Deep Dive: Logistics of the last mile

The last mile – a short distance with great significance. Transport in the last few metres presents suppliers with difficult challenges, for which service providers are providing creative solutions. We present the most important trends and explain what is particularly important.

It's the last few meters that count. The last mile or "last mile delivery" refers to the part of the transport where the delivery is delivered to the customer - and this part is a tough one. Because the customers to be supplied are constantly changing, delivery is an individual service with great imponderables every time. This area is already very important for logistics today and will become even more so in the future.

As a result of e-commerce, the number of parcel shipments has been growing steadily for years, pushing service providers to the limits of their capacity. In addition, the last mile accounts for a significant proportion of the total cost of a delivery. One of the reasons for this is that individual deliveries are much more costly than transport between distribution centers by rail or road. The industry is therefore constantly working on optimizing this area.

Focus on the last mile - logistics service providers stock up

There is a clear focus on the last mile. According to a survey, logistics companies across Europe are significantly expanding their last mile business. More than half of those surveyed stated that they intend to invest more in corresponding online services and infrastructure in the future. In addition, providers are now working on customized technological solutions that could change the business in the long term.

Urban challenges - the role of urban transportation

This is because the majority of the population now lives in cities. Advancing urbanization is increasingly shifting delivery traffic to city centres with narrow, busy streets. This poses several challenges for service providers:

• The classic delivery van: it quickly gets stuck in traffic, especially at rush hour, often cannot find a suitable place to stop and is usually not exactly climate-friendly.
• Online shipping: The increasing number of parcel deliveries is pushing service providers to the limits of their capacity. Staff are often overwhelmed and under stress.
• Route planning: The street layout in city centers and the high volume of traffic make route planning a complex undertaking. The same applies to the high number of small consignments.

It is therefore hardly surprising that there are now some promising approaches for smarter delivery over the "last mile".

Rethinking delivery - How the industry is reacting

There are much more flexible solutions than conventional delivery vans, especially in tight and dense inner-city traffic. Lyreco AG, for example, wants to make sustainable logistics possible with modern cargo bikes. To this end, the company has already started testing bikes with a payload of up to 150 kilos in Basel. The start-up Loxo is taking a different approach. The young Swiss company is working on a particularly exciting solution for last-mile delivery. As early as this spring, an autonomous vehicle specially developed for the "last mile" will be on Swiss roads. Other projects in the high-tech sector revolve around drone technology. SpediFux already took a closer look at this topic some time ago. Amazon is currently testing drone-based deliveries in the USA with its "Prime Air" program.

The numerous logistics real estate concepts are also interesting. The well-known packing stations, where customers can collect their deliveries themselves, can already be found in every city. This can shorten the last mile. Dark stores work in a similar way. Customers can carry out online retail transactions and collect ordered goods in these special stores. Urban or mini hubs are small storage centers strategically distributed throughout the city, from which couriers can pick up individual deliveries by bike or on foot and deliver them to addresses in the immediate vicinity. Essentially, all of these ideas are about bringing the starting point of the last mile "closer" to the customer in order to get deliveries to their destination as quickly and sustainably as possible.

The last mile as the most important part of the supply chain

The last mile is the most important part of the supply chain and often also the most complex. Companies are working on ways to optimize the "last mile delivieres" and make them climate-neutral, even in dense urban traffic. In doing so, they are using modern approaches and new technologies. The importance of the last mile has grown significantly in recent years and the trend is still rising. Incidentally, our simple and smart transport solutions make SpediFux the ideal partner for transportation - even on the last mile in Switzerland.

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