Moving towards “mobile warehouse”: Last-mile logistics during COVID-19 and beyond

• Main Authors: S. Srivatsa Srinivas, Rahul R. Marathe
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2021-06-01
• Series: Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives
• Subjects: Last-mile logistics; COVID-19; Mobile warehouse; Innovation; E-commerce; Supply chain management
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590198221000464

Supply chains in general and last-mile logistics in particular, have been disrupted due to COVID-19. Though several innovative last-mile logistics solutions have been proposed in the past, they possess certain limitations, especially during COVID-19 motivating the need for an alternative last-mile logistics solution. We present a review of literature related to last-mile logistics and supply chain disruptions to identify the limitations of existing last-mile delivery practices during COVID-19. Using a stylized analytical model, we then propose that “mobile warehouse” can be an effective solution to last-mile logistics issues faced during COVID-19 and beyond under certain conditions. A mobile warehouse is a truck dedicated to a particular geographical location and carries the inventory of various products based on the estimated demand requirements for these products in that geographical location. We provide the condition under which the B2C e-commerce providers find it profitable to adopt a truck as a mobile warehouse to sell high demand items quickly.