SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW ON LAST MILE
DISTRIBUTION
\label{systematic-literature-review-on-last-mile-distribution}
In this section, we present the steps of the systematic literature
review developed and present the main results obtained.
Activity 1 – Planning
\label{activity-1-planning}
In this stage, the planning of the systematic literature review, which
is the first activity determined by the research protocol, is described.
Stage 1.1: identifying the need for
revision
\label{stage-1.1-identifying-the-need-for-revision}
The growth of urban centers is a phenomenon manifested in regions of all
continents, concentrating thus the demand for supplies in smaller
geographic spaces and then creating more dispute for road space and
others problems, such as traffic congestion, pollutants emissions, noise
and a gradual decrease in the quality of life of the local population
(Oliveira et al., 2015a). For that reason, the last mile freight
distribution has been discussed in the specialized literature as an
important basis for: (1) reducing operating costs (2) improving the
socio-environmental sustainability and (3) increasing competitiveness.
As a result, it is necessary to identify alternative ways to perform the
urban freight distribution in the last mile perspective.
Stage 1.2: the purpose of the literature
review
\label{stage-1.2-the-purpose-of-the-literature-review}
The purpose of this paper is to identify, through a systematic
literature review new forms of operations and technologies in urban
freight transport, especially identifying the main type of vehicles used
in last mile distribution. The secondary objectives include identifying
the main characteristics of these vehicles, the barriers, opportunities
and benefits (economic, social and environmental) related to their use,
as well as the range of the distributions.
Stage 1.3: developing the protocol of the
review
\label{stage-1.3-developing-the-protocol-of-the-review}
The identification activity used the following databases: Web of
Science, SCOPUS, EBSCO, Science Direct, DOAJ, Springer Link and
Compendex, as recommended by (Thomé et al., 2016) to use more
than two databases in order to ensure the identification of a greater
diversity of papers. A combination of the keywords – last mile and
(urban freight or urban freight distribution or city logistics) and
vehicles – was chosen to identify researches that propose different
technologies adopted in last mile urban deliveries. This choice was
based on a preliminary survey of the keywords of six papers related to
the scope of the present study. The combination of terms: last mile and
(urban freight or urban freight distribution or urban freight
transportation or city logistics) allows identifying studies that deals
with last mile in urban freight transport or urban logistics. The
objective of complementing these terms with the Boolean operator ”and”
plus the term ”vehicles” is to restrict the search to papers that
actually focus on the vehicles adopted in this type of operation.
The search of the chosen keywords in the selected databases was directed
to the title, abstract and keywords of the papers. Since the practice of
urban logistics involves the use of technologies that evolve
continuously, the last five years have been considered as publication
period (2012 to 2016). It is understood that the topic is important for
the economy of all countries, consequently it has not been adopted a
specific delimitation in geographical comprehensiveness. Initially, the
search (identification stage) was restricted to papers published in
indexed and peer-reviewed international journals, as recommended by
(Nord et al.,1995; Ngai and Wat, 2002; Oliveira et al., 2015a) to ensure
the quality of the studies. The criterion for selection of identified
studies was based exclusively on the language that the paper was written
(English).
The inclusion and exclusion criteria of the selected papers was based on
a content analysis. Duplicate works and papers which the content was
related to last mile distribution and urban freight but not specifically
on the type of vehicle adopted were not considered. In conclusion, the
information obtained was recorded in a database, in order to facilitate
the classification, investigation and evaluation of the studies used in
this research.
Activity 2 – Realization
\label{activity-2-realization}
In this section, the steps of the systematic literature review activity
itself (realization) are detailed.
Stage 2.1: identify, select and include
papers
\label{stage-2.1-identify-select-and-include-papers}
The identification, selection and inclusion of papers followed the
criteria presented in the sub-item 3.1.3. At first, 157 articles were
identified, but the exclusion of duplicate papers (since the search was
performed in more than one database) resulted in a list of 125 papers,
whose abstracts were read by at least two authors, as recommended by
(Thomé et al., 2016). The selection process was iterative, seeking
agreement among co-researchers. It culminated in the selection of 46
papers for the complete reading. Of these, 26 studies were included for
the development of the systematic literature review. The results of this
stage are presented in Table 1.
Table 1: Synthesis of the stage of identification, selection
and inclusion of papers.