Overall impacts of off-hour delivery programs in New York city metropolitan area

Holguín-Veras, José; Ozbay, Kaan; Kornhauser, Alain; Brom, Matthew; Iyer, Shrisan; Yushimito, Wilfredo; Ukkusuri, Satish; Allen, Brandon; Silas, Michael

Abstract

This paper examines the chief findings of research conducted on policies to foster off-hour deliveries (OHDs) in the New York City metropolitan area. The goal was to estimate the overall impacts of eventual full imple- mentation of an OHD program. As part of the research, a system of incen- tives was designed for the receivers of deliveries the system combined Global Positioning System (GPS) remote sensing monitoring with GPS- enabled smart phones to induce a shift of deliveries to the off-hours from 7:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. The concept was pilot tested in Manhattan by 33 companies that switched delivery operations to the off-hours for a period of 1 month. At the in-depth interviews conducted after the test, the participants reported being very satisfied with the experience. As an alter- native to road pricing schemes that target freight carriers, this was the first real-life trial of the use of financial incentives to delivery receivers. The analyses indicate that the economic benefits of a full implementation of the OHD program are in the range of $147 to $193 million per year, cor- responding to savings on travel time and environmental pollution for regular-hour traffic as well as productivity increases for the freight indus- try. The pilot test also highlighted the great potential of unassisted OHD— that is, OHD made without personnel from the receiving establishment present—because almost all participants who used this modality decided to continue receiving OHD even after the financial incentive ended.

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Título de la Revista: TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH RECORD
Volumen: 2238
Editorial: NATL ACAD SCIENCES
Fecha de publicación: 2011
Página de inicio: 68
Página final: 76
Notas: SCOPUS, ISI