In supply chain management and transportation planning, the last mile or last kilometer is the last leg of a journey comprising the movement of people and goods from a transportation hub to a final destination. "Last mile" was adopted from the telecommunications industry which faced difficulty connecting individual homes to the main telecommunications network. Similarly, in supply chain management last-mile describes the difficult last part in the transportation of people and packages from hubs to final destinations. Last-mile delivery is an increasingly studied field as the number of business-to-consumer (b2c) deliveries grow especially from e-commerce companies in freight transportation, and ride-sharing companies in personal transportation. Some challenges of last-mile delivery include minimizing cost, ensuring transparency, increasing efficiency, and improving infrastructure. Last mile (telecommunications) "Last mile" was originally used in the telecommunications industry to describe the difficulty of connecting end users' homes and businesses to the main telecommunication network. The last "mile" of cable or wire is only used by one customer. Therefore the cost of installing and maintaining this infrastructure can only be amortized over one subscriber, compared to many customers in the main "trunks" of the network. In supply chain management last-mile describes a similar problem for transporting either people or freight. In freight networks, parcels can be delivered to a central hub efficiently via ship, train or other means, but they must then be loaded into smaller vehicles for delivery to individual customers. In transportation networks, "last mile" describes the rising marginal cost of getting people from a transportation hub such as an airport or train station to their final destination. Transporting goods via freight rail networks and container ships is often the most efficient and cost-effective manner of shipping. However, when goods arrive at a high-capacity freight station or port, they must then be transported to their final destination.

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Related courses (1)
CIVIL-351: Transportation systems engineering I
  • Introduce the major elements of transportation systems and create awareness of the broader context
  • Develop basic skills in applying the fundamentals of the transportation field
  • Understand the ke
Related lectures (1)
Related publications (14)

Optimizing the utilization of existing vehicle flows in last-mile passenger transport and logistics systems

Patrick Stefan Adriaan Stokkink

The new era of shared economy has raised our expectations to make mobility more sustainable through better utilization of existing resources and capacity. In this thesis, we focus on the design of transport systems that stimulate multi-purpose trips with t ...
EPFL2023

A continuum approximation approach to the depot location problem in a crowd-shipping system

Nikolaos Geroliminis, Patrick Stefan Adriaan Stokkink

Last-mile delivery in the logistics chain contributes to congestion in urban networks due to frequent stops. Crowd-shipping is a sustainable and low-cost alternative to traditional delivery but relies heavily on the availability of occasional couriers. In ...
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD2023

Space allocation for multi-modal urban networks with ridesplitting services and public transport

Nikolaos Geroliminis, Lynn Fayed

The surge of Mobility on Demand (MoD) is largely attributed to advancements in mobile internet and technology. Ridesourcing platforms, among other solution services, offer convenience and flexibility when it comes to pick-up/drop-off time and location, all ...
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine2022
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Related concepts (3)
Package delivery
Package delivery or parcel delivery is the delivery of shipping containers, parcels, or high value mail as single shipments. The service is provided by most postal systems, express mail, private courier companies, and less than truckload shipping carriers. Welsh entrepreneur Pryce Pryce-Jones formed the first mail order company in 1861.
Car dependency
Car dependency is the concept that some city layouts cause cars to be favoured over alternate forms of transportation, such as bicycles, public transit, and walking. In many modern cities, automobiles are convenient and sometimes necessary to move easily. When it comes to automobile use, there is a spiraling effect where traffic congestion produces the 'demand' for more and bigger roads and removal of 'impediments' to traffic flow. For instance, pedestrians, signalized crossings, traffic lights, cyclists, and various forms of street-based public transit, such as trams.
Public transport
Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typically managed on a schedule, operated on established routes, and that charge a posted fee for each trip. There is no rigid definition of which kinds of transport are included, and air travel is often not thought of when discussing public transport—dictionaries use wording like "buses, trains, etc.

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