Research on Last-Mile Crowdshipping: Identification of Barriers Impacting Willingness-To-Work as a Crowdshipper Across Diverse Groups and Countries

Abstract

Last-mile crowdshipping or crowdsourcing refers to using a crowd of individuals to perform the last-mile distribution. This delivery model has gained attention due to its many advantages. However, it also poses some challenges, and one of the greatest is providing a critical mass of crowdshippers (deliverers). This research focuses on last-mile crowdshippers, examining the impact of previously unexplored barriers on their Willingness-To-Work (WTW). Drawing from a comprehensive review of the literature on crowdshipper preferences and practical implementation challenges of crowdshipping, an extensive list of barriers was compiled. Then, the significance of these barriers on the WTW of two key crowdshipper groups (employees and students) was analysed through surveys conducted in the Czech Republic, Slovenia, and Ukraine and the fuzzy ranking method was applied. This method was also used to assess the influence of respondents’ sociodemographic characteristics on their perception of the importance of individual barriers on WTW as a crowdshipper. The research aims to identify significant barriers hindering the likelihood of individuals becoming last-mile crowdshippers in each country and assess potential differences or similarities among these factors across the selected countries and countries included in past research. These insights are beneficial for individual package providers and contribute to developing efficient crowdshipper targeting, retention business models, and management strategies.