Reducing the transport footprint of last-mile logistics

对当日送达的需求不断增长，而城市地区的旅行时间由于日益拥堵而继续恶化。通常，在城市规划中很少考虑物流，也很少考虑日常运输所面临的环境负担。在多种更清洁的交通方式中转向更可持续的做法可以帮助缓解这些压力。本研究旨在调查多式联运物流车队在城市和城郊环境中多种应用的潜力，并以索伦特地区的NHS当日送达系统为案例研究。来自多个NHS机构和地方政府的数据将为分析提供信息，以了解共享物流资产的合理程度，以及对整体网络性能的影响。该研究还将寻求采用无人机和电动自行车等现代技术，并了解它们在减少当日送达的环境足迹方面的潜在范围。研究的一部分将包括将医疗保健负荷（如全科医生手术的病理样本和病人/当地救护车运动）与市议会负荷（如图书馆书籍和学校膳食）相结合的优化挑战。分配适当的车辆以满足每次交付的标准对于维持或改善服务非常重要，因此将开发一个分配系统来支持这项研究。随着对这些挑战的更好理解，本研究将寻求确定有助于提高医疗保健物流效率和减少当前环境足迹的模式的最佳组合。

The demand for same day deliveries is ever growing, whilst journey times in urban areas continue to worsen as a result of increasing congestion. Typically, little thought is given to logistics in urban planning, nor the environmental burden faced by everyday deliveries. Transfer to more sustainable practices across multiple, cleaner transit modes can help to relieve some of these pressures.This research aims to investigate the potential for a multi-modal logistics fleet to operate across many applications in an urban and peri-urban environment, using NHS same day delivery systems in the Solent region as case studies. Data from multiple NHS bodies and local government will inform analyses to understand the extent to which sharing logistics assets is plausible, and the implications for overall network performance. The research will also look to embrace modern technologies such as drones and e-Bikes and understand their potential scope for reducing the environmental footprint of same-day delivery.Part of the research will include the optimisation challenge of combining health care loads such as pathology samples from GP surgeries and patient/local ambulance movements, with city council loads such as library books and school meals.Allocations to appropriate vehicles to meet the criteria for each delivery is important to maintain or improve services, thus an allocation system will be developed to support this research. With a better understanding of these challenges, this research will seek to identify optimal combinations of mode which can help to improve the efficiency of health care logistics and reduce the current environmental footprint.