## 5 New Opportunities for Design and Development of Innovative Last Mile Logistics
### Advanced LML Services with New Delivery Techniques  
As we discussed in Section 4.4, LML delivery services in urban areas will accelerate technological innovation due to the extensive use of unmanned vehicles, CAVs, UAVs or drones, EVs, automated lockers, real-time data transmission systems, dynamic route planning systems, tracking devices, and identification means or devices. These can provide more opportunities for application of new delivery techniques in LML including the following areas: \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{p{142.3 pt} p{142.3 pt} p{142.3 pt}} \hline \hline
**LML-Related Issue** & **Research Finding** & **Reference** \\ \hline Limitations of traditional truck- or van-based last mile delivery services & Service transition from truck- or van-based goods delivery to drone-assisted delivery in urban areas & [82] \\ \hline Transition to innovative and environme-delivery last mile delivery services & Social costs of home delivery due to increased delivery traffic flows in residential areas & [83] \\ \hline Transition to innovative and environme-delivery last mile delivery services using advanced vehicle technologies & Possibility that UAVs or drones can carry heavier goods while hovering & [22] \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 6: LML-related issues and research findings: Delivery technology innovation. * Smart scheduling and urban consolidation through new delivery technologies: The innovative and advanced delivery technologies will lead to new methods of boosting effective LML delivery services. Several Industry 4.0 solutions for LML delivery services can be actualized from advanced techniques for enabling smart scheduling and developing real-time stochastic optimization models [1]. Furthermore, the construction of consolidation centers in urban areas can improve urban LML delivery services with micro consolidation and distribution centers [84]. These overarching trends are expected to continue into the future of urban LML delivery systems. * Improvement in operations of new delivery techniques: UAVs or drones will dominate LML delivery services in a few years. For instance, many global logistics powerhouses have already initiated drone-assisted delivery services for food and industrial products. Consumer goods represent finished products that are sold to and consumed by people, in general, whereas industrial products are materials used in the production of other commodities. Industrial products are purchased and used for both industrial and commercial purposes. They consist of machinery, manufacturing plants, raw materials, and any other commodity or component that is used by industries or businesses. Similarly, the surge in adoption of new delivery techniques, including drone taxis and small/large drones, will prominently attract a lot of attention in LML-related markets in the near future. Another promising opportunity to enhance urban LML delivery services will be realized by diversifying LML delivery channels with EVs, which is also an environmentally-friendly delivery service. However, potential issues associated with using EVs are their short drive distance, which is generally less than 150-200 miles per charge, and long recharging time of batteries compared to their internal combustion engine counterparts. Along with these issues, the LML industry also needs to improve the performance of solid-state batteries (e.g., lithium-ion and sodium-ion solid-state batteries) and recharging technologies with lower installation costs [93]. * Development of optimization models for last mile delivery operations using new advanced techniques: Owing to the commercialization of new advanced techniques and the need for innovative last mile delivery services, there are many delivery routing problems which require resolution within a short time period [94], e.g., modified VRPs or extended traveling salesman problems in LML using drones [95; 96; 97; 98; 91], autonomous vehicles [99], robots [92; 92], and drone-robot integration [100]. Ref.