On my previous post, with the theme Last Mile Urban, I wrote about difficulties in traffic and the scarcity of spaces for cargo vehicles in Brazilian cities, problems that can be minimized with good urban planning to be developed by the public power.
Now, I will talk a little about another important challenge for urban deliveries: the need for speed in unloading, which does not depend on the government, but on companies.
It doesn't take much explanation to understand that the longer the vehicle is stopped to unload the goods, the worse the efficiency of the last mile distribution will be. Poor unloading performance affects everyone, not just transporters and goods owners, but everyone who uses urban roads. If a vehicle takes longer to be unloaded, it will occupy the loading and unloading space for longer, reducing the number of vehicles that will use that space throughout the day.
In turn, when a truck is stopped for unloading, the number of deliveries that this vehicle would be able to carry out in the same day is reduced, making companies need more trucks. This generates more congestion, more need for spaces and docks, low utilization of transport assets and drivers…. and all of this translates into high logistical costs for everyone.
In Brazil, almost 30% of discharges in urban establishments take more than 1 hour to complete, worsening distribution efficiency. This data comes from survey conducted by ILOS, which also indicated that this delay in unloading is considered the 3rd greatest difficulty for companies in performing last mile transport.
And how is this problem resolved?
There are several ways to get around the high download times. Each one will be better suited to each type of business, and the solutions will have different levels of difficulty.
The use of carts (like rolltainers), for example, is an option for deliveries to physical stores that receive many volumes per day. This option speeds up unloading time and can allow the vehicle to make more turns to deliver to more stores, but it reduces the usable space inside the trailer and requires investment in equipment and ramps.
Scheduling deliveries at times that are more suitable for the establishments can also greatly reduce queuing times and facilitate the displacement of employees to increase the speed of unloading. This solution requires much more complex management to coordinate schedules between vendors, carriers and client establishments.
Simpler solutions such as improving the orderly assembly of cargo inside the vehicle and increasing the time used for unloading should also be evaluated. The important thing is that it is necessary to make calculations, to know if the implemented actions will really bring greater productivity, efficiency and cost reduction as a whole.
More information about Urban Last Mile Challenges and Solutions are available in the ILOS Report using this link.
References:
Last Mile Challenges: Vacancies and Traffic
ILOS Reports Urban Last Mile Challenges and Solutions
Maria Fernanda Hijjar
https://ilos.com.brExecutive Partner of ILOS, holds a master's degree and a degree in Production Engineering from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). With more than 10 years of experience in the field of Logistics and Supply Chain, working on several projects, management and participation in research associated with the subject. She has more than 20 articles in newspapers, magazines, periodicals and congress annals, being co-author of several titles in the COPPEAD Collection by Atlas publishing house and in the Panorama Logístico Collection ILOS and CEL / COPPEAD.
