Is on-demand same day package delivery service green?

In light of the rapid development in the e-commerce sector and the increasingly popular demand for same day delivery, this study evaluates the performance of an on-demand same day delivery (SDD) paradigm in terms of its transportation time cost, fuel cost, and emission cost. The performance is further evaluated by comparing among three delivery paradigms: hub-and-spoke, SDD with a commercial fleet, and SDD by crowdsourcing. Among the three service paradigms compared, hub-and-spoke proves to be cost-effective for the traditional distribution service provided by commercial carriers but ill-suited for providing same day delivery service. Commercial carriers are facing tremendous pressure in the era when same-day delivery service is increasingly expected. Crowdsourcing is a promising solution to providing low cost same day delivery service. Lastly, regardless of the delivery paradigm, the total cost goes down as the economy of scale increases; and SDD by crowdsourcing would become even more competitive when the demand ratio is very high; however, its fuel consumption and emissions tend to go up due to the additional vehicle detours to accommodate real time demand.