Autonomous vehicles could prove to be future model for delivery services, study finds - University of Kansas
In this particular study, the autonomous vehicle assists the delivery person in making deliveries.“The vehicle drops off the delivery person at one location. They serve customers by delivering packages on foot, and then the vehicle picks them up at an alternate location. So what does that do for the delivery driver? It removes the need to find parking where you leave a vehicle by itself, as well as it removes the delivery person’s walk back to the vehicle,” Reed said.
The United Parcel Service has used a similar approach during the holiday season in Baltimore, for instance, by putting an extra delivery person onboard its trucks. The model proposed by Reed considers upgrading the technology of the vehicle instead. But which approach ultimately saves more money? On one hand, there’s the extra cost of the additional driver; on the other hand, there’s the extra cost of autonomous technology.
“Given the wage cost and increased productivity, we show that the autonomous vehicle model is more cost-effective than putting an additional person on a traditional vehicle,” she said.
