Environmental and operational impact of freight urban delivery: in-store, home and locker

• Methodology to assess the environmental and operational impacts of urban delivery. • Monte Carlo simulation to account for randomness in input variables. • Ad-hoc questionnaire to collect data from logistic experts. • Insights from the city of Madrid (Spain), one of the largest cities in the EU. • A straightforward decision-making tool for freight carriers and transport planners. The boom of Business to Consumer e-commerce is impacting the last-mile delivery industry. Efforts are focused on exploring smart solutions for efficient and sustainable urban delivery strategies. This paper develops a methodology to compare the environmental and operational impacts (mileage, street space consumption and emissions) of in-store and e-commerce delivery strategies, with and without an intermediate cross-dock depot. It uses a Monte Carlo simulation to account for randomness in input variables and includes an ad-hoc questionnaire for logistic experts to gather necessary data. Applied to Madrid (Spain), the analysis shows significantly higher sustainability performance of in-store delivery compared to e-commerce. Within e-commerce delivery strategies, the use of an intermediate cross-dock depot significantly reduces negative externalities, on average by approximately one-third to one-half compared to direct-to-home/locker delivery. Despite these benefits, this two-echelon approach remains less commonly implemented in practice. This methodology also allows for modelling and assessing changes in current operations, helping freight carriers and transport planners in decision-making to reduce urban delivery mileage and associated negative externalities.