Prioritizing sustainable solutions to mitigate risks in drone-based last-mile delivery

The drone integration into last-mile delivery networks presents substantial opportunities for enhancing sustainability and efficiency. However, drone integration into the existing logistics framework presents numerous risks, particularly operational safety and reliability. This study addresses these...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Chandresh Kumbhani, Ravi Kant, Ravi Shankar
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2025-06-01
Series:Sustainable Futures
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Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666188825001066
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Summary:The drone integration into last-mile delivery networks presents substantial opportunities for enhancing sustainability and efficiency. However, drone integration into the existing logistics framework presents numerous risks, particularly operational safety and reliability. This study addresses these gaps by proposing a novel hybrid framework for systematically evaluating and mitigating risks in drone-based sustainable last-mile delivery. This framework incorporates spherical fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (SF-DEMATEL), spherical fuzzy C-means clustering (SFCMC), and spherical fuzzy evaluation based on distance from average solution (SF-EDAS) using the Indian logistics sector as a case study. The results reveal that technical-related risks, customer adoption risks, and government rules and regulatory risks are critical risk clusters for drones in the last-mile delivery applications. Significant DDSs are strict regulations from the government being the most crucial, followed by provide public education and awareness and workforce retraining. Sensitivity and comparative analysis are conducted to validate the robustness of the framework. This approach holds promise for decision-makers, researchers, practitioners, and stakeholders in the drone industry seeking to make informed choices about risk mitigation strategies.
ISSN:2666-1888