyzed according to different modes’ advantages and disadvantages.(2) Based on the qualitative analysis above, each mode’s operation efficiency is solved with different kinds of vehicle routing problem models, K-means clustering model and genetic algorithm. Finally the cost of each mode is calculated on the basis of cost structures and operation efficiencies. The results show that different modes are suitable for different scenarios. Attended home delivery works better in a scenario with sparse population or small order quantity; Shared reception box and CDPs are more appropriate in the scenario with high population density and large order quantity, and the better one depends on the cost of labors and facilities.(3) We study the impacts on the environment of different last mile delivery modes. Improved Vehicle Routing Problem and K-means clustering models are used to optimize the energy dissipation of each mode considering the vehicle loading. Then we calculate the carbon emission according to all kinds of energy dissipation of each mode. At last, this article compares the competitiveness of three delivery modes from the perspective of environmental protection and analyzes the principle elements that affect the carbon emission of each mode. It is found different delivery modes produce different amount of carbon emissions, and the main influence factors are different completely.(4) Time dependent vehicle routing problem and cluster analysis are used to calculate the cost of different last mile delivery modes considering carbon tax. Furthermore, the costs of different delivery modes are compared in various order density scenarios and the main factors influencing the cost are analyzed. The results show that when orders are few, attended home delivery is appropriate as well; when orders are much, reception box and collection-and-delivery points are more advantageous, which one is better depends on the carbon tax and the ratio of reception box expense and third party commission. In addition, carbon tax has a great impact on reception box, but almost no effects on attended home delivery and collection-and-delivery points.This article aims to help e-logistics providers with last mile delivery modes decision. We explore the application difference of different modes from two dimensions of economic and carbon emission, further study the cost trend of three modes as order quantity changes and the carbon tax’s influence on last mile delivery cost. We hope to provide some guidance for e-logistics suppliers with last mile delivery mode decision. |
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