Assessing Traffic and Environmental Impacts of Smart Lockers Logistics Measure in a Medium-Sized Municipality of Athens

Abstract

Home deliveries and e-commerce activities have increased substantially in the recent years. This fact led to the increase of the number of last mile trips in urban areas contributing immensely to the overall impacts on the urban environment. Communities are called to find smart solutions to alleviate these impacts, providing at the same time efficient logistics operation, service quality and user satisfaction. “Smart lockers” is a novel city logistics measure aiming at mitigating issues generated from the last mile of parcel deliveries, thus promoting the principles of sustainable urban mobility.

In the present study a microscopic simulation of freight traffic flows was performed in a medium-sized municipality of Athens, Greece. Actual delivery data were obtained from a well-known logistics provider and used as input in PTV Vissim software in order to firstly assess the current operation of the deliveries in the study area. Further, an alternative scenario was developed, assuming that instead of home addresses, deliveries were made to the existing, though currently of limited use smart lockers network, assuming final collection of the order by the consumers. Consumers’ traveling options and preferences, were simulated in more sub-scenarios and results were compared to provide better understanding of the potential benefits arising by implementing the measure. Impacts on traffic (i.e. travel times and delays), as well as on the environment (i.e. emissions) were further assessed in a multicriteria framework which led to the estimation of the Logistics Sustainability Indices of the tested scenarios.