Spatial accessibility and equity analysis of Amazon parcel lockers facilities

Jaclyn S. Schaefer and Miguel A. Figliozzi

Journal of Transport Geography, 2021, vol. 97, issue C

Abstract: The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the growth of e-commerce and home deliveries. Automated parcel lockers are a way to improve delivery efficiency, but despite their rapid growth, little is known about their accessibility and equity impacts. Among e-commerce players in the U.S., Amazon stands out by its large market share. This research studies the location of Amazon lockers in Portland, Oregon utilizing highway, land use, employment, and sociodemographic datasets. Geographical tools and cluster analysis are utilized to estimate accessibility and equity metrics. Lockers tend to be located in mixed-use areas and can be utilized by a large percentage of the population. However, the equity metrics indicate that the current distribution of lockers could be improved to reach traditionally underserved populations. Given the environmental and economic advantages of lockers, policymakers should encourage the expansion of this type of last mile solution to avoid market failures in areas that are currently underserved.

Keywords: E-commerce; Parcel lockers; Last mile and urban logistics; Accessibility; Equity; Market failure (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0966692321002659

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jotrge:v:97:y:2021:i:c:s0966692321002659

DOI: 10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2021.103212

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Transport Geography is currently edited by Frank Witlox

More articles in Journal of Transport Geography from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().