Sustainable e-commerce urban distribution in LEZ areas: A greening Metro-based solution (M4G: Metro For Goods)

Abstract

A Low Emission Zone (LEZ) is a measure implemented by many European cities in their densest, most congested and most polluted areas to reduce the access of the most polluting vehicles. This limitation of access to LEZ zones collides with the growth in e-commerce delivery, which has increased sharply in recent years. This paper investigates the potential use of a metro system (M4G: Metro For Goods) to provide delivery services by leveraging its existing carrying capacity and using the metro stations as microhubs. In the last leg in the last mile, this model is complemented by cargo bikes to distribute e-commerce parcels in the LEZ in a city like Madrid. The external costs of the M4G model are compared with the current e-commerce delivery scenario (parcel delivery by road), and the results show that the proposed model can be a promising innovation to reduce the externalities in the LEZ.