First and Last Miles by Cargo Bikes: Ecological Commitment or Economically Feasible? The Case of a Parcel Service Company in Paris

Abstract

Urban logistics is a key step in distribution chains. It implies the use of trucks in congested areas, and generates numerous externalities (congestion, noise, pollution, etc.). Supply chain configurations and consumer behaviors are undergoing deep changes, with a significant increase in the intensity of urban logistics and a diversification of delivery channels within cities. This is an important challenge for city sustainability, as urban logistics is an essential economic activity, and yet the source of intense negative externalities. Numerous directions are currently being explored to rethink urban logistics, such as drones, cargo bikes, crowd logistics, and so forth. However, the economic and environmental relevance of these technologies is not yet perfectly clear. This paper focuses on the conditions for the financial sustainability of cargo bikes compared with electric light commercial vehicles (LCVs). The analysis is based on real data, provided by the parcel service company DB Schenker. The dataset consists of 600,000 operations made in Paris over two months. Operations with electric LCV are assumed to be identical to conventional LCV; the cost comparison is based on a total cost of ownership approach. Operations with cargo bikes assumes that eligible shipments are first brought to micro hubs within the city by electric LCV, then delivered by cargo bike. The numbers and locations of micro hubs are optimized. Results show that a cargo bike solution can be more cost-efficient than electric LCV with a few micro hubs located where the demand is densest, but they can only be relevant financially in those conditions.

Operational performance of light electric freight vehicles in the last mile: two Nordic case studies

“…Melo and Baptista (2017) used a traffic simulation model in AIMSUN 8.1.2 (Advanced Interactive Microscopic Simulator for Urban and Non-Urban Networks) to assess whether LEFVs, such as cargo cycles, could achieve better environmental and social results and still obtain the levels of operational and traffic efficiency for the city of Porto (Portugal). Robichet et al (2022) studied DB Schenker's operations in Paris and found that while it was theoretically feasible to distribute as much as 91% of their goods by cargo cycle using a weight limit of 200 kg, the costs would be prohibitive, with access to microhubs being the primary expense driver. Their estimate does not consider the volume of goods.…”

Last mile distribution using cargo bikes: a simulation study in Padova

“…This leads to a decrease in delivery times (Dalla Chiara et al 2020) and vehicledistance traveled (Niels, Hof & Bogenberger 2018), therefore reducing the cost of deliveries (de Mello Bandeira et al 2019), and increasing their reliability (Sheth et al 2019). Moreover, cargo bikes can effectively contribute to the reduction of negative externalities of transportation, by reducing emissions of air pollutants (Melo & Baptista 2017) and reducing the use of parking space (Robichet & Niérat 2021). However, the magnitude of these positive impacts depends on several factors.…”

Last-Mile Logistics Network Design under E-Cargo Bikes

“…Table 4 shows the corresponding results. The best resulting route set for ACO consists of five routes in this case ( [21,20,25,19,2,1], [23,10,11,3], [12,13,5,6,4], [24,17,16,15,14,22], [9,8,7,18]) versus four routes for the GA ( [13,20,21,2,12,9,5], [6,8,3,22,7,4,1], [18,14,24,23,10,11], [16,15,17,19,25]). As seen in Table…”

“…Taking into account demand stochasticity, Naumov [20] combined the Clarke-Wright heuristic with simulation for determining hubs for e-bike deliveries and associated routes. Robichet et al [21] solved the micro-hub facility location problem and subsequently the cargo bike routing problem for parcel delivery in Paris, showing that cargo bikes are economically preferable to trucks under high numbers of daily requests. Caggiani et al [22] presented an e-cargo bike routing model for last-mile delivery, considering both travel time and driver exposure to emissions.…”