urban parcel delivery offer. Four types of players are grouped here: the
Post Office and theworld, European and national express providers and
integrators, the historic actors of the mail-order sales sector and their
logistics subsidiaries, and finally, the couriers. Those actors have been
present in the urban express and ordinary parcel B2C or B2B distribution
sector since the seventies and eighties and they occupy a strong
position in the said sector. But since then, they have shown to have
varying degrees of openness to the e-commerce market and different
strategies. In fact, for about ten years their role in the parcel supply
chain evolved under constraints. At first, they were confronted with
the liberalization of themail sector and alsowith the B2C parcel increase
in their supply chains since the beginning of the newcentury. Today the
economic crisis has positioned parcel delivery as a growth area and has
forced themto diversify their offers to consumers. For B2B specialists, as
B2C delivery is a specialized business, subcontracting and partnerships
were preferred at first over creating a dedicated offer. Today, most of
the heirs have integrated the parcel supply chain from outbound to
inbound, with or without subcontractors. As old players in parcel
distribution were faced with new players, they were also obliged to
strengthen their position. For instance, they have refreshed delivery
services thanks to innovation in information and communication
tools. A new organization of the supply chain in cities has been tried
out and vehicle research has been conducted. Subcontracting and
partnerships have also been used to benefit from the new players'
innovations and to keep an eye on them. It is possible that in a few
years, the heirs' role will change again and that they will manage
a group of small innovative start-ups and pickup point networks,
subsidiaries or partners in a leading contractor role or in some sort of
innovation incubator.
Couriers are becoming more essential for parcel distribution and if
same-day and same-hour delivery develops, this may get reinforced.
Some of them have even invested in sustainable vehicles and green
logistics organization. Even if core business of the couriers consists of
delivering parcels from one specific point to another, these actors also
subcontract for express providers in parcel delivery rounds. Although
their carrying capacity is weak, they are reliable because they avoid
congestion (Maes & Vanelslander, 2012). Some of them have grown
thanks to outsourcing and express provider investment, but the majority
are small and fragile, with only one or two bikers on their staff.
The second family refers to firms specialized in urban parcel
delivery, B2C in particular (but not exclusively), which are highly
innovative and environmentally friendly. Pickup point networks,
postal-authorized players, specialized delivery service providers and
players from the e-retail sector have been classified in this way. Even
though we have observed three generations of firms (in France the
first pickup point networkswere born in the eighties, certain specialized
parcel providers were created before 2000, and green parcel delivery
providers recently), most of them are recent creations following the
rise in e-commerce. Most of these new structures, in particular the
specialized delivery service providers, share features which are characteristic
of start-ups as well as an innovative spirit. Since they are new
players, they tackle market niches, providing innovative and highvalue
delivery solutions based on NTIC tools which are dedicated to
the last-mile. Another characteristic is related to the innovation in
vehicles and logistics organization, linked with a commitment to
sustainability. Most of these firms are subcontractors in the parcel
supply chain. Because of the market niche strategy founded on fragile
business models and the difficulties of subcontracting, their activities
appear to be a risky investment and up to now, they deliver fewparcels.
Another generation of new players could appear in the next few
years. Players from e-retail could enter the parcel transport sector,
becoming freight forwarders by direct outsourcing to various parcel
providers or providing last-mile delivery solutions. As an example,
Amazon has provided a parcel locker network in the UK and even a
delivery service with its own fleet in the North American parcel market
and has invested financially in the French operator Colis Privé. Moreover
Internet portals providing access to networks of city couriers
quickly available for a delivery run have emerged thanks to the ever
increasing express companies, such as the same-hour delivery UK firm
Shutl, or the German firm Tiramizoo.
The third family is more heterogeneous. The so-called other logistics
providers, i.e. carriers usually delivering heavy goods and pallets, and
logistics providers specializing in the upstream activities of the supply
chain, logistics or heavy freight, experienced a growing volume of ecommerce
and B2C freight because of the commercial strategies of
their clients. Consequently they decided to provide additional services
targeting B2C urban parcel flows. For a few years, urban parcel delivery
has become a secondary growth activity, as an opportunistic and recent
strategy. In the same way, as urban logistics issues have become a
commercial opportunity, some players provide a dedicated service for
urban areas. In some cases partnerships have been signed with lastmile
delivery specialists.
We add sub-contractors to that group because those actors have
appeared to be essential for parcel last-mile distribution from the very
beginning, and this seems to be getting reinforced. Players interviewed
in the French CEP sector have given some figures which are highly
representative of the relevance of this category of players: it represents
50% of UPS activity in Paris, 95% to 100% of Geodis in Paris, and 80% of
the activity of Chronopost. The development of e-commerce and the
increasing number of deliveries, reinforce the use of sub-contractors
for the final delivery. Among other explanations, the high cost of
urban delivery, the flexibility and seasonality of flows, and the delivery
and regulatory constraints in cities, explain why some actors subcontract
to others. It appears that the denser and more constraining
the city is, the more subcontracting there is (Dablanc, 2009). The same
seems to be true regarding the size of the city. In the present type of
classification we focus on carriers who are purely subcontractors, that
is to say who provide the final delivery or afternoon pickup in its pure