Out-of-home delivery in last-mile logistics: A review

In light of labor shortages, rising fuel costs, and thin profit margins, providers of last-mile delivery services face a mounting pressure to innovate. One avenue to more efficient last-mile operations is the incorporation of out-ofhome delivery (OOHD) services. OOHD, i.e., the delivery to parcel shops and parcel lockers, instead of customers' homes, offers manifold advantages, including the consolidation of customers into a single delivery location and a reduction in the number of failed delivery attempts. In the past five years, the number of scientific publications dealing with optimization problems in the context of OOHD has increased rapidly. In this survey, we assess the various opportunities for optimization in OOHD-based concepts for last mile logistics. Categorizing their manifold aspects, we provide a classification of problem components and point out key challenges. We then present comprehensive overviews of the literature for all three major decision types (facility location, vehicle routing, location routing). Finally, we extensively discuss gaps in the current literature and indicate directions for future research.