Why are some online orders not delivered on time?

Regardless of the internal processes of each company, the challenges in urban logistics in the major cities of Latin America partly explain the discontent of those who have had a negative experience with ecommerce due to the pandemic.

In addition to traffic restrictions, biosecurity protocols and exponential growth of online orders, especially by first-time shoppers, there was also road congestion, traffic accidents and the environmental impact caused by this sector in Latin American cities. Cargo vehicles account for 25% of the fleet, take up 40% of road space and are responsible for up to 40% of CO2 emissions related to urban transport.

Prior to the pandemic, the World Economic Forum published a study called the “Future of the Last-Mile Ecosystem,” which projected that 2.1 billion people would make online purchases by 2021 and that delivery vehicles would grow by 36% to 7.2 million units by 2030. In addition, it presents a number of recommendations to reduce emissions and congestion by 30% and shipping costs by 25%.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, 80% of the population live in cities, which have grown in recent years, adding distance and complexity to logistics flows.

Furthermore, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) notes in the report The effects of COVID-19 on international trade and logistics that this sector has the challenge of how to protect workers from the risks of contagion and the job precariousness endured by most of them, especially migrants. In the medium term, an urgent task is to integrate urban logistics into transport policies, reducing the number of trips or making them more efficient (for example, through logistical collaboration and the use of means with lower negative impact, such as electromobility).

“COVID-19 opens up an invaluable opportunity to address urban logistics with a closer emphasis, which is still an outstanding debate on policy agendas. Until now, the cargo system has been very flexible, continuously adapting to the needs of businesses and consumers, but we need to rethink the achievements in efficiency in the sector at the expense of precarious economic and labor conditions, environmental impact, regulatory non-compliance or abuse of the informal economy,” said Andrés Alcalá, coordinator of the urban logistics agenda at CAF—development bank of Latin America.

Pilot experiences applied in 6 cities in the region: Fortaleza (Brazil), Cali (Colombia), Quito and Guayaquil (Ecuador) Rosario and Córdoba (Argentina), have been compiled in LOGUS: CAF Strategy in Sustainable and Safe Urban Logistics to offer a series of flexible and adaptable tools, as well as knowledge, diagnostic and application tools that aim to contribute to the process of continuous improvement, which is vital in developing sustainable urban logistics.

Technicians and decision-makers of local and national administrations in the region also have a Public Policy Guide on urban logistics, which contains the main international trends in public policies on urban logistics. This guide has 24 policy briefs citing at least 76 illustrative best practice examples, of which little over 50% are cases in Europe, 37% in Latin America, the rest in the United States and Asia.