Efficiency in the Last Mile of Autonomous Ground Vehicles with Lockers: From Conventional to Renewable Energy Transport

Olga Levkovych and Adriana Saraceni ()
Additional contact information
Olga Levkovych: School of Business and Economics, Maastricht University, 6211 LK Maastricht, The Netherlands
Adriana Saraceni: School of Business and Economics, Maastricht University, 6211 LK Maastricht, The Netherlands

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 23, 1-28

Abstract: This research aims to compare autonomous ground vehicles with conventional and electric vans on the basis of associated vehicle costs and benefits related to their use, taking into account economic feasibility. Cost per vehicle kilometre is derived using the total cost of ownership method adjusted with the inclusion of labour costs and the impact of solar panel application on fuel efficiency while travel time-related and capacity occupations and reliability benefits serve as a basis for the total possible number of parcels delivered. The results show that, under the current structural and infrastructural conditions of urban delivery, the experimental model can be potentially successful in terms of cost per kilometre (0.133/km) but not as effective in terms of the total possible number of parcels delivered. This study defines autonomous ground vehicles with lockers as an innovative last mile solution and contributes to the academic literature by investigating the concept’s efficiency competitiveness.

Keywords: total cost of ownership; autonomous ground vehicles; last-mile delivery; electric cars; solar panels (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/23/16219/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/23/16219/ (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:15:y:2023:i:23:p:16219-:d:1285751

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 ().