A design of a parcel delivery system for point to point delivery with IoT technology

Abstract

Recently, IoT technology, low power networking technology for IoT, and geopositioning systems are very useful tools for future applications. One of the applications is the logistics system, especially for the point to point delivery. The current parcel delivery system is delivered through the logistics hub despite latent economic disadvantages in terms of delivery time and delivery distance. The major disadvantage of current hub and spoke delivery system is that individual parcels must go to the logistics hub first even if the origin and destination are nearby or within a distance that can be delivered through the hub. These sorts of delivery are inefficient and increase total expense of delivery in terms of delivery time and delivery costs. We designed a new delivery system of point to point delivery using IoT technology and end-to-end IoT platform based on ThingPlug and LoRa technology for fast delivery and less cost of delivery. We designed an IoT device that can be part of parcels or attached to parcels, which have various functionalities including the capability to understand current delivery routes with the use of geopositioning systems. In addition, we addressed the difficulties with issues such as linking IoT device into IoT platforms and designing IoT device functionalities. We also showed methods to improve the efficiency of IoT based parcel delivery systems. The proposed system may improve economics of parcel delivery system by reducing travel distance for delivery and dissipation of delivery time.