A Concept for a Consumer-Centered Sustainable Last Mile Logistics

Abstract

The amount of home deliveries of online purchased consumer goods has significantly increased in the past years. The logistics of home delivered goods is however negatively impacting the ecological environment as more packing and additional delivery tours arise. However, the environmental attitude of consumers is at the same time increasing too, which leads to a kind of dilemma of how to combine environmental consciousness with the convenience of online shopping? This paper proposes a methodological approach for designing a consumer-centered sustainable last mile logistics system and its evaluation. The suggested method combines discrete choice experiments with computer simulations which allows a feedback loop in the sustainable design of deliveries to consumers’ homes.