# Assessing the Opportunity Offered by Electric Vehicles in Performing Service Trips to End Consumers
## 2 The Background
### The Service Trips  
The freight movements related to deliveries and pick-ups, including those of e-commerce, have drawn the greatest attention out of these two types of commercial activities (freight and service). This phenomenon is the cause of the current explosion in urban freight publishing, both for shopping (e.g., [15; 16]) and for delivery travels (e.g., [17; 18]). Among these, there are studies focused on emerging technologies [19; 20] or on the use of eco-friendly vehicles [21; 22; 23]. Studies that concentrate on service traffic, however, are less common, and can rely on trip generation [24], trip attraction [25], and parking [26]. Because there is a far smaller percentage of traffic linked to services than there is to freight, these studies are not as common. However, it is a big issue when service traffic is ignored in an urban traffic environment since, despite being less common, it takes up a lot of curbside space due to the longer parking durations needed. According to other studies on the appeal of service trips (e.g., [26]), \"service vehicles generate between 22.7% and 78.4% of the total parking requirements, because of the effects of the duration times, while they only represent 6.32-24.84% of the total commercial traffic\". As previously stated, service trips are not limited to delivering or collecting freight, their primary purpose is performing servicing activities. Service trips can be grouped into four main categories [24; 25]: quotations, installations, planned services, and unplanned/emergency services. However, a further classification can be done according to the type of the service receiver: industry sectors or an end consumer. In fact, among the classes of service trips, it is possible to identify the trips generated by commercial entities associated with service-intensive sectors (SISs), or industry sectors where service activity is the main activity at the commercial establishment [27], and those related to delivering, installing, or maintaining/repairing products for end consumers (both those in private and those in business sectors). In both types of the identified service trips, servicers must travel to the end consumers' locations to perform the service, and those are considered to be commercial trips. Although, within certain limits, current studies point out the service trips occurring due to industry sectors, while very few of the works are on service trips to end consumers. Therefore, this paper wants to contribute to such a topic. As mentioned, despite the unique issues that service trips present, they receive little attention. Although not all of these visits are recurring, some of them can be arranged. Furthermore, they are typically supplied in areas that are both residential and commercial, which presents a number of challenges with regard to parking zone availability [28]. The cause of this parking challenge is the differences in time that correspond to various services (the durations of the services). Moreover, the need for commercial vehicles to park in areas not intended for such operations--such as visitor parking spaces or areas intended for loading and unloading--contributes to the parking issues related to servicing excursions. In actuality, these approaches might not result in solutions for curbside management and the evaluation of parking needs, among the other problems that are impacted by service trip activity, since service trips have not been well described. Additionally, it is becoming increasingly typical for service trips to include the transportation of items, and some excursions involving commodities also entail service activities. It is now more challenging to discern between freight and service trips, as a result. Creating effective parking management solutions requires an understanding of the distinctions between cargo (freight) trips and service trips. Understanding these variations can also help with understanding the other facets of the transport network that are impacted by service trips.