Assessing the Effects of Limited Curbside Pickup Capacity in Meal Delivery Operations for Increased Safety during a Pandemic
Assessing the Effects of Limited Curbside Pickup Capacity in Meal Delivery Operations for Increased Safety during a Pandemic
复制标题
DOI：
10.1177/0361198121991840
复制
发表时间：
2021-05-01
影响因子：
1.7
通讯作者：
Sahasrabudhe, Sagar
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Fotouhi, Hossein;Mori, Nicholas;Sahasrabudhe, Sagar
在过去几年中，送餐变得越来越受欢迎，并且在过去几个月的 COVID-19 大流行期间变得非常重要。维持此类服务取决于维持提供商的盈利能力并降低消费者的成本，同时继续支持顾客、餐馆和送货司机（此处为众包司机）的自主性和独立性。本文研究了美国可能颁布的路边法规，从公共安全和送货效率的角度限制同时在餐厅取餐的司机数量。路边法规的目的是通过在取货地点确保送货人员之间保持社交距离来提高安全性，并具有改善当地交通流量的第二个好处，而在较繁忙的城市地区，交通流量有时会受到阻碍。研究了路边空间限制及其对消费者相关绩效指标的影响：配送食品的新鲜度和点击上门时间。这项调查是通过拟议的混合离散事件和时间先进的模拟平台来实现的，该平台根据领先的送餐公司的数据复制整个地区的送餐服务呼叫以及取货和配送操作。模拟中嵌入了一个整数程序，可以在动态变化的环境中以最佳方式向驾驶员分配订单。订单分配受到餐厅路边容量限制的限制，并且评估了捆绑订单的潜在效率和路边违规减少情况。数值实验的分析结果为州和当地社区设计路边限制提供了见解，这些限制可以减少路边拥挤，同时使送货公司能够保持盈利能力。
Meal delivery has become increasingly popular in past years and of great importance in past months during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sustaining such services depends on maintaining provider profitability and reduced cost to consumers while continuing to support autonomy and independence for customers, restaurants, and delivery drivers (here crowdsourced drivers). This paper investigates the possible enactment of curbside regulations in the U.S. that limit the number of drivers simultaneously waiting at restaurants to pick up meals for delivery on both public safety and delivery efficiency. Curbside regulations would aim to increase safety by enabling social distancing between delivery personnel at pickup locations and have a secondary benefit of improving local traffic flows, which are sometimes impeded in busier, urban locations. Curbside space limits are studied in relation to their impacts on consumer-related performance measures: freshness of the food on delivery and click-to-door time. This investigation is enabled through a proposed hybrid discrete-event and time-advanced simulation platform that replicates meal delivery service calls and pickup and delivery operations across a region built on data from a leading meal delivery company. Embedded within the simulation is an integer program that optimally assigns orders to drivers in a dynamically changing environment. Order assignments are constrained by imposed curbside capacity limits at the restaurants, and potential efficiencies and curbside violation reductions from bundling orders are assessed. Results of analyses from numerical experiments provide insights to state and local communities in designing curbside restrictions that reduce curbside crowding yet enable delivery companies to retain their profitability.