Does Crowdshipping of Parcels Generate New Passenger Trips? Evidence from the Netherlands

Abstract

Crowdsourced shipping or crowdshipping is a promising solution to sustainable parcel delivery, owing to the potential to consolidate freight trips with preexisting passenger trips. Previous literature focuses on these consolidation benefits but does not address the possibility of new activity generation in crowdshipping. In this study, we investigate the willingness of private persons to accept shipments based on a newly generated home-based trip. We compare this to the choices of occasional carriers who build on the daily home–work commute to deliver parcels. Two stated preference experiments are conducted and a multinomial logit choice model and a latent class choice model are employed. These allow us to provide values of time of the occasional carriers, as an original contribution to the literature. The results show that commute-based carrier values of time are higher than those of home-based carriers. Concerning the trip generating power of crowdshipping, we find that low-income groups have a relatively high propensity to generate a home-based pickup and delivery trip. Finally, parcel lockers as delivery points positively influence acceptance of crowdshipping requests, as they allow for more flexibility in delivery times. Together, these results support the notion that crowdshipping can act as a potential trip generator in households.