Economic Sustainability in Last-Mile Drone Delivery Problem with Fulfillment Centers: A Mathematical Formulation

Maria Bruni, Sara Khodaparasti, Guido Perboli

2024

Abstract

This study is motivated by the increasing growth in the competitive e-commerce market where on-line business-to-customer retailers, seeking for cost-efficient and timely delivery services, are persuaded to adopt a drone-based delivery system against the traditional terrestrial one. Recently, the drone-aided delivery services have significantly been eased, thanks to the development of fulfilment centers, as aerial base stations monitoring and arranging back-and-forth drone trips between the fulfilment centers and customers’ sites that also provide the retailers with services such as package handling, restocking, and drone recharge. Obviously, adopting a drone-based delivery system incurs various expenses: besides drone recharge, maintenance, and energy consumption costs, the usage cost for fulfillment centers, namely tariff, should be paid by the retailers to the FC manager. This study aims to address the economic sustainability of a drone-aided delivery system with fulfillment centers and to provide the retailer with an optimal delivery plan maximizing his profit. This could eventually provide a stable platform for new and small-sized business-to-customer retailers trying to survive in such a competitive market and to promote the use of drone fulfillment centers.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Bruni M., Khodaparasti S. and Perboli G. (2024). Economic Sustainability in Last-Mile Drone Delivery Problem with Fulfillment Centers: A Mathematical Formulation. In Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Operations Research and Enterprise Systems - Volume 1: ICORES; ISBN 978-989-758-681-1, SciTePress, pages 382-389. DOI: 10.5220/0012464100003639

in Bibtex Style

@conference{icores24,
author={Maria Bruni and Sara Khodaparasti and Guido Perboli},
title={Economic Sustainability in Last-Mile Drone Delivery Problem with Fulfillment Centers: A Mathematical Formulation},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Operations Research and Enterprise Systems - Volume 1: ICORES},
year={2024},
pages={382-389},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0012464100003639},
isbn={978-989-758-681-1},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Operations Research and Enterprise Systems - Volume 1: ICORES
TI - Economic Sustainability in Last-Mile Drone Delivery Problem with Fulfillment Centers: A Mathematical Formulation
SN - 978-989-758-681-1
AU - Bruni M.
AU - Khodaparasti S.
AU - Perboli G.
PY - 2024
SP - 382
EP - 389
DO - 10.5220/0012464100003639
PB - SciTePress