Through the results of the present study, it was possible to verify a change in the way of operating the last mile distribution. Traditionally, deliveries were performed by semi-light light and medium duty diesel trucks, with the aid of manual trolleys. However, due to restrictions on trucks movements in urban areas (mainly because of their dimensions), smaller vehicles were used, consistent with the results of this study, for the reason that 58% of the references found cited light commercial vehicles (GVW < 3.5 tonnes). Even so, factors such as traffic congestion and specific geographic characteristics of cities (relief, presence of historic center and population density) generated impedances that led to the gradual use of even smaller vehicles like tricycles, bicycles and motorcycles, since 42% of the references identified in this study pointed to the use of these types of vehicles.
It was also observed an increase in the trip extension of last mile distribution, as some companies started to adopt a combination of light commercial vehicles, tricycles, bicycles and motorcycles at this stage of the distribution chain. Hence, the trips extension to support the last mile demand in urban areas varied between 10 and 30km (Navarro et al., 2016; Tozzi et al., 2014). Therefore, as fully-charge drive of electric two-wheelers ranges of 20-160 km (Weiss et al, 2015), their autonomy appear to be sufficient for urban freight distribution operations.
Considering the type of energy, there was a tendency to electrification and a concern to promote the socioenvironmental sustainability in the companies’ operations. The use of electric energy as source of energy for the transport is pertinent to reduce considerably greenhouse gas emissions, especially CO2, the main cause of global warming (Fernandes, 2015b, Rezvani et al., 2015; Weiss et al., 2015).