By J. Amaya📧, T. Encarnación, and M. Delgado-Lindeman
In Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 2023, 176:103823. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2023.103823
Parking space for loading and unloading operations is scarce in urban areas. The limited space that exists must be shared among all users. Although parking is a crucial aspect that needs to be addressed, the attitudes and preferences of delivery drivers in urban settings have not been studied. This paper analyzes drivers’ perspectives from a survey conducted in the northeastern United States. Stated preferences data were collected and analyzed using a mixed logit and a hybrid discrete choice model. The results show that three variables impact the selection of parking spaces: searching time, walking (access) time to the delivery destination, and cost per hour of parking. The research shows that Safe Behavior, a moderating latent variable, influences parking choices and impacts drivers differently. We also observed that the first choice for drivers is to park in an available spot, followed by double parking. Even though drivers try to avoid parking in restricted areas, their priority is making their deliveries on time. Based on the modeling findings, the authors provide recommendations to policymakers and logistics service providers (carriers) to improve last-mile operations and reduce the cost of deliveries in urban areas.
Keywords: Delivery service; Driving behavior; First mile and last mile; Freight transportation; Loading and unloading; Parking
The contemporary supply chains in which container ports logistics operate are characterized by increased uncertainties driven by a range of factors such as socioeconomic factors and changing supply chain strategies in response to market dynamics. Recently, the occurrences and effects of these factors on global economic activities, and thus container port logistics, have been intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic. Enabling flexibility in port logistics is more important than ever to navigate uncertainties, now and in the post-COVID-19 world. This paper seeks to develop a conceptual framework to holistically capture different dimensions of container port logistics capacity. A systematic literature review method is employed to formulate a conceptual framework depicting the structure of various elements of capacity and the interplay among the logistics triad of transport carriers, port operators, and logistics service providers whose interactions and service capacities constitute the overall capacity of the system. The study reveals four dimensions of port logistics capacity, namely seaside interface, platform, landside interface, and system-wide, each of which consists of subelements that can be distinguished into static or adjustable. The proposed framework provides insights corresponding to the logistics triad roles and interactions within the system for understanding uncertainty characteristics, assessing various elements of capacity, and identifying potential levers to build flexibility into these interrelated capacity elements.
Traffic bottlenecks dynamically change with the variance of traffic demand. Identifying traffic bottlenecks plays an important role in traffic planning and provides decision making. However, traffic bottlenecks are difficult to identify because of the complexity of traffic road networks and many other factors. In this article, we propose an influence spreading based method to find the dynamic changed traffic bottlenecks, where the influence caused by bottlenecks is maximal. We first build a traffic congestion diffusion (TCD) model to capture traffic flow influence (TFI) spreading over traffic road networks. The bottlenecks identification problem based on TCD is modeled as an influence maximization problem, that is, selecting the most influential nodes such that the deterioration of traffic condition is maximal. With the proof of the submodularity of TFI spreading over traffic networks, a provably near-optimal algorithm is used to solve the NP-hard problem. With the exploration of unique properties of TFI spread, an approximate influence maximization method for TCD (TCD-AIM) is proposed. To the best of our knowledge, this should be the first model for a metro-city scale from the influence perspective. Experimental results show that TCD-AIM finds bottlenecks with up to 130% congestion density increase in the future. This article was presented at the IEEE International Conference on Big Data, 2019, Los Angeles, CA, USA, entitled A Congestion Diffusion Model with Influence Maximization for Traffic Bottleneck Identification in Metro-city Scales. The current article extends the work from theories, algorithm design, to more extensive experimental study on larger datasets more comprehensive discussion of findings.
As the U.S. moves out of an error focused on counter-terror operations and into an era defined by great powers, the U.S. Armed Forces are coming under scrutiny. U.S. leadership needs to know whether or not the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps can adequately respond to threats to human rights, U.S. allies, and U.S. citizens around the globe. This examines whether current U.S. Naval Aviation forces have adequate logistics supply lines to sustain forward-deployed operations in a war with China. The focus is on the inadequacy of current infrastructure, what improvements could be made to it, and to the decision-making processes that should go into such considerations. Building off other research in the area, this thesis determines areas of weakness in the supply chain of jet fuel (JP-5), namely infrastructure and cybersecurity, and the threats to such weaknesses based on Chinese military strategy. Ultimately it concludes that there needs to be an investment in more supply ships to support U.S. operations, what specific vessels should be invested in. and the decision-making process of why they should be adopted and how to deal with casualties to them during a conflict. U.S. supply lines are the greatest weakness when it comes to a prolonged, forward-deployed conflict and this thesis offers some of the many recommendations on ways to improve it with a thorough dive into how they should be improved through simple supply chain business practices.
The second in a series of two, this paper conducts a review of the public-sector initiatives that could be used to improve freight activity in metropolitan areas, collects data about the initiatives that have been implemented and their performance, and produces a ranking of suggested initiatives. The review of public-sector initiatives is based on a comprehensive analysis of their performance, which cataloged the initiatives into seven major groups, 15 subgroups, and 48 unique initiatives. The initiatives covered in this paper include: Financial Approaches; Logistical Management; and Demand/Land Use Management. The characterization of the state of the practice, and the performance of the initiatives, was based on a survey that collected data from 32 countries and 56 cities throughout the world. The third component of the work consisted of the generation of a ranking of suggested initiatives based on the performance data collected by the survey. The fourth component of the research reported here is the development of a process intended to lead to the sustained improvement of urban freight management. The paper ends with a discussion of chief findings.
Game-changing technologies in supply chain and logistics are identified in this document based on a literature survey. The study includes literature and secondary data sources published on topics related to supply chain and logistics technologies within approximately three-year timeframe (2014–2017). Data sources are Penn State library database, managerial magazines, industry reports, and websites of relevant industry associations. Data are analyzed to identify key technology themes, based on which an assessment framework is developed for the evaluation of application trends across five multi-modal logistics sectors, including road transport, rail transport, maritime transport, port system, and 3PL/4PL service providers. The evaluation focuses both on the processes/activities of applications, and attributes for supply chain success potentially enabled by the technology applications (e.g. efficiency, visibility, adaptability, environmental sustainability, and health and safety). Technology glossary is also provided.