La estructuración del prácticum y sus características en el EEES

Last mile delivery impedance is a friction of space (Hesse and Rodrigue, 2004) and time constraint (Sivakumar and Bhat, 2007). Hesse and Rodrigue (2004) considered the

multidimensional aspect of the concept impedance as relates to transport costs, organisation of the supply chain and built and regulatory environment as well as location of where the last mile transaction takes place. All these elements define the concept of last mile delivery impedance (Hesse and Rodrigue, 2004).

Of all the elements, the built and regulatory environment constitutes an important constraint which directly results in impedance through the planning and transport systems. This built and regulatory environment is the ‘material space’ (Hesse and Rodrigue, 2004) where the last mile delivery movements is embedded. These are the transport infrastructure like road, railway, warehouses, and terminals necessary for an efficient last mile delivery of goods to end consumers. These external determinants of last mile delivery play a vital part because of the critical pressure exerted on last mile delivery during the peak hour use of transportation infrastructure in large cities, especially inner city suburbs and main arterial roads and freeways. Hesse and Rodrigue (2004), identified infrastructure road bottlenecks and

congestion, urban density and urban adjustments from compactness as impedance measures to last mile delivery.

In this thesis, the concept of impedance is defined as the amount of resistance required to traverse through a route on a road network from the pick-up to the delivery point. High impedance on a road network deters movements of goods in and out of urban areas as well as goods travelling within the city (Ewedairo et al., 2018).

41 In simple cases, network designs represents visual illustration that allow differentiation of one network from another. However, in a more complex instances, the visual complexity makes the task of reliable and objective identification of the differences difficult (Walker and Manson, 2014).

Rodrigue et al., (2013) differentiates between locational attractiveness and emissiveness that can be applied to last mile delivery. Accessibility has to do with attractiveness and

emissiveness of locations. While attractiveness relates the measure of the capacity of a location to be reached, emissiveness is the capacity to reach different locations (Rodrigue et al., 2013). Locations of high accessibility are likely to have more people travel to them or through them than locations of low accessibility because such location can be more easily reached and are also more integrated and connected to than other areas within a city (Richards-Rissetto and Landau, 2014). However, a one-to-one relationship between accessibility and integration is unlikely to be established within the city. Accordingly, a place that is easily accessible will be more integrated with the economy of the city (Hillier et al. 1993; Hillier 1996).

The volume of last mile delivery to or from a location or that passes through a location therefore strongly correlates with the levels of integration and connectivity with the city (Bafna 2003;

Hillier 1996; Ratti 2004) and delays within the network. The ease of reaching the location of delivery from pick up is a function of the level of impedance posed by the amount of resistance within the transport network.

2.6 Summary

This chapter described the key concepts used to reflect last mile logistics and the theoretical perspectives applied to examine the position of last mile within supply chain management and city logistics. The chapter provided key definitions of city logistics and last mile. Last mile is described as part of city logistics and the final leg within the supply chains system, the most costly and inefficient of the three parts of the supply chain.

Four different theoretical perspectives to understand last mile delivery within the supply chain process are discussed. These comprise the supply chain, transaction cost, spatial and planning perspectives. The spatial and urban planning perspectives inform the discussion on

42 urban form with last mile delivery impedance and the transport network, spatial accessibility and impedance discussed in section 2.4 and 2.5 of this chapter.

Chapter 3 proceeds to conceptualise and present theoretical framework for building the future of last mile delivery scenario.

43

CHAPTER THREE

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR BUILDING THE FUTURE OF LAST MILE DELIVERY

3.1 Introduction

In the preceding chapter, the concept of last mile delivery was discussed and different theoretical perspectives to examine its forms, functions and performance were presented.

This chapter develops a theoretical framework to systematically establish the linkages between key constraints and last mile delivery impedance and build last mile delivery

scenarios. Creating scenarios to understand which situation will eventuate in the future of last mile requires intuitive thinking of the key stakeholders involved in last mile delivery.

This chapter is organised into six sections. The theoretical framework upon which the thesis is hinged in section 3.2. The section conceptualises the interrelationship between last mile and the urban environment and proceeds to identify constraints that impedes last mile delivery with the development of the conceptual framework for this study. The Theory of Constraints and the embedded thinking process are discussed in section 3.3. Section 3.4 presents Scenario Thinking as a tool to build plausible last mile delivery scenarios and the methodology of the research for projecting last mile delivery scenario and the resulted likely outcomes. Identified last mile delivery constraints are discussed in section 3.5. Section 3.6 presents the summary of the chapter.