Reassessing the Real Estate Assets for Sustainable Last-Mile Logistics Solutions

Because of the pandemic spreading, the e-commerce market experienced considerable growth, and today, the market continues to grow. In the main cities, drawbacks relate to fragmentation of demand, failed first-time deliveries and additional trips for carriers, which are common issues. In sparsely populated areas, the issue could be the low accessibility and increasing fulfilment costs connected with deliveries. Conversely, those areas represent the most appealing zones for further growth in the digital market, and accessibility to new markets could represent equity for those people living there. The present work considers the recovery of abandoned infrastructure as micro-hubs for last-mile distribution. Thus, starting from the aggregated demand level and a pilot survey delivered to citizens of minor municipalities in Messina, Sicily Island, this work enquired about the possibility of supplying less populated areas through a new strategy. The real estate assets, conceived as logistics micro-hubs, would facilitate lastmile distribution, reducing the number of kilometres travelled by freight vehicles’ tour lengths (or the travel times). A delivery strategy obtained by implementing two microhubs to serve inland areas is tested to fix existing gaps and offer an alternative to traditional delivery methods. The proposed approach, configured as an exploratory investigation for transforming abandoned/disused roadhouses into logistics micro-hubs, can help planners promote efficient and sustainable logistic measures. Customers could benefit from reducing their current costs (availability of new collection points, extra charges connected with deliveries), the carrier travelling costs could be reduced, and other advantages consist of saving money connected with the reduction of home delivery failures.