Estimating transportation network impedance to last-mile delivery. A Case Study of Maribyrnong City in Melbourne

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJLM-10-2016-0247
• Pages: 110-130
• Date: 12 February 2018
• Published date: 12 February 2018
• Author: Kolawole Ewedairo,Prem Chhetri,Ferry Jie
• Subject Matter: Management science & operations,Logistics

Estimating transportation

network impedance to

last-mile delivery

A Case Study of Maribyrnong City in Melbourne

Kolawole Ewedairo and Prem Chhetri

School of Business IT and Logistics, College of Business,

Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University, Melbourne, Australia, and

Ferry Jie

School of Business and Law, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, Australia

Abstract

Purpose –The purpose of this paper i s to measure and map the pot ential transportati on network

impedance to last-mile delivery (LMD) usin g spatial measures representing a ttributes of road network and

planning controls.

Design/methodology/approach –The transport network impedance is estimated as the potential

hindrance to LMD as imposed by the characteristics of the built and regulatory environment. A matrix of key

transport and planning measures are generated and overlaid in geographical information systems to compute

and visualise the levels of transportation network impedance to LMD using a composite indexing method.

Findings –The mapped outputs reveal significant spatial variation in transportation network impedance to

LMD across different part of the study area. Significant differences were detected along the road segments

that connect key industrial hubs or activity centres especially along tram routes and freight corridors,

connecting the Port of Melbourne and logistic hub with the airport and the Western Ring Road.

Research limitations/implications –The use of static measures of transport and urban planning restricts

the robustness of the impedance index, which can be enhanced through better integration of dynamic and

real-time movements of business-to-business LMD of goods. Spatial approach is valuable for broader urban

planning at a metropolitan or council level; however, its use is somewhat limited in assisting the daily

operational planning and logistics decision making in terms of dynamic routing and vehicle scheduling.

Practical implications –The built and regulatory environment contributes to the severity of LMD problem

in urban areas. The use of land use controls as instruments to increase city compactness in strategic

nodes/hubs is more likely to deter the movement of urban freight. The mapped outputs would help urban

planners and logisticians in mitigating the potential delay in last-mile deliveries through devising localised

strategies such as dedicated freight corridors or time-bound deliveries in congested areas of road network.

Originality/value –This is the first study that measured the potential transport network impedance to

LMD and improved understanding of the complex interactions between urban planning measures and LMD.

Micro-scale mapping of transportation network impedance at the street level adds an innovative urban

planning dimension to research in the growing field of city logistics.

Keywords Australia, Literature review, Retail logistics, City logistics, Last miles, Planning controls,

Last-mile delivery, Transport network impedance, Planning controls and land use

Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction

The “last-mile”delivery (LMD) in cities is not merely a logistics problem, but also a significant

urban planning challenge. Last-mile deliveries are expected to grow as a result of increased

online retail transactions, changes in demand for products from overseas and the increased

complexity of logistics and supply chain networks. In addition, it is further aggravated by

increasing requests for a greater variety of goods by consumers, noticeable reduction in life cycle

of products as well as limited capacity in warehousing sales floor. The increased demand for

products and the reduction in warehouse capacity result into increased last-mile demand

frequency in business to business (B2B) LMD (McKinnon et al., 2010). B2B LMDs include

The International Journal of

Logistics Management

Vol. 29 No. 1, 2018

pp. 110-130

© Emerald PublishingLimited

0957-4093

DOI 10.1108/IJLM-10-2016-0247

Received 30 October 2016

Revised 2 May 2017

30 July 2017

26 September 2017

Accepted 3 November 2017

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

www.emeraldinsight.com/0957-4093.htm

110

IJLM

29,1

retailers and distributors, suppliers of groceries, parts and large items usually delivered via the

road. It also results in an increased demand for business to consumer (B2C) deliveries.

LMD is critical to the efficiency of supply chain and logistics management. Australian

Bureau of Statistics(2013) indicated that between 2000and 2012, the volume of LMD by road

increased from 139 billion to 201 billion tonne kilometre. This is projected to be 1.8 times by

2030 from its 2010 level. Christopher (2011) estimated last-mile city logistics to account for

20-30 per cent of allvehicles in kilometres; whilstGoodman (2005) calculated LMDto account

for 28 per cent of all transportation within the supplychain. Gevaers et al. (2009) estimated it

to account for between 13 and 75 per cent of the total supply chain cost, depending on

different urban contexts. In addition, LMD has continued to increase in terms of volume,

distancesand fuel consumption. These developments, togetherwith the need for an agile, lean

and just-in-time logistics, have accelerated the magnitude of LMD problems (Stratec, 2001).

Adding to the LMD complexity, some governments have adopted urban intensification

designs and policyinterventions to contain urban growthand to increase population density

within the inner city suburbs and around key activity centres. Driven by the compact city

theory, thegeneral purpose of intensification includes a reduction in urban sprawland greater

utilisationof existing infrastructure and servicesin more established areas, particularly in the

inner- and middle-ring suburbs. Citycompactness measures thus aim at increasing density of

housing, population, retail and employment in strategic nodes such as transport hubs and

activity centres. Furthermore, roads are getting narrower and parking spaces are reduced,

with increased congestion resulting into transportation delays and loss of productive time.

LMD problems pose significant challenges for large urban agglomerations. In the USA,

illegally parked pickup/delivery vehicles of 500 million vehicle hours annually costed about

$10 billion in lost time (Morris et al., 1999). Hence, repeated cycling of the last-miles trucks

can be attributed to the lack of parking space (curb space) or insufficient off-loading

facilities (Morris, 2009), or lack of manoeuvring space as a result of poor road designs and

engineering. In addition, it has been established that land-use planners considered

population growth and spatial spread of city separately or in isolation from each other

(Agunbiade et al., 2012). By extension, last-mile logistics characteristics are neglected in the

policy-making process by policy makers (Angel et al., 2011).

Urban freight plays a central role in seamless operations of LMD, which should take into

account the provisions of urban and land use planning. The constantly changing

transportation systems (Stank and Goldsby, 2000) should be considered in planning LMD.

In the discussion of supply chain management, however, manufacturing has been taken

greater attention, whilst issues relating to transportation are considered as marginal

(Stank and Goldsby, 2000). This neglect can be argued to contribute to ineffective and

inefficient LMD. Hence, Vasco Sanchez-Rodrigues and Mohamed (2010) argued the

importance of urban planning and the need to take the capacity and design of transport

network into account in supply chain management. In this paper, the transport network

LMD impedance is defined as the amount of road network resistance imposed on B2B

deliveries from the point of pick-up to the point of delivery.

This study, for the first time, aims to integrate measures of land use and planning controls to

estimate potential transport network impedance to LMD. It will improve the understanding of the

complex interactions between aspects of urban planning and LMD operations. In addition, it will

explore a range of local strategies to help mitigate potential LMD bottlenecks on the transport

network. The following research questions are set out to answer the above mentioned aim:

RQ1. What are the key spatial indicators of LMD impedance in an urban setting?

RQ2. How are built and regulatory environments linked to LMD ina compact city model?

RQ3. What strategy can be formulated to mitigate potential transport network

impedance to LMD?

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