Analysts from the University of California (UC) Davis ITS Institute for Transportation Research modeled how the rising popularity of same day delivery might translate to more delivery trucks on our roads and more greenhouse gases in our skies.
Not surprisingly, the faster a company races to deliver a package, the more likely it is to send inefficient, near empty trucks to far flung homes. The Institute for Transportation Research discovered that the average vehicle miles traveled for a package that was delivered in an hour or less was seven times higher than for a package delivered in as little as 24 hours.
According to Happy Returns, 15% to 40% of all items purchased online are returned while only 5% to 10% of in-store purchases are returned! These online returns create additional vehicle miles traveled and, according to the Institute, has climate effects that are becoming devastating. The study reports there is mounting evidence that rush delivery is contributing to traffic violence, congestion, and climate change.
A 2019 investigation found that Amazon drivers had been involved in at least 60 car crashes across the country since 2015. While 60 car crashes in four years is not high, some experts conclude that was likely only a fraction of the collisions that have occurred because “many people don’t sue and those who do, cannot always tell when Amazon is involved.”
According to a New York Times investigation, they found that the average number of daily deliveries to a home in New York City had tripled between 2009 and 2017. Trucks in New York City deliver more than 1.1 million boxes every day and experts believe that rush delivery alone accounted for a 23% rise in travel times in the busiest parts of Manhattan.
These very studies seem to blame Amazon for increased accidents, increased violence, increased vehicle miles traveled, and increased global warming. While Amazon has ordered 100,000 electric delivery vans to electrify its delivery fleet, that alone will not do anything to make our roads less congested and dangerous or to make our world less car dependent.
In another study, UC Davis researchers found that if half of city residents used a grocery delivery service, it would reduce vehicle miles traveled by up to 20%.
But, according to the study, therein lies the problem – the closer we get to a fully online retail situation, the closer we get to a dystopia in which neighborhood shops and groceries are eliminated in favor of windowless warehouses. For many, during the pandemic, these windowless warehouses have really been a lifesaver.