How does e-commerce affect road traffic?

As more products are purchased online, the volume of parcel transport is increasing. Through desk studies, interviews and data collection, Artelia has analysed how this may affect road traffic. The analysis encompasses everything from the number of e-packages and e-commerce logistics chains to driving patterns for delivery. Thus, we have followed the journey of the packages to the end customer.

We found that approximately 107 million e-packages were delivered in Denmark in 2015, and that they were distrib-uted by 5,000 to 7,000 delivery vans. The impact of e-commerce was found to be the greatest on traffic in and around the largest cities, where the consumption is concentrated. However, although the analysis shows that the increase in traffic may be of some significance, it is not expected to have a decisive impact on the infrastructure.

Future trends
E-commerce is expected to double by 2020, and one of the factors that one should be aware of is customer behaviour. Because the impact on traffic can be controlled by the suppliers’ ability to combine packages in to larger deliveries and fewer runs. This is one aspect that is greatly influenced by customer demand for short delivery times and preferences with respect to the delivery methods.

E-commerce for groceries is a bit of a joker here. The delivery vans can only carry relatively few deliveries, and there is a high level of competition with respect to time frames and fast deliveries. However, although e-commerce is generally popular with Danish consumers, we do not see the same trend for groceries at all.