The Use of Drones for Last-Mile Delivery: A Numerical Case Study in Milan, Italy

Abstract

The increasing use of e-commerce introduces major challenges for last-mile delivery, which is critical to ensure smooth functioning of supply chains. Besides the speed and cost of delivery, which are the most important factors for last-mile logistics, environmental and social sustainability factors are taking on an increasingly important role, especially in urban areas. In this perspective, last-mile delivery by drones could be a good choice both in terms of transport speed and sustainability. Being electrically powered, drones can reduce environmental impact; moreover, they enable the reduction of road congestion since they do not interfere with land infrastructures. The goal of this study is to analyse the viability of drones for last-mile delivery in the Italian city of Milan. A stated preference survey was carried out to assess end-user propensity towards drones. Using these results, a goods delivery service by drones was designed. Furthermore, a preliminary financial analysis was performed to evaluate the benefits for a company that would provide such a transport service. Findings show that last-mile delivery by drones can be successfully used to deliver small and light packages, reducing environmental and social impacts, and ensuring profits for the transport provider.

A Unique Metro Choice Behaviour of Suburban Rail Passengers in India

“…SP surveys are most widely used in transportation studies to reveal how changes to infrastructure or services will alter travel shift behaviour. These are SP survey questionnaires that desire to gather data on the stated behaviour of mode users towards hypothetical stated contexts [ 19 ]. An SP questionnaire was prepared to understand commuter shift behaviour.…”

“…It is true from the model output that suburban rail passengers falling in the age group of 21-40 (+0.317/ t stat: +2.14), with monthly income 15,001-20,000 (+0.413/ t stat: +2.34) are more willing to use metro, while daily travellers are reluctant to use metro (−0.744/ t stat: −3.94). (2) From the correlation value, it is observed that the suburban travellers with age greater than 60 fall in the income range of INR 10,000-15,000 (r = +0 19…”

Multi-Location Assortment Optimization with Drone and Human Courier Joint Delivery

“…In Table 3, we vary five different parameters, which are the number of stores M, varying from one of these possible values: {10, 15, 20, 25, 30}; and the number of products N, varying from one of these possible values: {100, 120, 140, 160, 180, 200}. We set the cardinality constraints c i , i ∈ M of the online stores from the uniform distribution whose ranges are from { [4,6], [6,8], [8,10], [10,12], [12,14], [14,16]}; customers' no-purchase preference on product u 0 i vary from these values: {10, 20, 30, 40, 50}; and purchase preference u j ik vary from the uniform distribution whose ranges are from {[0, 1], [1, 2], [2,3], [3,4], [4,5]}. Therefore, we have a total of 27 scenarios.…”

“…Other factors are gender, age, and household income, which reflects that the younger the age, the higher the preference for drone delivery service. Borghetti et al designed a goods delivery service by drone based on a preference survey [4]. The result showed that last-mile delivery by drones is appropriate for small and light packages.…”

Trip-based Modal Shift Behaviour of Mode Users along the Proposed Extension Metro Corridor in Chennai (India)

“…These are SP survey questionnaires that aim to collect data on the stated behaviour of users towards hypothetical available contexts (Borghetti et al, 2022).…”