Developing a Framework for the Deployment of Crowd-Shipping: A Study in the Netherlands

Abstract

The growth in the e-commerce platforms and online shopping has been increasing exponentially in the last decade. Businesses and logistics companies are finding new ways to ensure fast, sustainable, and safe deliveries to customers through existing means. However, to meet the ever increasing demand of deliveries, innovative shipping or delivery alternatives have been on the rise across the world. Crowd-Shipping is one such concept which aims at taking advantage of regular travellers with unused space and additional time who can pick up packages, in order to deliver packages to customers who lie along or near the same route for a small compensation. Since the Netherlands has witnesses massive e-commerce growth and demand for efficient and fast deliveries, this study aimed at how Crowd-Shipping can potentially be implemented in the Netherlands through considering a set of drivers, barriers and a business model innovation perspective. The study first investigates the existing research on the concept, focusing on the drivers, barriers and business model aspects. In order to explore these findings and potentially more or findings, we conducted the methodology which consisted of interviews and surveys. Post the interviews and surveys, a thorough analysis of the findings was conducted through content analysis, descriptive statistics and correlations. The results from the research indicate the importance of the findings from the literature with respect to existing drivers, barriers and business model perspectives while also providing insight into more drivers, barriers and business model perspectives that need to be considered for Crowd-Shipping deployment. These results are discussed in detail providing in-depth insight on the Crowd-Shipping aspects mentioned. We conclude the research by suggesting how Crowd-Shipping can be implemented in the Netherlands considering these drivers, barriers and business model aspects, following which, further research recommendations are provided.