The last mile handover is assumed to be the most problematic part in the delivery process and the costs can go upto 50% of the total logistic cost. Real time consumer communication and dynamic scheduling are the major problem areas associated with effective attended last mile handovers. Therefore, aim of this paper is to report the design and development of a holistic decision support system’s functionalities which simultaneously addresses real time consumer communication and dynamic scheduling. A decision support system was designed and developed based on workshops, expert group interviews and its functionalities were proposed with the use cases. A survey was conducted with consumers of a retailer where majority of the consumers accepted the use of mobile communication devices to enable real time communication and alternate handover location which improves customer satisfaction and facilitates to avoid missed handovers. A pilot test was performed where routing distance was reduced with the use of optimized handover routes. However the improvement is subjected to the experience of driver and real time traffic conditions. We conclude that a holistic decision support system with multi-party communication among the stakeholders facilitates in reducing operational costs for logistic companies and improving customer satisfaction and business opportunities.

Previous studies have found that big-box retail entry does not affect the productivity of incumbent retailers when entry occurs in urban areas. In this paper, we show that there are positive spillover effects of big-box retail entry to incumbent retailers in urban areas as well, but that these are limited to relatively small retailers, making the effects difficult to detect using traditional econometric methods, such as difference-in-difference estimation on the full sample of firms. In a two-step procedure, we first use panel smooth transition regression to determine size thresholds that delimit incumbent retail firms by their possible reactions to the new big-box entry. We then use difference-in-difference estimations on these subgroups of firms to determine, within each group, the direction and magnitude of the effects of big-box entry on their productivity. For the group of small incumbent retailers, we find positive spillover effects on productivity of approximately 9%.

This paper empirically measures the potential spillover effects of big-box retail entry on the productivity of incumbent retailers in the entry regions, and investigates whether the effects differ depending on the size of the new establishment relative to the size of the local market. The results indicate that big-box entry increases the productivity of incumbent firms in two of three rural entry regions where the IKEA is large relative to the local retail market, while no productivity spillover effects could be found in the case of the urban IKEA entry in Gothenburg.

The aim of this paper is to analyse labour turnover in retail firms with stores in different city locations. This case study of a Swedish mid-sized city uses comprehensive longitudinal register data on individuals. In a first step, an unconditional descriptive analysis shows that labour turnover in retail is higher in out-of-town locations, compared to more central locations in the city. In a second step, a generalized linear model (GLM) analysis is conducted where labour turnover in downtown and out-of-town locations are compared. Firm internal and industry factors, as well as employee characteristics, and location-specific factors are controlled for. The results indicate that commuting costs and intra-urban location have no statistically significant effect on labour turnover in retail firms. Instead, firm internal factors, such as human resource management, has a major influence on labour turnover rates. The findings indicate that in particular firms with multiple locations may need to pay extra attention to work conditions across stores in different places in a city, in order to avoid diverging levels of labour mobility. This paper complements previous survey-based studies on labour turnover by using a comprehensive micro-level dataset to analyse revealed rather than stated preferences concerning job-to-job mobility. An elaborated measure of labour turnover is used to analyse differences between shopping areas in different locations within the city. The particular research design used in this paper makes it possible to isolate the effect of intra-organizational conditions by analysing mobility within firms with workplaces in both downtown and out-of-town locations. This is the first comprehensive study of labour turnover and mobility with an intra-urban perspective in the retail sector.

We investigate the spatial extent of agglomeration economies across the wage earnings distribution using economic mass (total employment) in four distance bands around each individual’s establishment in a quantile regression framework. We control for observable and unobservable individual and establishment characteristics. Remaining endogeneity in the model is assessed with a set of instrumental variables. Results indicate a positive effect of economic mass on wage earnings up to 25 km away from the establishment. The spatial extent of agglomeration economies is similar across the wage earnings distribution. However, increases in economic mass shift the wage earnings distribution in a nonsymmetric way. 

An administrative border might hinder the optimal allocation of a given set of resources by restricting the flow of goods, services, and people. In this paper, we address the question: Do administrative borders lead to poor accessibility to public service? In answering the question, we have examined the case of Sweden and its regional administrative borders and hospital accessibility. We have used detailed data on the Swedish road network, its hospitals, and its geo-coded population. We have assessed the population's spatial accessibility to Swedish hospitals by computing the inhabitants' distance to the nearest hospital. We have also elaborated several scenarios ranging from strongly confining regional borders to no confinements of borders and recomputed the accessibility. Our findings imply that administrative borders are only marginally worsening the accessibility.

We propose modelling for a facilities localization problem in the context of multimode transportation. The applicative goal is to locate service facilities such as schools or hospitals while optimizing the different transportation modes to these facilities. We formalize the School Problem and solve it first exactly using an adapted -constraint multiobjective method. Because of the size of the instances considered, we have also explored the use of heuristic methods based on evolutionary multiobjective frameworks, namely, NSGA2 and a modified version of PAES. Those methods are mixed with an original local search technique to provide better results. Numerical comparisons of solutions sets quality are made using the hypervolume metric. Based on the results for test-cases that can be solved exactly, efficient implementation for PAES and NSGA2 allows execution times comparison for large instances. Results show good performances for the heuristic approaches as compared to the exact algorithm for small test-cases. Approximate methods present a scalable behavior on largest problem instances. A master/slave parallelization scheme also helps to reduce execution times significantly for the modified PAES approach.

Parking a vehicle in traffic dense environments often leads to excess time of driving in search for free space which leads to congestions and environmental pollution. Lack of guidance information to vacant parking spaces is one reason for inefficient parking behaviour. Smart parking sensors and technologies facilitate guidance of drivers to free parking spaces thereby improving parking efficiency. Currently, no such sensors or technologies is in use for open parking lot. This paper reviews the literature on the usage of smart parking sensors, technologies, applications and evaluate their applicability to open parking lots. Magnetometers, ultrasonic sensors and machine vision were few of the widely used sensors and technologies on closed parking lots. However, this paper suggests a combination of machine vision, convolutional neural network or multi-agent systems suitable for open parking lots due to less expenditure and resistance to varied environmental conditions. Few smart parking applications show drivers the location of common open parking lots. No application provided real time parking occupancy information, which is a necessity to guide them along the shortest route to free space. To develop smart parking applications for open parking lots, further research is needed in the fields of deep learning and multi-agent systems.

Parking a vehicle in traffic dense environments is a common issue in many parts of the world which oftenleads to congestion and environmental pollution. Lack of guidance information to vacant parking spaces isone of the reasons for inefficient parking behaviour. Smart parking sensors and technologies facilitateguidance of drivers to free parking spaces thereby improving parking efficiency. Currently, no such sensorsor technologies are in use for the common open parking lot. This paper reviews the literature on the usage ofsmart parking sensors, technologies, applications and evaluate their suitability to open parking lots. Suitabilitywas made in terms of expenditure and reliability. Magnetometers, ultrasonic sensors and machine vision werefew of the widely used sensors and technologies used in closed parking lots. However, this paper suggests acombination of machine vision, fuzzy logic or multi-agent systems suitable for open parking lots due to lessexpenditure and resistance to varied environmental conditions. No application provided real time parkingoccupancy information of open parking lots, which is a necessity to guide them along the shortest route tofree space. To develop smart parking applications for open parking lots, further research is needed in the fieldsof deep learning.

GPS-based data are becoming a cornerstone for real-time transportation applications. Tracking data of vehicles from GPS receivers are however susceptible to measurement errors. The assessment of the reliability of data from GPS receiver is a neglected issue, especially in a real road network setting and in the phase after data transfer but before information identification. An evaluation method is outlined and carried out by conducting a randomized experiment. We assess the reliability of GPS-based transportation data on geographical position, speed, and elevation from three varied receivers GlobalSat BT-338X, Magellan SporTrak Pro and smart phone for three transportation modes: bicycle, car, and bus. The positional error ranging from 0158 meters, and 74% to 100% with an error within 5 meters depending on the transportation mode and route, there is also a non-negligible risk for aberrant positioning. Speed is slightly underestimated or overestimated with errors around 5km/h except for SporTrak Pro which had an error of -10 km/h. Elevation measurements are unreliable with errors bigger than 100 meters.