Honors College Theses

Publication Date

4-23-2019

Major

Logistics (BBA)

Document Type and Release Option

Thesis (restricted to Georgia Southern)

Faculty Mentor

Issam Moussaoui

Abstract

Despite playing a vital role in determining e-commerce success, the last-mile delivery remains the most complicated, expensive and inefficient segments of the fulfillment process. However, there has not been much research to help understand what contributes to this challenge. Following a systematic review approach, we surveyed 30 journal articles on the topic of the last-mile challenge and crowd logistics. Using these articles, we generated a three-part analysis. First, we analyzed the current state of the last-mile delivery segment in both cost and service level perspective. We looked at five service dimensions: timeliness of delivery, reliability of delivery, package safety/security, product condition, delivery convenience, and three cost dimensions: shipping cost, reception cost, penalty cost. We further identified last-mile factors and evaluated which dimension of cost or service level they affected. We also provided a brief introduction to the current initiatives proposed to help solve the last-mile challenge. Second, we provided an overview of the current crowdsourced initiatives in the context of logistics and highlighted majors appeal and drawback of the platforms. Finally, using the information gathered from the first two parts, we provided two propositions to integrate crowdsourcing platform into current supply chain network.

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