Evaluating Barriers and Enablers of Willingness-To-Work as a Crowdshipper – A Comparison of Business-To-Business and Business-To-Customer Models from a Slovenian Perspective

Patricija BAJEC; Eva PODOVŠOVNIK

doi:10.7307/ptt.v37i2.916

Authors

Patricija BAJEC University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Maritime Studies and Transport
Eva PODOVŠOVNIK University of Primorska, Faculty of Tourism Studies – Turistica

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7307/ptt.v37i2.916

Keywords:

last-mile delivery, crowdshipper, willingness-to-work, barriers, enablers, business-to-business/customer

Abstract

Crowdshipping has garnered increasing interest due to its potential benefits for various stakeholders. However, despite challenges in attracting crowdshippers, limited research explores their preferences, including socio-demographic factors and the practical challenges providers face when testing or implementing crowdshipping. This study aims to identify key factors influencing willingness-to-work (WTW) among potential crowdshippers, both in general and within business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-customer (B2C) contexts. Based on the literature review, this paper identifies 19 barriers influencing WTW and develops 22 corresponding enablers to address these barriers. Using a survey of 432 participants from Slovenia, the overall significance of these factors without differentiating business models was first assessed. Then, chi-squared automatic interaction detection analysis was applied to predict WTW in B2B and B2C contexts, identifying variations across these models. The disclosure of a mobile number emerged as the most influential predictor in both settings. Other notable differences in enablers and barriers were observed depending on the business model. These findings emphasise the need to consider business models in future preference analyses and provide a foundation for targeted recruitment strategies for crowdshippers.

References

Tokar T, Williams BD, Fugate BS. I heart logistics—just don’t ask me to pay for it: online shopper behavior in response to a delivery carrier upgrade and subsequent shipping charge increase. Journal of Business Logistics, 2020;41(3):182-205. DOI: 10.1111/jbl.12239.

Straight B. Survey reveals strategies for addressing supply chain, logistics labor shortages. Supply Chain Management Review. 2024, Peerless Media.

Harrington L. Change at the Speed of the Customer: How E-commerce is Accelerating Logistics Innovations. 2019.

Ciobotaru G, Chankov S. Towards a taxonomy of crowdsourced delivery business models. International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management. 2021. DOI: 10.1108/IJPDLM-10-2019-0326.

Carbone V, Rouquet A, Roussat C. The rise of crowd logistics: A new way to co‐create logistics value. Journal of Business Logistics. 2017;38(4):238-252. DOI: 10.1111/jbl.12164.

Punel A, Stathopoulos A. Modeling the acceptability of crowdsourced goods deliveries: Role of context and experience effects. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review. 2017;105:18-38. DOI: 10.1016/j.tre.2017.06.007.

Frehe V, Mehmann J, Teuteberg T. Understanding and assessing crowd logistics business models–using everyday people for last mile delivery. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing. 2017. DOI: 10.1108/JBIM-10-2015-0182.

Mladenow A, Bauer C, Strauss C. Crowdsourcing in logistics: Concepts and applications using the social crowd. in Proceedings of the 17th international conference on information integration and web-based applications & services. 2015; DOI: 10.1145/2837185.2837242.

Pourrahmani E, Jaller M. Crowdshipping in last mile deliveries: Operational challenges and research opportunities. Socio-Economic Planning Sciences. 2021;78:101063. DOI: 10.1016/j.seps.2021.101063.

Samad TA, Ganguly KK. Das D. Towards a framework for the development of crowd cogistics: Paving the way for sustainable logistics. Computers & Industrial Engineering. 2023;109008. DOI: 10.1016/j.cie.2023.109008.

Punel A, Ermagun A, Stathopoulos A. Studying determinants of crowd-shipping use. Travel Behaviour and Society. 2018;12:30-40. DOI: 10.1016/j.tbs.2018.03.005.

Ballare S, Lin J. Investigating the use of microhubs and crowdshipping for last mile delivery. Transportation Research Procedia. 2020;46:277-284. DOI: 10.1016/j.trpro.2020.03.191.

Bathke H, Münch C. From occasional to active crowdshippers: The significance of couriers’ characteristics. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management. 2023; DOI: 10.1109/TEM.2023.3244422.

Le TV, Ukkusuri SV. Crowd-shipping services for last mile delivery: Analysis from survey data in two countries. arXiv preprint arXiv:1810.02856, 2018. DOI: 10.48550/arXiv.1810.02856.

Buldeo Rai H, et al. Can the crowd deliver? Analysis of crowd logistics' types and stakeholder support. City Logistics 3: Towards sustainable and liveable cities. 2018;89-108. DOI: 10.1002/9781119425472.

Miller J, Nie Y, Stathopoulos A. Crowdsourced urban package delivery: Modeling traveller willingness to work as crowdshippers. Transportation Research Record. 2017;2610(1):67-75. DOI: 10.3141/2610-08.

Gatta V, et al. Sustainable urban freight transport adopting public transport-based crowdshipping for B2C deliveries. European Transport Research Review. 2019;11(1):1-14. DOI: 10.1186/s12544-019-0352-x.

Le TV, Ukkusuri SV. Crowd-shipping services for last mile delivery: Analysis from American survey data. Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives. 2019;1:100008. DOI: 10.1016/j.trip.2019.100008.

Le TV, Ukkusuri SV. Influencing factors that determine the usage of the crowd-shipping services. Transportation Research Record. 2019;2673(7):550-566. DOI: 10.1177/0361198119843098.

Le TV, Ukkusuri SV. Modeling the willingness to work as crowd-shippers and travel time tolerance in emerging logistics services. Travel Behaviour and Society. 2019;15:123-132. DOI: 10.1016/j.tbs.2019.02.001.

Le TV, et al. Supply, demand, operations, and management of crowd-shipping services: A review and empirical evidence. Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies. 2019;103:83-103. DOI: 10.1016/j.trc.2019.03.023.

Wicaksono S, Lin X, Tavasszy TA. Market potential of bicycle crowdshipping: A two-sided acceptance analysis. Research in Transportation Business & Management. 2022;45:100660. DOI: 10.1016/j.rtbm.2021.100660.

Paloheimo H, Lettenmeier M, Waris H. Transport reduction by crowdsourced deliveries–a library case in Finland. Journal of Cleaner Production. 2016;132:240-251. DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.04.103.

Mordey SD, Kolb N. Crowdshipping: Willingness to act as crowdshippers in Oslo. 2021, Høgskolen i Molde-Vitenskapelig høgskole i logistikk: Molde. p. 149.

Neudoerfer F, Mladenow A, Strauss C. Urban crowd-logistics-monetary compensation and willingness to work as occasional driver. Procedia Computer Science. 2021;184:508-515. DOI: 10.1016/j.procs.2021.03.064.

Serafini S, et al. Sustainable crowdshipping using public transport: A case study evaluation in Rome. Transportation Research Procedia. 2018;30:101-110. DOI: 10.1016/j.trpro.2018.09.012.

Upadhyay CK, Tiwari V. Generation “Z” willingness to participate in crowdshipping services to achieve sustainable last-mile delivery in the emerging market. International Journal of Emerging Markets. 2022. DOI: 10.1108/IJOEM-09-2021-1345.

Fessler A, et al. A public transport-based crowdshipping concept as a sustainable last-mile solution: Assessing user preferences with a stated choice experiment. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice. 2022;158:210-223. DOI: 10.1016/j.tra.2022.02.005.

Marcucci E, et al. Connected shared mobility for passengers and freight: Investigating the potential of crowdshipping in urban areas. in 2017 5th IEEE International Conference on Models and Technologies for Intelligent Transportation Systems (MT-ITS). 2017; IEEE. DOI: 10.1109/MTITS.2017.8005629.

Dietmann K, Limbourg S. Crowdshipping the last-mile delivery - an empirical investigation into the crowd's willingness to participate as crowdshipping drivers. HEC-School of Management of the University of Liège. 2020; University of Liège, Liège, Belgium: Liege. p. 70.

Galkin A, et al. Attitudes of Bratislava citizens to be a crowd-shipping non-professional courier. Transportation Research Procedia. 2021;55:152-158. DOI: 10.1016/j.trpro.2021.06.016.

Kourounioti I, et al. Matching supply and demand in crowdshipping: 1 A theoretical framework 2. network. 2021;14:15.

Karli H, Savas S, Tanyas M. Adoption of Crowdsourced Delivery: An Online Focus Group Interview. Akıllı Ulaşım Sistemleri ve Uygulamaları Dergisi. 2022;5(1):70-85. DOI: 10.51513/jitsa.1079504.

Nguyen N, et al. Crowdshippers’ intentions to continue participating in last-mile delivery: A study in Vietnam. The Asian Journal of Shipping and Logistics. 2023.

Tapia RJ, et al. A disaggregate model of passenger-freight matching in crowdshipping services. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice. 2023;169:103587. DOI: 10.1016/j.tra.2023.103587.

Devari A, Nikolaev AG, He Q. Crowdsourcing the last mile delivery of online orders by exploiting the social networks of retail store customers. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review. 2017;105:105-122. DOI: 10.1016/j.tre.2017.06.011.

Gläser S, Jahnke H, Strassheim N. Opportunities and challenges of crowd logistics on the last mile for courier, express and parcel service providers–a literature review. International Journal of Logistics Research and Applications. 2023;26(8):1006-1034. DOI: 10.1080/13675567.2021.2005005.

Mehmood A, et al. Stakeholder engagement and SDGs: The role of social media in the European context. EuroMed Journal of Business. 2023;18(1):111-128. DOI: 10.1108/EMJB-11-2021-0173.

Subhan F, et al. Understanding and modelling willingness-to-pay for public policies to enhance road safety: A perspective from Pakistan. Transport Policy. 2023. DOI: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2023.07.016.

Borsje R, Hiemstra-van Mastrigt S. Veeneman W. Assessing passenger preferences for Bus Rapid Transit characteristics: A discrete choice experiment among current and potential Dutch passengers. Research in Transportation Economics. 2023;100:101307. DOI: 10.1016/j.retrec.2023.101307.

Nascimento C.d.O.L, Gatta V, Marcucci E. Green Crowdshipping: Critical factors from a business perspective. Research in Transportation Business & Management. 2023;51:101062. DOI: 10.1016/j.rtbm.2023.101062.

Svadlenka L, Півторак Г, Vrba R. Research of the potential opportunities of crowdshipping: The case study of Ukraine and the Czech Republic. MATEC Web of Conferences. 2024. 390. DOI: 10.1051/matecconf/202439001010

Hutter L, Neumann S. Crowdshopping: An empirical analysis of a novel concept for grocery shopping. Available at SSRN 4459488, 2023.

Kamińska M, Zowada K. Sharing economy as a tool of low-carbon logistics. Papers of Silesian University of Technology. Organization & Management/Zeszyty Naukowe Politechniki Slaskiej. Seria Organizacji i Zarzadzanie. 2023(181). DOI: 10.29119/1641-3466.2023.181.15.