Information Systems and Technology of City Logistics and Urban Freight

A special issue of Logistics (ISSN 2305-6290). This special issue belongs to the section "Last Mile, E-Commerce and Sales Logistics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2022) | Viewed by 42529

Special Issue Editors

School of Business, New Jersey City University, Jersey City, NJ 07311, USA
Interests: supply chain; logistics; travel demand modeling; transportation planning; transportation and supply chain safety and security; sustainable agricultural and energy logistics; emergency medical services; maritime logistics and planning
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Co-Guest Editor
Korea Railroad Research Institute (KRRI), Uiwang-si 16105, Korea
Interests: advanced logistics technology; new product evaluation; technology value; cold chain; railroad logistics

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Co-Guest Editor
Management Department, New Jersey City University, Jersey City, NJ 07311, USA
Interests: management information systems; leadership behaviors; operations management; race and gender issues in the workplace; business technology; community health and administration issues

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Co-Guest Editor
The Bill Munday School of Business, St. Edward's University, TX 78704, USA
Interests: bio-energy supply chain optimization; sustainable transportation and supply chain performance measure; operations management; data mining

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

City logistics is an area to meet the demand of end-customers’ social and economic activities in relatively densely populated urban areas by providing the primary functions of logistics, including supplying materials, producing and manufacturing products, storing and distributing, and transporting and shipping, along with the secondary functions of managing flows of information, finance, and energy. Many stakeholders are interested in reducing traffic congestion, accidents, and environmental impact in the freight movement in urban areas, while maintaining efficient and cost-effective strategic and operational logistics management.

Along with continuous urbanization, shifts in traffic patterns, globalization, as well as COVID-19, city logistics, and urban freight movement have recently diversified the direction of the changes, and these changes are speeding up. Some of the impactful changes in the logistics industry are related to compliance with issues of labor, environment, and security; logistics facilities being relocated from urban to suburbs or rural areas due to increasing competition for limited space; the increasing needs of quality of urban life and the pattern of new consumption; and rapid changes in emerging disruptive technologies.

Therefore, by introducing innovative processes and technologies, not traditional approaches and technologies, the industry wants to maintain a positive social function while increasing business efficiency and meeting customer needs. Innovative improvements can be made by collecting, storing, distributing, analyzing, and visualizing the data. Then, the data can be transformed into information for better decisions.

This process integrates information technology and systems based on business processes, which can share information and knowledge among stakeholders and for problem solving. Investigation of information technology and systems in city logistics and urban freight movement includes but is not limited to the following areas:

  • Sourcing, procurement, and supplier management: supplier relationship management (SRM);
  • Production and manufacturing: manufacturing resource planning (MRP II);
  • Handling materials, storage, sorting, and distribution: warehouse management systems;
  • Transporting and shipping: transportation management systems, trucking guidance systems, autonomous vehicles;
  • Customer service and delivery: customer management systems;
  • Waste management systems, mobile automated guided vehicles, logistics robots;
  • Enterprise resource planning (ERP);
  • Asset management solutions;
  • Fintech: blockchain technology;
  • Smart sensing technology: RFID, IoT;
  • Mobile technology;
  • Cloud systems and web technology;
  • Geographic information systems (GIS);
  • Business process reengineering (BPR);
  • Cyber security. 

City logistics and urban freight are viewed by private and public sectors. Private sectors include freight owners, transporters, distributors, and consumers for materials, goods, and recyclables. Public sectors include policy makers, regulators, local governments, non-profit organizations for humanitarian logistics, waste management, water and energy logistics, and service logistics.

This Special Issue aims to contribute to the existing literature by extending contributors’ knowledge and adding best practices from the private and public sectors, including but not limited to the following topics in city logistics and urban freight:

  • Disruptive and innovative information technologies;
  • Application of information technologies and information systems as well as business process reengineering;
  • Education and training information technologies and information systems;
  • Practices of designing, implementing, and maintaining information technologies and information systems;
  • Policy and regulation on information technology and information;
  • Innovative process and business models;
  • Case studies.

From 15 April 2021 to 31 December 2021, all submissions (once accepted after peer review) to Logistics will be published free of charge. To take advantage of this opportunity, please submit before the deadline.

Dr. EunSu Lee
Dr. Yongjang Kwon
Dr. Melanie McDonald
Dr. Yong Shin Park
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Logistics is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • information systems
  • logistics management
  • city logistics
  • urban freight
  • IT
  • MIS
  • ERP

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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21 pages, 6466 KiB  
Article
Intelligent Vehicle Scheduling and Routing for a Chain of Retail Stores: A Case Study of Dhaka, Bangladesh
by M. Azizur Rahman, Al-Amin Hossain, Binoy Debnath, Zinnat Mahmud Zefat, Mohammad Sarwar Morshed and Ziaul Haq Adnan
Logistics 2021, 5(3), 63; https://doi.org/10.3390/logistics5030063 - 14 Sep 2021
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 7319
Abstract
Background: Retail chains aim to maintain a competitive advantage by ensuring product availability and fulfilling customer demand on-time. However, inefficient scheduling and vehicle routing from the distribution center may cause delivery delays and, thus, stock-outs on the store shelves. Therefore, optimization of [...] Read more.
Background: Retail chains aim to maintain a competitive advantage by ensuring product availability and fulfilling customer demand on-time. However, inefficient scheduling and vehicle routing from the distribution center may cause delivery delays and, thus, stock-outs on the store shelves. Therefore, optimization of vehicle routing can play a vital role in fulfilling customer demand. Methods: In this research, a case study is formulated for a chain of retail stores in Dhaka City, Bangladesh. Orders from various stores are combined, grouped, and scheduled for Region-1 and Region-2 of Dhaka City. The ‘vehicle routing add-on’ feature of Google Sheets is used for scheduling and navigation. An android application, Intelligent Route Optimizer, is developed using the shortest path first algorithm based on the Dijkstra algorithm. The vehicle navigation scheme is programmed to change the direction according to the shortest possible path in the google map generated by the intelligent routing optimizer. Results: With the application, the improvement of optimization results is evident from the reductions of traveled distance (8.1% and 12.2%) and time (20.2% and 15.0%) in Region-1 and Region-2, respectively. Conclusions: A smartphone-based application is developed to improve the distribution plan. It can be utilized for an intelligent vehicle routing system to respond to real-time traffic; hence, the overall replenishment process will be improved. Full article
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16 pages, 2000 KiB  
Article
What Young E-Consumers Want? Forecasting Parcel Lockers Choice in Rome
by Gabriele Iannaccone, Edoardo Marcucci and Valerio Gatta
Logistics 2021, 5(3), 57; https://doi.org/10.3390/logistics5030057 - 24 Aug 2021
Cited by 43 | Viewed by 6775
Abstract
Surges in e-commerce sales represent a huge challenge for urban freight transport. Parcel lockers constitute a valid solution for addressing the challenges home deliveries imply. In fact, eliminating courier–consumer contact (also relevant for health-related issues, as made evident by the COVID-19 pandemic) and [...] Read more.
Surges in e-commerce sales represent a huge challenge for urban freight transport. Parcel lockers constitute a valid solution for addressing the challenges home deliveries imply. In fact, eliminating courier–consumer contact (also relevant for health-related issues, as made evident by the COVID-19 pandemic) and delivering in fewer predefined places might help coping mechanisms for missed deliveries substantially. Furthermore, this option enables consolidated shipping and reduced delivery trip costs. This paper analyses and compares consumer preferences for alternative collection strategies. It investigates home delivery vs. parcel locker use and forecasts their future market shares. This is performed based on both customer socio-economic variables and the attributes characterising these alternative logistic fulfilment strategies. The case study considered tests upon a stated preference survey deployed in the city of Rome. The investigation specifically targeted young people (i.e., population under 30 years) since they represent early adopters. Discrete choice models allow both quantifying the monetary value of parcel lockers attributes (i.e., willingness to pay measures) and estimating the potential demand for this innovative delivery scheme. Results show that distance and accessibility are the main choice determinants. Furthermore, there is an overall high propensity to adopt parcel lockers. This research can support policymakers when implementing such solutions. Full article
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18 pages, 1283 KiB  
Article
Investigating the Implications of the London Heathrow Airport Expansion for the Landside Freight Industry
by Ryan Lee, Moayad Shammut, Julian Allen, Xing Gao, Tianren Yang and Mengqiu Cao
Logistics 2021, 5(3), 50; https://doi.org/10.3390/logistics5030050 - 12 Jul 2021
Viewed by 6976
Abstract
The air cargo industry is hugely important to national economies, trade, and development. Thus far, there has been limited research on the landside freight industry. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to extend the understanding of how alterations in the air cargo [...] Read more.
The air cargo industry is hugely important to national economies, trade, and development. Thus far, there has been limited research on the landside freight industry. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to extend the understanding of how alterations in the air cargo industry impact on its landside freight counterpart. It also seeks to explore the potential opportunities and challenges this presents, as well as the measures that can be taken to mitigate unsustainable development for the landside freight industry. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect the views of key stakeholders, freight industry experts, and other professionals. Our findings show that, if the airport expansion went ahead, the opportunities would generally outweigh the challenges. Increased freight activities and other positive spinoffs would result in the long-term. Increased freight activities and employment were the prime positive implications. Conversely, increased delays due to congestion was the main negative implication. Measures suggested to mitigate the adverse effects of the London Heathrow Airport (LHR) expansion entailed strengthening of consolidation centre efforts, freight collaboration, intelligent booking systems, use of low-carbon technologies, smart scheduling for revising the timetabling of deliveries, and greater use of rail transport for air cargo. The research highlights novel insights regarding existing freight-related issues from industry and academic experts, and further thoughts in relation to increased cargo activities stemming from the LHR expansion. Full article
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Review

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22 pages, 1835 KiB  
Review
Digital Twin Integrated Reinforced Learning in Supply Chain and Logistics
by Ahmed Zainul Abideen, Veera Pandiyan Kaliani Sundram, Jaafar Pyeman, Abdul Kadir Othman and Shahryar Sorooshian
Logistics 2021, 5(4), 84; https://doi.org/10.3390/logistics5040084 - 26 Nov 2021
Cited by 72 | Viewed by 16019
Abstract
Background: As the Internet of Things (IoT) has become more prevalent in recent years, digital twins have attracted a lot of attention. A digital twin is a virtual representation that replicates a physical object or process over a period of time. These [...] Read more.
Background: As the Internet of Things (IoT) has become more prevalent in recent years, digital twins have attracted a lot of attention. A digital twin is a virtual representation that replicates a physical object or process over a period of time. These tools directly assist in reducing the manufacturing and supply chain lead time to produce a lean, flexible, and smart production and supply chain setting. Recently, reinforced machine learning has been introduced in production and logistics systems to build prescriptive decision support platforms to create a combination of lean, smart, and agile production setup. Therefore, there is a need to cumulatively arrange and systematize the past research done in this area to get a better understanding of the current trend and future research directions from the perspective of Industry 4.0. Methods: Strict keyword selection, search strategy, and exclusion criteria were applied in the Scopus database (2010 to 2021) to systematize the literature. Results: The findings are snowballed as a systematic review and later the final data set has been conducted to understand the intensity and relevance of research work done in different subsections related to the context of the research agenda proposed. Conclusion: A framework for data-driven digital twin generation and reinforced learning has been proposed at the end of the paper along with a research paradigm. Full article
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15 pages, 1723 KiB  
Review
Defining and Measuring the Relevance of Criteria for the Evaluation of the Inflow of Goods in City Centers
by Mladen Jardas, Ana Perić Hadžić and Edvard Tijan
Logistics 2021, 5(3), 44; https://doi.org/10.3390/logistics5030044 - 1 Jul 2021
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2934
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to define and measure the relevance of the criteria for the evaluation of the inflow of goods in city centers, in order to improve delivery activities within city centers. The development of the city center leads to [...] Read more.
The aim of this paper is to define and measure the relevance of the criteria for the evaluation of the inflow of goods in city centers, in order to improve delivery activities within city centers. The development of the city center leads to the grouping of numerous business operators, which results in the increase of the quantity of goods entering the city center, causing additional traffic congestion, higher levels of noise and emissions of harmful gases. In the long term, this leads to major dissatisfaction with the quality of life among city residents. Therefore, the planning of goods delivery must be in line with the sustainable development of city logistics, while at the same time considering the interests of relevant stakeholders. However, in the existing literature the criteria for evaluating delivery flows have not been comprehensively identified or evaluated by the stakeholders of city centers. In order to fill the research gap, the authors have defined four groups of criteria: technical-technological, economic-financial, organizational and social criteria. To determine the relevance of these criteria, it was necessary to use the questionnaire method to collect data from the stakeholder groups defined by the literature review. Regarding the relevant stakeholders (carriers, delivery recipients, residents and urban policy makers), the results have pointed out that the technical-technological and organizational criteria groups are considered the most relevant by the stakeholders regarding the inflow of goods in city centers. Full article
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