UI researchers eye new and improved ‘last-mile’ delivery methods, technology

IOWA CITY — Even before COVID in 2020 shuttered malls, boutiques, restaurants and arenas, a growing crowd of consumers were meeting their shopping, dining and entertainment needs online.

But the pandemic accelerated and amplified the virtual-spending shift — forcing companies to ramp up delivery operations in a rush, leaving much room for improved efficiency in the aftermath, even almost five years past the pandemic’s peak.

“A lot of people got used to those things and are still doing them,” Ann Campbell, University of Iowa professor and chair in manufacturing productivity, said about shoppers’ spending habits.

“So there’s much more demand than five or six years ago for delivery, which is part of why looking for efficiency is really important. Because how many trucks do you want in your downtown, circling around, looking for parking?”

Why do it?

Not only could improving package-delivery logistics in the age of Amazon cut company costs, it could improve the customer experience, curtail lost packages, benefit the environment, and generate new moneymaking opportunities.

“When you think about what an Amazon truck does every day — going to everyone’s individual home, stopping and delivering — the cost per individual delivery is, depending on where you live … it becomes quite expensive,” Campbell said. “So that’s why companies are really interested in finding new, better and more efficient ways to do it.”

That’s also why Campbell — who in her 25 years as a professor has amassed expertise on “freight transportation,” like getting materials from a manufacturer to a store — has turned her focus more recently to the “last-mile delivery” of products to online shoppers’ homes.

“I’ve been really interested in the ‘new’ and the ‘better,’ both,” said Campbell, who has passed on that interest in delivery efficiency to her students — who have and are researching methods for improving “last-mile delivery.”

New delivery methods

Among those digging into new delivery concepts is a UI student who investigated the pros and cons of autonomous delivery trucks — which could remove the need for parking and curtail human driving errors.

Another student looked into package robots — like those already making food deliveries on some U.S. college campuses. Delivery companies are developing robots that look like 3- or 4-foot-tall boxes on tiny wheels that zip along sidewalks at 2 mph.

The robot concept aims to address logistic complexities of standard delivery trucks — which can be thrown off schedule by heavy traffic, weather conditions, customer interactions, or even red lights. Robots can be deployed by the dozens and work during off hours. They can be scheduled for times when a customer is home — which would address the threat of doorstep theft. And they can save on driver costs.

UI doctoral student Iurii Bakach’s research developed an algorithm to inform companies where they should use robots and where they’re better off using conventional trucks — given questions of how traffic lights affect a robot’s delivery time, whether it can navigate construction, and what happens when an address is out of the robot’s reach.

“Iurii’s research will help those companies more efficiently use their resources to meet customer expectations,” Campbell said.

And then a third student researched the concept of high-speed delivery tunnels.

“So we contacted and built a relationship with a company in London that wants to build, not the big tunnels that cars could go through, but smaller tunnels that packages could go through,” Campbell said. “Instead of having all kinds of trucks on the road, we’d have these kind of small tunnels alongside the road that packages could go along.”

The research assessed savings on emissions, driving, and shipping vs. the cost of building the infrastructure — making recommendations on where those could work and not work.

Tech could recommend where to park

One of Campbell’s students is researching parking recommendations for delivery drivers — similar to guidance they receive on what order to deliver to the addresses on their list.

“We were really surprised that in all of the research and algorithms we’ve seen of how to make recommendations to the delivery drivers on what to do, there was no one recommending — OK, here’s where you should try to park, and then here are the deliveries you should make on foot from those parking spaces,” Campbell said. “When that’s an obvious challenge.”

If someone could come up with an automated system for which corner to park near, for example, drivers could improve their efficiency, according to Campbell.

“It’s just a piece of reality that companies haven’t looked at carefully enough yet,” she said.

‘Crowd shipping’ would be like Uber for packages

A UI student also has been researching the pros and cons and widening opportunities of “crowd shipping” — like Amazon Flex, which lets potential part-time drivers download an app, look for delivery opportunities in their area, pick up packages at an Amazon location, and then deliver them.

“So people who have an eight-hour job and just want to do three hours as sort of an added, make a little money before the holidays option, can,” Campbell said. “It is also a low-cost way to get a partial employee.”

It’s like driving an Uber, if packages were people.

“That is one way to handle, we don’t have enough drivers,” Campbell said.

How about waiting a day?

Another more recent maneuver toward improved efficiency is offering customers lower prices if they’re willing to have multiple orders shipped together — possibly delaying one or more items a day or more.

“For like $1 less, will you let them all be delivered together if you ordered four things — rather than three tomorrow and one the next day?” Campbell said. “That definitely saves them more than the dollar.”

Although unlikely, Campbell said one obvious way last-mile delivery could become more efficient would be through cross-company collaboration.

“If FedEx, UPS, USPS collaborated and shared resources and some part of the delivery side … that would be, I think, the biggest possible financial win-reduction in the resources needed.”

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com