Deliveries within cities and urban areas generally constitute the majority of the last-mile section of goods transportation. This is an area as part of the supply chain where autonomous technology is prime to tackle the challenges of the last mile delivery which at times exceed 50% of the supply chain costs. Several start-ups for Autonomous Ground Vehicles (AGVs) have been targeting this last mile delivery to complete the final piece of the Business to Consumer segment. A study by McKinsey in 2016 hypothesized that in the future autonomous vehicles, consisting of AGVs, drones, and potentially droids, could deliver 80 percent of all parcels. There are several solutions currently in development or trial phase such as Eliport, Hugo, Kiwibot, and Nuro.
The autonomous technology for last mile delivery is still in early stages of implementation and it is likely many of the possible impacts may evolve in future. The possible proliferation of autonomous technology in the last mile delivery space may have a wide range of impacts on real estate such as:
- Single family / multi-family homes starting to include a secure delivery drop off area like their mailbox
- Retailers may adjust their operations where traditional brick and mortar stores can hold less inventory in stock and focus more on the customer showroom / sale experience
- Commercial offices adjusting their back of house operations with a more autonomous servicing strategy
In the longer term the focus on last mile delivery as the final piece of the supply chain process may start to affect other real estate assets in the future.
