Last mile product delivery is an important part of a product's supply chain, and when it works seamlessly, it can improve the relationship between retailers and their customers. But when the last mile process isn't working efficiently, it can drive better coordination between retailers and their customers. Nowadays many companies are implementing various strategies and plans to reduce costs and improve operational efficiency for last mile delivery. In today's competitive landscape, it is very important for companies to be ahead of their competitors. Even though last mile delivery is recognized by online shopping customers today, there are still problems in this process and these problems result in low operational efficiencies and low service levels. According to Morganti, E.et al (2014), highlighted problems from the perspective of the consumer and carriers. Considering the customers' point of view, it is recognized that they have an availability problem at the point of delivery. Many times they are not available at home. Sometimes, when the shipping day arrives, they have to stay at home forcibly due to the unpredictability of the delivery arrival time. Furthermore, customers face the problem of high delivery costs and long delivery times. From the courier perspective, couriers have incurred the high delivery costs due to non-delivery and long delivery costs. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get Original Essay According to Park and Regan (2004), the important factor that has a huge impact on the home delivery process is the unavailability of customers at home. Most last-mile delivery companies already inform their customers about the tentative shipment arrival window, but that's the time when most people are at work. Therefore, the delivery fails because the shipment arrival time is within normal business hours. For small parcels, another option can be mailboxes, but for medium and large shipments delivery failure occurs. As a result, it was concluded that approximately 30% of small shipments shipped to the customer's home are not delivered on the first attempt. There are other cases for the food delivery system. In this online process, senders and recipients can agree on an earlier time slot for delivery, but even then there is no guarantee that customers will be at home until the time of delivery. But under the basic model of last-mile delivery, such a predisposition can increase the lower flexibility of the carrier's fleet operations. This phenomenon can cause high operating costs for retailers and logistics service providers. There are many external factors that create a huge impact in last mile delivery operations. Considering the environmental effect of last mile delivery it is proven that transportation of shipments in various types of service vehicles can cause economic, social and environmental impact on environmental balance and urban infrastructure. Punakivi et al. (2001) discussed other problems related to last mile delivery, such as failed deliveries and the ping pong effect. The ping pong effect is the situation where customers and couriers agree on delivery at a specific time, but customers do not show up for delivery. Such activities increase environmental costs. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a custom essay Lo.
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