Exploring Logistics-as-a-Service to integrate the consumer into urban freight

E-commerce established the consumer as a freight actor. This new reality in the e-commerce supply chain holds economic, social, and environmental opportunities. First, logistics service providers can capitalize on the willingness to pay of consumers with tailored logistics services. Second, consumers can be confronted with the correct costs of delivery options, raising awareness and influencing their choices\u27 sustainability. Third, policymakers can steer the consumer directly, nudging their behaviour to reach urban freight policy objectives. Until now, the lack of interaction between the logistics service provider and the consumer prevented exploiting these opportunities. In this paper, we look at passenger transport, specifically the concept of Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS), for inspiration on how to integrate the consumer into the logistics market. We propose conceptualizations for a Logistics-as-a-Service (LaaS) platform with different levels of integration and discuss the role of various stakeholders. We conclude with a suite of research questions that deserve attention to develop further the LaaS idea and its proof of concept for consumer logistics

Computing Incentives for User-Based Relocation in Carsharing

Carsharing offers an environmentally friendly alternative to private car ownership. However, carsharing providers face the challenging task of matching shifting vehicle supply with fluctuating customer demand to prevent related operational inefficiencies and ensure customer satisfaction. To date, researchers have improved existing relocation strategies and developed new concepts with the use of information technology tools. Still, current literature lacks research on optimization and implementation of user-based relocation solutions. The most urgent need currently lies in the development of algorithms to compute and implement effective incentives for user-based relocation. We address these needs by utilizing a design science research approach to develop an automated machine learning-based incentive computation solution for incentivizing user-based relocation. We use a survey of 274 participants resulting in 1370 individual data points to train an incentive computation model, which is then applied within a small-scale field test. Results suggest that the algorithm computes appropriate incentives

Designing a Crowd-Based Relocation System—The Case of Car-Sharing

Car-sharing services promise environmentally sustainable and cost-efficient alternatives to private car ownership, contributing to more environmentally sustainable mobility. However, the challenge of balancing vehicle supply and demand needs to be addressed for further improvement of the service. Currently, employees must relocate vehicles from low-demand to high-demand areas, which generates extra personnel costs, driven kilometers, and emissions. This study takes a Design Science Research (DSR) approach to develop a new way of balancing the supply and demand of vehicles in car-sharing, namely crowd-based relocation. We base our approach on crowdsourcing, a concept by which customers are requested to perform vehicle relocations. This paper reports on our comprehensive DSR project on designing and instantiating a crowd-based relocation information system (CRIS). We assessed the resulting artifact in a car-sharing simulation and conducted a real world car-sharing service system field test. The evaluation reveals that CRIS has the potential for improving vehicle availability, increasing environmental sustainability, and reducing operational costs. Further, the prescriptive knowledge derived in our DSR project can be used as a starting point to improve individual parts of the CRIS and to extend its application beyond car-sharing into other sharing services, such as power bank- or e-scooter-sharing

Financing and Managing Public Services: An Assessment

Public services can be, and are, delivered according to a variety of different arrangements. The public sector can finance and provide a service itself, or contract with the private sector to participate in provision, or its role may be limited to regulating a private provider. In this paper we examine the features determining the effectiveness of public-service delivery, including incentives for employees and teams within organizations providing public services, the structure of the organization and the competitive framework that it faces, and the role of the private sector. We assess the reform programme in the UK, which has involved substantial reorganization of public services and increasing involvement of the private sector. Reforms focus on the improvement of incentives; but while incentives are critical, the special characteristics of public services (and the people who provide them) must be recognized in the implementation of new structures and incentive schemes.public services, public management

Αποδοτική διαχείριση στόλου οχημάτων μέσω παροχής κινήτρων σε συστήματα διαμοιρασμού οχημάτων απλής διαδρομής

Τα συστήματα διαμοιρασμού οχημάτων παρέχουν τη δυνατότητα μετακίνησης με χρήση αυτοκινήτου ή ποδηλάτου χωρίς την ταυτόχρονη υποχρέωση απόκτησης οχήματος. Σε συνδυασμό με τις δημόσιες συγκοινωνίες μπορούν να παράσχουν ολοκληρωμένες υπηρεσίες μετακίνησης δίνοντας τη δυνατότητα μεταφοράς σε οποιοδήποτε σημείο μιας πόλης. Όμως η ορθή λειτουργία των συστημάτων αυτών απαιτεί λεπτομερή σχεδιασμό τόσο κατά το στάδιο εγκατάστασής τους όσο και κατά τη διάρκεια λειτουργίας τους. Η εργασία αυτή πραγματεύεται το πρόβλημα της ανισοκατανομής του στόλου των οχημάτων κατά τη διάρκεια της ημέρας. Πιο συγκεκριμένα, λόγω της κίνησης των χρηστών παρατηρείται συσσώρευση οχημάτων σε σημεία χαμηλής ζήτησης με παράλληλη έλλειψη σε σημεία υψηλής ζήτησης. Για την αντιμετώπιση του προβλήματος αυτού, υλοποιήθηκε ένας μηχανισμός ανάθεσης οχημάτων που παρέχει κίνητρα στους χρήστες έτσι ώστε να μεταβάλλουν κάποιες από τις προτιμήσεις του ταξιδιού τους, όπως το σταθμό αφετηρίας, το σταθμό τερματισμού, την ώρα αναχώρησης, έτσι ώστε να λειτουργήσουν πιο αποδοτικά για το σύστημα. Σε αντάλλαγμα του επιπλέον χρόνου που θα σπαταλήσουν σε περίπτωση που δεχθούν να συμμετέχουν στο μηχανισμό, το προτεινόμενο εναλλακτικό ταξίδι παρέχεται με έκπτωση. Αναπτύχθηκαν δύο σχήματα παροχής κινήτρων. Και στα δύο σχήματα ο χρήστης δηλώνει το αν είναι διατεθειμένος να συμμετέχει και στην περίπτωση που δεχθεί δηλώνει την απόσταση που είναι διατεθειμένος να περπατήσει και το χρόνο που διατίθεται να ξοδέψει ώστε να προσεγγίσει έναν σταθμό που βρίσκεται μακρύτερα από αυτόν του σταθμού αφετηρίας και του σταθμού τερματισμού. Η διαφορά των δύο σχημάτων έγκειται στο γεγονός ότι στο πρώτο την αποζημίωση που θα δώσει το σύστημα την αποφασίζει το ίδιο, ενώ στο δεύτερο σχήμα ο χρήστης δηλώνει το ποσό με το οποίο θέλει να αποζημιωθεί. Η αποδοχή ή όχι ενός ταξιδιού και το ύψος της αποζημίωσης υπολογίζονται συναρτήσει της προτεραιότητας που έχει μια μετακίνηση, δηλαδή του κατά πόσο η μετακίνηση αυτή οδηγεί στην επιθυμητή κατανομή των οχημάτων στους σταθμούς. Για την αξιολόγηση των δύο σχημάτων υλοποιήθηκε ένας προσομοιωτής διακριτών γεγονότων. Μέσω του προσομοιωτή εφαρμόστηκαν τα δύο σχήματα παροχής κινήτρων σε ένα πραγματικό σύστημα, το Capital BikeShare στ ην Ουάσινγκτον των Ηνωμένων Πολιτειών. Η εφαρμογή των σχημάτων όπως αποδείχθηκε από τα αποτελέσματα της προσομοίωσης, αυξάνει τον αριθμό των ταξιδιών που μπορούν να υλοποιηθούν και έχει οφέλη τόσο για τους χρήστες όσο και για το σύστημα. Το κόστος που καλούνται να πληρώσουν οι χρήστες μειώνεται, αλλά ταυτόχρονα αυξάνεται το συνολικό κέρδος του συστήματοςVehicle Sharing Systems form an alternative means of transportation providing users the opportunity to travel by car or by bike without the need of owning a vehicle by themselves. Complementary usage with public transportation offers integrated transportation services lowering the environmental footprint of urban mobility. However there are many problems and challenges that a vehicle sharing system operator has to deal with. This work focuses on the problem of fleet distribution and fleet balancing. Specifically, during the day and due to users transportation patterns, depletion of vehicles may occur at stations of high demand whereas surpass of vehicles at stations of low demand. In order to alleviate the aforementioned problem, a vehicle allocation mechanism, offering incentives to users, has been developed. Users who are willing to participate in the vehicle allocation mechanism are rewarded with a discount in order to change their trip preferences, such as the origin station or/and the destination station or/and the departure time. Two schemes for incentivizing users have been developed. Both schemes require user's declaration of participating in the incentivization scheme and in case they are willing to participate, the extra time and distance they are willing to spend and walk in order to reach a station that is further from the one closest to them. The two schemes mainly differ in the way the discount is calculated and offered. According to the first scheme the discount is decided by the scheme, whereas users involved in the second scheme declare the discount they want to be offered. A discrete event simulator has been implemented so as to evaluate the performance of the incentivization schemes. The system where the two schemes have been applied is the Capital BikeShare system, deployed in the city of Washington DC. Simulation results revealed the fruitful impact of the incentivization schemes on the performance of the system in terms of trip acceptance. Furthermore the mechanism has beneficial impact both to the users and to the system. Trips are offered to the users with lower price while at the same time the revenue of the system increase

Goods Relocation Management in City Fashion Retailers with an Incentive System

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