Service Quality of All Mile Delivery: A Comprehensive Literature Review

Aims: This study systematically examines service quality research for all-mile deliveries (first, middle, and last-mile logistics) to identify essential aspects, assessment methods, and improvement measures. The aim is to consolidate findings, identify gaps, and suggest further research to improve end-to-end logistics performance in e-commerce markets. Study Design: This study uses a qualitative approach, primarily relying on a literature review for its methodology. Place of Study: The study was conducted in Bacolod City in Philippines. Methodology: This study reviewed key research on the service quality of all-mile delivery dimensions—assurance, tangibles, reliability, empathy and responsiveness —by examining methods applied to analyze gaps between customer expectations and perceptions and highlighting current trends and research gaps. Results: The major themes that emerged from this analysis were all-mile delivery, service quality, customer perception, and customer expectations. Under all-mile delivery, the following subthemes emerged: the first mile, the middle mile, and the last mile. Under service quality, the following sub-themes emerged: tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. Under customer perceptions, the following subthemes emerged: reliability, responsiveness, convenience, communication, and personalization. Based on customer expectations, the following subthemes emerged: speed of delivery, transparency and tracking, flexibility in delivery options, condition of delivered goods, hassle-free returns, and customer support, as well as future research directions. Conclusion: With the rapid surge in e-commerce and technological advancement, the meaning of service quality in all-mile delivery has been redefined nowadays. This shall now incorporate a multidimensional set of factors, from very basic operational metrics concerning responsiveness and the parcel condition up to more complex considerations of the environment and technological innovation. It is predictable that there will be a change in service quality with rising customer expectations and new delivery methods coming into being, so continuously updating the definition and measurement through research and adaptation of logistics providers is in the cards today.