PROSPECTS AND PROBLEMS OF ROBOTIC DELIVERY OF THE LAST MILE. THE RELEVANCE OF THE PROBLEM AND THE CONCEPT OF THE SOLUTION. PART I.

The express delivery market in recent years has been growing at the level of 3-4%, and even in these conditions, not only is it not saturated, but the demand for it is growing. According to Oxford Economics, the growth of the air cargo market, which determines the volume of the express delivery market, accelerated at times up to 7% per year from 2013 to 2018 [1]. The biggest changes took place in 2016-17 due to a technological breakthrough in the field of logistics with the introduction of services such as drone delivery, processing orders on the blockchain, calculation of the delivery mode using artificial intelligence, etc. It was expected that due to the growing demand on fast delivery guaranteed, the number of express delivery employees worldwide will grow to 4.5 million over the next few years. But the coronavirus pandemic has accelerated this process. In the study “The Future of Freight Transportation. How new technologies and new thinking can change the movement of goods”, presented by the international network of consulting companies Deloitte in 2017, states that carriers have already solved many of the problems associated with the transportation of goods. But the “last mile delivery” stage has remained limiting the development of the delivery service. At this stage, companies suffer losses due to the concentration of logistics, algorithmic and kinematic tasks that cannot be automated with modern means and technologies for replacing human labor. Consequently, the use of alternative, unconventional technologies at this stage is a key condition for the mass development of delivery.

Innovations on rail freight market

Ten years ago, the European Union recognized the importance of stopping further development of road freight transportation and the need for making rail freight a more prominent branch of industry. Rail transportation used to hold a more relevant position, but because of slow response to changes on the market and no investments in modernization, it now occupies only around 10% of the share in freight transportation in most EU member states. Most members have initiated the implementation of the restructuring and liberalization of rail market, with the aim of establishing a multimodal transportation network and reducing negative impact of road freight on the environment. The Croatian market is no exception, of course. It has liberalized the rail freight market since the Accession to the EU, while the rail passenger traffic is still monopolized by a company owned by the state. The Croatian national carrier HŽ Cargo has decided to face the competition by restructuring the current business and giving a sharper focus on innovation (intermodal terminals, RO-LA, and digitalization of business operations). The above-mentioned topics are analysed in the following chapter.

A Procedure Model for Low Emission Transportation Chain Planning

Low-emission planning in freight transportation is one of the main levers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. For a sustainable planning approach, a strategic solution for this planning problem is needed. Based on several literature reviews, a procedure model is developed, which is meant to be used for the development and adjustment of a low-emission transportation chain reference model. The procedure model consists of the decision steps needed to develop a low-emission transportation chain (LETC) reference model and it is structured into main decision processes and sub-decision processes. A first draft of the LETC-Model is presented in form of an ARIS-Express model.

Formation of information support for the development of freight transportation of JSC “Ukrzaliznytsya”

A methodical approach to the formation of indicators of the information base of management decisions on the development of freight JSC “Ukrzaliznytsia”, which consists in calculating the taxonomy of the level of development of freight by substantiating systems and its elements: eighteen static systems, elements of which are six regional railways; seven dynamic systems – regional branches and in general JSC “Ukrzaliznytsia”. A spatial and temporal comparison of the development of freight transportation of selected systems is carried out. The taxonomy index is calculated on the basis of five indicators of freight traffic for the period 2002-2019. The analysis of static systems made it possible to identify the uneven development of freight transportation of regional branches of JSC “Ukrzaliznytsia” for the studied 18 years. The temporal comparison of the levels of development of freight traffic by each railway in particular also showed their instability. Fluctuations are observed in the last three years of the study period. In 2018, JSC “Ukrzaliznytsia” demonstrated the lowest level of freight transportation development for the entire analyzed year 2002-2019. It was established that both external and internal factors caused the negative impact on rail transportation, in particular: the economic crisis of 2014-2015; military action in eastern Ukraine; ineffective management at different levels of government. The introduction of quarantine measures due to the COVID-19 pandemic caused unprofitable and deteriorating financial and economic performance of JSC Ukrzaliznytsia, and its six regional branches in 2020, in particular, revenues from freight transportation decreased by 10.3% compared to 2019, and net loss amounted to UAH 11.9 billion. Implementing the anti-crisis plan by the management of JSC Ukrzaliznytsia and the improvement of operational work in the freight segment has yielded some positive results. However, for the effective planning and management decisions in the field of freight transportation an important component is the proper formation of an information base. The proposed methodological approach will serve as an effective tool not only in the management of the freight segment of individual regional branches or enterprises in particular, but also the economic development of JSC “Ukrzaliznytsia” in general and can be used by other large companies.