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In the last decade, e-commerce has been growing consistently. Fostered by the covid pandemic, online retail has grown exponentially, particularly in industries including food, clothing, groceries, and many others. This growth in online retailing activities has raised critical logistic challenges, especially in the last leg of the distribution, commonly referred to as the Last Mile. For instance, traditional truck-based home delivery has reached its limit within metropolitan areas and can no longer be an effective delivery method. Driven by technological progress, several other logistic solutions have been deployed as innovative alternatives to deliver parcels. This includes delivery by drones, smart parcel stations, robots, and crowdsourcing, among others. In this setting, this paper aims to provide a comprehensive review and analysis of the latest trends in last-mile delivery solutions from both industry and academic perspectives (see Figure 1 for overview). We use a content analysis literature review to analyse over 80 relevant publications, derive the necessary features of the latest innovation in the last mile delivery, and point out their different maturity levels and the related theoretical and operational challenges.Innovative solutions in last mile delivery: concepts, practices, challenges, and future directionsAll authorsWassen AM Mohammad, Yousef Nazih Diab, Adel Elomri & Chefi Triki https://doi.org/10.1080/16258312.2023.2173488Published online:07 February 2023Figure 1. Overview and Graphical Abstract.Display full sizeFigure 1. Overview and Graphical Abstract.
Mohammad et al. (Tue,) studied this question.