Operations Research 2025
Abstract Submission

2454. Last mile delivery routing problem with some-day option

Invited abstract in session TD-4: GOR Young Researchers Awards, stream PC Stream.

Thursday, 14:30-16:00
Room: H6

Authors (first author is the speaker)

1. Stefan Voigt
Department of Supply Chain Management & Operations, Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt
2. Markus Frank
Supply Chain Management & Operations, Catholic University of Eichstaett-Ingolstadt
3. Heinrich Kuhn
Supply Chain Management & Operations, Catholic University of Eichstaett-Ingolstadt

Abstract

The demand for fast deliveries in e-commerce places increasing pressure on logistics systems, driving up both costs and environmental impacts. This study explores a novel alternative: introducing a slower but more flexible delivery option termed some-day delivery. Unlike same-day services, some-day delivery guarantees arrival within a flexible timeframe, allowing logistics providers to better consolidate shipments, reduce total distance traveled, and optimize vehicle utilization. We first present insights from a consumer survey revealing that customers are generally willing to accept a slower delivery in particular when incentives are offered. These preferences vary by demographic factors such as age, gender, and environmental awareness. Building on these findings, we formulate a dynamic, stochastic last-mile delivery problem where orders arrive over time and customers can choose between delivery speeds. We propose a hybrid adaptive large neighborhood search (HALNS) to solve daily prize-collecting vehicle routing subproblems with time windows (PCVRPTW). Our method outperforms existing heuristics on PCVRPTW benchmark instances. Numerical experiments demonstrate that even modest customer adoption of some-day delivery can yield substantial benefits. A 10% shift in preference can reduce delivery costs by 3.9% and fleet size by 3.7%, all while maintaining customer satisfaction.

Keywords

Status: accepted

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