Viability of electric vehicles in last mile delivery for e-commerce: a case study of Delhi

Abstract

Last Mile Deliveries is a critically important component for three reasons. First, it is very expensive; for example, the final mile accounts for nearly 53% of all transportation costs of e-commerce supply chains (KPMG, Aug. 2016). Second, it is growing very rapidly due to accelerating urbanization, which increased from 29% in 2007 to 34% in 2017 (Statista, Acessed 12 Feb, 2021) and is projected to reach 60% the by 2050 (60 per cent Indians to live in cities by 2050: govt, July 2016). Thirdly, it creates significant externalities such as congestion and air pollution. Road freight accounts for approximately 63 percent of overall freight movement in India, with 2.2 million heavy duty trucks and 0.6 million light duty trucks occupying more than 18,00,000 kilometres of road and transporting more than 3000MMT (million metric tonne) of cargo annually. The road freight movement is projected to develop at a CAGR of 15%, according to projections. This will be fuelled by the expansion of India's FMCG, retail, and pharmaceutical industries, all of which have major freight transportation needs across the country, which are traditionally met by road transportation (India Freight and Logistics Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2021 - 2026)). Moreover, recent changes in supply chain management and operations, and rising home deliveries have exacerbated the challenges in the logistics of last mile distribution. Some of the key factors affecting these challenges are the advent of the on-demand economy, and the resulting growth in online shopping practices. Despite the fact that these and other factors will continue to have an impact on the freight sector, truck traffic is currently causing congestion and accounting for a disproportionate share of transportation externalities. Trucks, for example, can only account for a limited percentage of traffic in urban areas, but they account for more than half of total pollution for particular pollutants. Freight accounts for 67% of total PM2.5 emissions from the transportation sector, 61% of total SO2 emissions from the transportation sector, and 62% of total NOx emissions from the transportation sector in Delhi (Rahul Goel, May 2014). Promoting the use of emerging technology and renewable fuel pathways is one way to deal with those problems. Various scholars have defined a number of measures, and they all set the following targets to resolve the various impacts: 1) Increase the reliability of the freight industry as determined by the relationship between the economic contribution of some freight sectors and the resulting environmental emissions; and 2) incorporate zero and near-zero emission vehicles and machinery To achieve these objectives, there are certain economic, environmental, technical, organisational, and behavioural challenges. For example, promoting the use of zero and near-zero emission vehicles must take into account the fact that the fleet ownership, processes, and finance structures vary across industries and supply chains in the system. As a result, a multitude of considerations will impact their ability to achieve productivity gains and the penetration of zero or near-zero emission vehicles in their fleets. Furthermore, cars are used for a variety of purposes over the course of their lives, and drivetrain configurations can be limited to a single use. This study performs an analytical evaluation of the driving habits of delivery vehicles in these delivery vocations, taking into account the growing relevance of the last mile deliveries and how vehicles are servicing much more heavily populated areas (compared to long-haul transport). The contributions of the work are: 1) understanding the current scenario of Last Mile Delivery associated with E-Commerce in the study area, 2) analyses the impacts of Last Mile delivery on carbon emission in the study area where the assessment of impact On VKT, Emissions, Vehicle-Hours & Trip Cost have been done. And, 3) estimate the (TCO) total cost of ownership, including externalities, of different delivery vehicle technologies. The findings can be extrapolated to a system-wide scale for related E-commerce players with common operating variables, allowing researchers to investigate the advantages and costs of switching to near-zero-emission technologies.