Autonomous Goods Vehicles for Last-mile Delivery: Evaluation of Impact and Barriers

Safaa Sindi, Roger Woodman

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference proceedingpeer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)
184 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

For transport logistics, often the most inefficient part of the journey is the route between distribution centre and end customer. This route, referred to as last-mile delivery, generally uses smaller goods vehicles, to deliver low-volumes to multiple destinations. To optimise this process, route planning optimisation software is used, to maximise the number of deliveries a driver can complete in a day. To further optimise this process, companies are starting to test autonomous goods vehicles (AGVs). This paper presents an evaluation of the impact and barriers of AGVs for last-mile delivery in the UK, by conducting a study of people in the logistics industry and experts in autonomous technology. Qualitative analysis is used to identify positive and negative impacts of the introduction of driverless AGVs, and barriers, in terms of government policy and technical restrictions, which could slow down wide-scale adoption. From the results, we find logistics companies are being pressured to reduce lead-times and offer more predictable delivery-times. This is increasing pressure on the workforce, which already has high-turnover and difficulties in recruitment. Therefore, AGVs are considered a solution to a present problem, which is preventing logistics companies growing and achieving delivery targets, driven by public demand.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication2020 IEEE 23rd International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems, ITSC 2020
PublisherIEEE
Number of pages6
ISBN (Electronic)978-1-7281-4149-7
ISBN (Print)978-1-7281-4150-3
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 24 Dec 2020
Event23rd IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems - Rhodes, Greece
Duration: 20 Sep 202023 Sep 2020
https://www.ieee-itsc2020.org/

Publication series

Name2020 IEEE 23rd International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems, ITSC 2020

Conference

Conference23rd IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems
Abbreviated title ITSC 2020
Country/TerritoryGreece
CityRhodes
Period20/09/2023/09/20
Internet address

Bibliographical note

© 2020 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.

Keywords

  • Intelligent Transportation Systems
  • Autonomous vehicles
  • Logistics operations

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Decision Sciences (miscellaneous)
  • Information Systems and Management
  • Modelling and Simulation
  • Education

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