Design of a Sustainable Last Mile in Urban Logistics—A Systematic Literature Review

Sören Lauenstein and Christoph Schank
Additional contact information
Sören Lauenstein: Rhenus High Tech Service GmbH & Co. KG, 40721 Hilden, Germany
Christoph Schank: Faculty of Educational and Societal Sciences, University of Vechta, 49377 Vechta, Germany

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 9, 1-14

Abstract: This paper provides a systematic and up-to-date review and classification of 87 studies on green last-mile business for sustainable management. In particular, the most important study areas and results are highlighted and an outlook on future research opportunities in the field of sustainable stock management is given. Sustainability in logistics depends on many factors, and elementary differences in the orientation of the logistics sector can bring further challenges. This is shown by the number of published papers. This paper examines the literature that does not focus on courier, express or parcel delivery (CEP). For this purpose, a systematic literature search was conducted on the topic of sustainability in the last-mile business. Publications for the period from 2014 to 2021 were identified as significant. It becomes clear that the logistics industry must further differentiate itself to be able to act in a future-oriented manner. The effects of the logistics industry and the technologies used in it have far-reaching consequences for social coexistence and should therefore be included. Challenges lie not only with logistics companies, but also with consumers and government authorities. In the paper it becomes clear that the logistics concept of the last mile is applied in all forms, but the research area of one-person delivery or two-person delivery is on a different level. Here, the concept of two-person delivery will be pursued further, as it functions similarly to a CEP service provider, but the framework conditions differ greatly. The two-person loading system makes it possible to transport large and bulky goods such as furniture without the risk of damage during delivery. Furthermore, the specifics of sustainable management of the last mile as well as the limits of the topic are discussed. This should stimulate future research.

Keywords: last-mile business; urban logistics; systematic literature review; differentiation from the CEP (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/9/5501/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/9/5501/ (text/html)

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:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:9:p:5501-:d:808085

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().