The environmental impact of fast delivery B2C e-commerce in outbound logistics operations: A simulation approach

During the past few years, the increase of last-mile distribution (LMD) of the business-to-consumer (B2C) ecommerce has brought changes for the Supply Chain Management (SCM), such as new economic and environmental challenges. On the other hand, sustainability and high levels of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with transportation of goods have not yet been considered to be sufficient to help address this gap. This work aims to investigate how flexible delivery time strategies may impact the mileage traveled by vehicles in the LMD. To do that, a discrete event simulation model was developed using the consolidation level and delivery time variables to analyze logistics scenarios. Results revealed that, in certain circumstances, more flexible delivery times and higher levels of shipment consolidation may shorten the total mileage traveled by the vehicles. Moreover, they provide economic and environmental benefits due to reduced fuel consumption and thus GHG emissions with no major impact for consumers.