Business as usual characteristics of last-mile delivery

The FTC2050 project assessed current last-mile delivery operations through carrier surveys, interviews and literature review, mainly focusing on parcel deliveries in central London.

Current models

The UK parcels market has two main operating models: hub-and-spoke and point-to-point.

The hub-and-spoke model handles by far the greatest parcel volumes and has traditionally been used for non-urgent (next-day or longer) deliveries. Same-day deliveries are becoming more common but are far less energy-efficient often requiring pickup and delivery of single items

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Research findings and related statistics

2.4 billion parcels

were sent in the UK in 2017-18 generating revenues of £9.4 billion, excluding same-day parcels (Ofcom, 2018).

Two thirds B2C

Business-to-consumer (B2C) accounts for two in every three parcels sent and growing faster (volume and revenue) than business-to-business (B2B) (Royal Mail Group, 2018)

Statistics for 25 parcel delivery rounds in central London, October 2016

Related publications

J. Allen, M. Piecyk & M. Piotrowska (2018)
AN ANALYSIS OF THE SAME-DAY DELIVERY MARKET AND OPERATIONS IN THE UK
FTC2050 project report. DOI: to be added. 

J. Allen, M. Piecyk & M. Piotrowska (2016)
AN ANALYSIS OF ONLINE SHOPPING AND HOME DELIVERY IN THE UK
FTC2050 project report.
DOI: to be added. 

J. Allen, M. Piecyk & M. Piotrowska (2016)
AN ANALYSIS OF ROAD FREIGHT IN LONDON AND BRITAIN: TRAFFIC, ACTIVITY AND SUSTAINABILITY
FTC2050 project report.
DOI: to be added.

J. Allen, M. Piecyk & M. Piotrowska (2016)
AN ANALYSIS OF THE NEXT-DAY AND ECONOMY PARCELS MARKET AND PARCEL CARRIERS’ OPERATIONS IN THE UK
FTC2050 project report.
DOI: to be added.

P. Greening, M. Piecyk, A. Palmer & P. Dadhich (2019)
DECARBONISING ROAD FREIGHT
A review commissioned by the Government Office for Science as a part of their evidence review for the ‘Future of Mobility’ project.