How can a Mobile Hub enable Circular Flow in Urban Logistics?

Sammanfattning: With the world’s population moving to urban areas due to an increase in population and employment opportunities, e-commerce businesses need to drastically improve logistics to levelwith the eruptive demand from the customers. This expands an already major need to undertake a study on urban logistics management to highlight its best practices. The most sustainable means of “End mile delivery” is a cargo bike, but this operation is limited to selective areas of the city. This prompts van deliveries to be an integral part of logistics, even for small packages. Major limitations of the cargo bike operation not expanding is the non-consolidation of package and routing issues. This research holistically explores how simulation techniques, such as “Agent-Based Modeling”, can play a vital role in the operational side of logistics management and planning. These models can solve the issues, such as package sorting, for cargo bike riders which are facilitated by a mobile hub. This smart mobile hub operation collaborates with the cargo bikes to ensure a larger geo-fence and higher vehicle utilization. Further study of reverse logistic policies in Stockholm is incorporated in the model, to establish a circular economy. An “ABM”, simulating the daily operation of this new proposed urban logistics, has been developed on AnyLogic®.