The last mile is the final stretch in the transport of goods and parcels to the customer's doorstep. It is therefore the last link in the supply chain. The last mile represents a major challenge for service providers, logistics companies and, in particular, courier express parcel service providers (CEP) - especially due to the growing volume of consignments resulting from online trade. Typically, the costs for the last mile account for around 2/3 of the total costs of parcel services.
In route planning, it is important to bundle the journeys for delivery in such a way that the effort is minimised. A major problem for efficient routes when delivering to end consumers is not meeting recipients and the associated repeated deliveries. To alleviate this problem, there are alternatives such as delivery to parcel shops, packing stations and parcel lockers. Parcel services also have to deal with sometimes extreme seasonal influences. Most people are familiar with the Christmas period, when volumes can more than double compared to normal operations.
Logistics drones are a future scenario for goods delivery. As parcel volumes increase, so does the volume of traffic, especially in cities. Through targeted route optimisation, journeys can be adapted to new or changing traffic flows at regular intervals.