Julia Edwards

Comparative analysis of the carbon footprints of conventional and online retailing: A “last mile” perspective

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to focus on the carbon intensity of “last mile” deliveries (i.e. deliveries of goods from local depots to the home) and personal shopping trips.Design/methodology/approach – Several last mile scenarios are constructed for the purchase of small, non‐food items, such as books, CDs, clothing, cameras and household items. Official government data, operational data from a large logistics service provider, face‐to‐face and telephone interviews with company managers and realistic assumptions derived from the literature form the basis of the calculations. Allowance has been made for home delivery failures, “browsing” trips to the shops and the return of unwanted goods.Findings – Overall, the research suggests that, while neither home delivery nor conventional shopping has an absolute CO2 advantage, on average, the home delivery operation is likely to generate less CO2 than the typical shopping trip. Nevertheless, CO2 emissions per item for intensive/infrequent shopping trips...

Traffic Congestion, Reliability and Logistical Performance: A Multi-sectoral Assessment

The research reported in this paper updates and extends an earlier study, in 1998, of the effects of traffic congestion on logistical efficiency in the UK. It begins by reviewing literature published on the subject over the past decade. This highlights the complexity of the impact of congestion on logistics operations and sectoral variations in their sensitivity to transport-related unreliability. Data from the UK governments Transport KPI surveys are analysed to assess the relative importance of congestion as a source of delays. The paper also reports the results of a cross-sectoral interview survey of 37 managers in 28 companies which examined the relative impact of congestion and assessed the extent to which a range of congestion mitigation measures are currently being applied.

Comparative carbon auditing of conventional and online retail supply chains: a review of methodological issues

Purpose – This paper seeks to examine the various stages in online and conventional retail supply chains in order to assess their relative environmental impacts. With reference to boundary issues, utilisation factors and carbon allocation, it seeks to highlight some of the difficulties in establishing a robust carbon auditing methodology.Design/methodology/approach – Auditing issues are considered from the point of divergence in the respective supply chains (downstream of this point a product is destined either for conventional or online retailing channels, and will receive different treatment accordingly).Findings – The paper explores methodological issues associated with carbon auditing conventional and online retail channels. Having highlighted the problems, it suggests resolutions to these issues.Research limitations/implications – The paper is mostly conceptual in nature.Practical implications – The approach outlined in this paper, once applied, allows the identification of inefficiencies in the resp...

Carbon Dioxide Benefits of Using Collection-Delivery Points for Failed Home Deliveries in the United Kingdom

Unlike much of the previous research on this topic, which assesses the economic consequences of failed deliveries to the home, this study examines the issue of failed delivery from a carbon-auditing perspective. It considers the potential environmental savings from the use of alternative forms of collection and delivery over traditional delivery methods for failed home deliveries. With a spreadsheet carbon audit model, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions for a failed delivery are calculated on the basis of a typical van home delivery round of 120 drops and 50-mi (80-km) distance. Three first-time delivery failure rates (10%, 30%, and 50%) are assessed. The additional CO2 from a second delivery attempt increases the emissions per drop by 9% to 75% (depending on the delivery failure rate). The vast majority (85% to 95%) of emissions emanating from a traditional failed delivery arise not from the repeat van delivery but from the personal travel associated with the customers collecting a missed redelivery from the carriers local depot. A range of collection–delivery points (CDPs) (supermarkets, post offices, railway stations) were all found to reduce the environmental impact of this personal travel. Post offices (currently operating a CDP system through the U.K. Royal Mails Local Collect service) yielded the greatest savings, creating just 13% of the CO2 produced by a traditional collection by car from a local depot. Overall, the research suggests that the use of CDPs offers a convenient and more environmentally friendly alternative to redelivery and customer collection from a local parcel depot.

Assessing the application of focus groups as a method for collecting data in logistics

Relatively little attention has been given to methodological issues in the logistics literature. In logistics, ‘we need to take more account of the views of practitioners in the field by supporting quantitative data with qualitative data’ [New, S.J. and Payne, P. (1995). Research frameworks in logistics: three models, seven dinners and a survey. International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, 25(10), 60–77]. The aim of this paper is to provide a guide on how to deploy focus groups as a supportive method to achieve industrial relevance without compromising the academic rigour of logistics research. We develop a framework that highlights the factors influencing focus groups’ effectiveness in the logistics discipline. Our analysis is based on previous focus groups research applied in logistics and on focus group cases discussed in the paper. We conclude that the focus group method for data collection can be used as a supporting method in logistics research, enabling methodological triangulation that improves the credibility of research results.