Shipping outside the box. Environmental impact and stakeholder analysis of a crowd logistics platform in Belgium.

Abstract Crowd logistics is an alternative to traditional home deliveries by parcel companies and is believed to be more sustainable. The idea of crowd logistics is that parcels and passengers are co-transported along a passenger trip that was intended to be made for another purpose. Due to the novelty of this concept and the fact that existing crowd logistics platforms are continuously changing, knowledge on the actual impact of crowd logistics is limited. To gain insight in crowd logistics' environmental impact and the involved stakeholders, we apply two methods. First, an impact analysis based on data of an operational crowd logistics platform in Belgium. We compare the external costs imposed on society when delivering a parcel with crowd logistics and with more traditional ways of transport. Second, an analysis of stakeholder support for crowd logistics, by applying a multi-actor multi-criteria analysis or MAMCA. The findings indicate that current platform use results in higher external transport costs and thus a higher environmental impact, when compared to traditional parcel delivery. Although the concept receives support from the main stakeholders, societal objectives are not met. A critical role in improving crowd logistics' impact is reserved for the platform provider, who can adjust the platform operation and incentivisation to steer efficient vehicle use. Future research efforts can be allocated to other types of crowd logistics platforms and non-urban application of the concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]