Design and Evaluation Analysis of Crowdsourced On-Demand Delivery Modes with the Substantial Involvement of Buses

Abstract

With the rise of on-demand delivery, crowd shippers on third-party platforms are popular but come with higher external transportation costs and environmental impacts. To address these issues, we propose two crowdsourced delivery modes with bus involvement: "bus terminal + professional crowd shippers (B&P)" and "bus stop + crowdsourced passenger (B&C)." Both modes use buses to complete many of the delivery tasks, and fully utilize the free space at bus terminals, convenience stores around stations, automated parcel lockers, professional crowd shippers, and bus passengers to complete the entire delivery process. To assess the overall performance of these two delivery modes, we proposed a set of key performance indicators (KPIs) from four aspects: delivery cost, delivery efficiency, user experience, and external influence. Exploring the potential advantages of B&P and B&C modes based on 18349 delivery cases in downtown Ningbo, China. The results showed that the B&P and B&C modes can effectively reduce delivery cost and external influence while maintaining a comparable level of user experience and delivery efficiency as the P mode in the mid-to-long distance (3–10 km) delivery scenario. Finally, based on the above conclusions, we make some recommendations for the development planning of B&P and B&C modes.