An Extended AROMAN Method for Cargo Bike Delivery Concept Selection

Abstract

Nowadays, cargo bikes play a vital role in the last-mile delivery process. Parcel distribution by cargo bikes becomes a more accessible and ecologically friendly solution. This paper addresses the investment decision on the cargo bike delivery concept selection problem. We investigated a better solution in terms of whether the company needs to perform the delivery by investing in its fleet of cargo bikes or renting cargo bikes from a third party. The third solution is to combine those two alternatives. This case considers four criteria: cargo bike procurement cost, cargo bike maintenance cost, return on investment, and financial profitability. To solve this problem, we applied the extended alternative ranking order method accounting two-step normalization (AROMAN) method. The results compared with the MARCOS and ARAS methods confirmed that delivery concept 2 (i.e. renting cargo bikes from third-party providers) represented the best solution for the e-commerce company.