Fuelled by the change in shopping trends worldwide, an increasing number of people are switching to online shopping. This in return is resulting in the decline of conventional retail businesses. As global e-commerce rises, last-mile companies rush to complete deliveries in minimum time, which results in a surge in global carbon emissions. As sustainability is an important aspect of the business world, last-mile delivery companies are constantly on the lookout for innovative solutions. The solutions that sustainably facilitate faster deliveries while churning out an optimal profit. A great way to do all that—Minimize carbon emissions, facilitate faster deliveries, and churn out a profit–is to use electric vehicles for last-mile deliveries. A few reasons we should use electric vehicles for last-mile deliveries are given below:
Conventional vehicles and the continual increase in carbon emissions
Traffic laden streets, low air quality, and noise pollution are the common theme of any urban city. Just as the demand for urban last mile delivery increases, the number of delivery vehicles increases as well, thus further polluting the cities. Over 87 billion packages were delivered worldwide in 2018, which is twice the number of deliveries made in 2014. Such a huge number of deliveries and most of them were done using conventional vehicles like trucks, bikes, and cars. Most conventional vehicles have internal combustion engines which release carbon dioxide and a lot of other pollutants, further adding to the carbon emission. With multiple movable parts under the hood, these vehicles produce a lot of noise.
As people become more aware of global pollution and the factors responsible for it. They are more inclined to a company that does their job efficiently sustainably. With such a high demand for last-mile deliveries, along with high customer standards, a revolutionary method of sustainably delivering products is the need of the hour. Some revolutionary methods like electric scooter delivery are already being used in the real world. Indian last-mile delivery service provider— Zypp electric–is a good exemplar of that. Zypp is a last-mile delivery company that uses AI and ML-enabled electric scooters to make green last-mile deliveries in Delhi. The electric scooter model is especially useful in a highly polluted and dense area like Delhi.
Going Electric is profitable
Changing customer’s habits has always been a challenging issue for last-mile companies, with growing trends like same-day delivery putting a lot of pressure on the overall delivery supply chain. Modern-day customers are very aware of the environment and are seeking companies that have adopted sustainable practices. Owning a fleet of electric vehicles is the best possible way for the last mile company to make it to the top. Switching to electric vehicles is the first step towards revolutionizing the complete last-mile logistics. From trucks, scooters, droids to autonomous drones’ electric vehicles come in all shapes and sizes and with their unique benefits.
Most modern-day electric vehicles are equipped with the ability to store data, which in return helps in better delivery logistics, thus boosting delivery logistics. With zero carbon emissions and silent transmission, electric vehicles are the perfect urban delivery vehicle. With recent breakthroughs in electric vehicle batteries, conventional fears about mileages are eradicated. Climate change is a real threat to the entire world, and urban logistics are a key contributor to environmental pollution. Irrespective of the scale of the company in order to maintain sustainability, every company must start adopting electric vehicles in their delivery fleet.
Conclusion
No matter how small the change is, if it reduces the global carbon emission, it is worth implementing. With the aim of zero-emission urban logistics in mind, companies across the globe are starting to mobilize electric vehicles for last-mile deliveries. The advantages of using electric vehicles are far too great to be left untouched. We can all see that as more and more companies are putting effort into making electric deliveries successful. E-commerce giants like Amazon have pledged absolute zero carbon emission across all their businesses by 2040. To pave the way for greener logistics sustainable last-mile deliveries are our only salvation.
