A Macro and Micro-Level Evaluation of Stakeholders’ Collaboration for Sustainable City Logistics Operations

Abstract

City logistics involves movement of city goods in urban areas respecting the municipal and administrative guidelines. The key goals of city logistics planning are maximizing vehicle movement and utilization, while minimising vehicle emissions and traffic congestion. Collaboration is vital to managing city logistics operations efficiently. Collaboration can take place in the form of goods consolidation, sharing of resources, information sharing, and so on. Two categories of models are proposed to evaluate these collaboration strategies. At the macro level, we present the collaboration matrix model; and at the micro level, we present the operational level model. The macro-level model focuses on the strategic decision making process necessary for stakeholders' collaboration given the socio-cultural characteristics, economic, and environmental constraint factors, while the micro-level model applies the collaboration decision-making criteria derived from the macro-level analytic result to improve the activities of the city logistics operators. Results of the computational testing of our methodology on vehicle selection, goods to vehicle assignment, goods distribution and environmental impact assessment are discussed, showing that the collaboration strategies of stakeholders, if optimized, can improve city logistics operations. The proposed work is novel and has strong practical applicability for logistics planners and decision makers in planning right collaboration strategies for sustainable city logistics operations.

Collaboration partner selection for city logistics planning under municipal freight regulations

“…To normalize the alternative data, we use Eqs. (6)- (8). For example, C1 is a benefit (or maximize) type criterion, it is normalized using Eq.…”

Optimal Partner Combination for Joint Distribution Alliance using Integrated Fuzzy EW-AHP and TOPSIS for Online Shopping

“…Any logistics enterprise stands to lose if trying to "go it alone" in the e-commerce environment [12]. Therefore, logistics enterprises must collaborate with each other to realize the integration of resources, information sharing and business collaboration [12,18]. General logistics service providers strongly believe in the potential benefits of cooperation to increase their profitability or to improve the quality of their services [19].…”

“…In addition, sharing logistics resources such as distribution vehicles and warehouse centers can minimize traffic congestion and environmental impacts [17]. Any logistics enterprise stands to lose if trying to "go it alone" in the e-commerce environment [12]. Therefore, logistics enterprises must collaborate with each other to realize the integration of resources, information sharing and business collaboration [12,18].…”

“…Currently, JD has drawn more and more attention from government, e-commerce enterprises and logistics enterprises. Development of JD is an effective way to reduce logistics costs, increase the utilization of logistics resources, improve the efficiency of logistics operations and satisfy the personalized demand of the last mile delivery for end customers [12][13][14][15][16]. In addition, sharing logistics resources such as distribution vehicles and warehouse centers can minimize traffic congestion and environmental impacts [17].…”

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“…Langley [4] advocates that with the complexity and dynamic nature of today's rapidly evolving business world, any firm stands to lose if trying to "go it alone." [5]. Barratt [6] addresses supply chain collaboration through customer buying behavior and service needs, identifying elements that make up supply chain as C  This work is supported by Poznan University of Technology and Concordia University well as investigate the interrelationships among the cultural, strategic and implementation elements of supply chain.…”