The Sustainable Parcel Delivery (SPD) Problem: Economic and Environmental Considerations for 3PLs

Sustainability in parcel delivery is a growing area of interest, especially for third-party logistics providers (3PLs). The recent increase of urban population is directly related to the increase request of goods in urban areas, and consequently to the growth of the urban freight transport and CO2 emissions. For these reasons, national and local institutions carried out regulations and incentives to reduce urban pollution and promote zero-emission vehicles. In particular, daily tickets to access to city centers is a common regulation applied to reduce freight transport. This paper presents a new SPD model that compares Eclectic Vehicles (EVs) and Fossil Fuel Vehicles (FFVs) considering economic savings and CO2 emissions, for parcel delivery from a single distribution center to a set of delivery point located inside and/or outside an urban area. Limitations as the daily ticket, the fuel cost, the battery duration are considered to provide 3PLs an innovative model to evaluate both the economic convenience and the environmental impact of its vehicles fleet. Through an explanatory study, economic considerations are carried out, related to the length of the route, the daily ticket cost, and the fuel cost to evaluate and to assess the different transportation options. It demonstrates that EVs are more convenient in terms of economic savings when the route (urban distances) and the daily ticket cost increase.