PLANNING DELIVERIES FROM END TO BEGINNING: AN ASSESSMENT METHODOLOGY PROPOSAL FOR BIG CITIES IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES, WITH REAL CASE APPLICATION
Delivering cargo in big cities in developing countries is more difficult than in developed countries, mainly because the infrastructure and traffic conditions are worse. Planning cargo distribution in urban areas is an issue anyway in all populous cities, but it is a critical problem in developing countries. The best technical option may be to use smaller and lighter vehicles in order to impact the traffic less, be more agile, save the environment using cleaner fuel, and also to make it easier to access central areas inside commercial centers. Cost, however, is a fundamental issue in this scenario; delivering cargo with a lot of small trucks can be much more expensive than full truck loads using bigger vehicles, big trucks ask for space and the terrain values and traffic conditions are not favorable for them. It may be important to find a solution to fit each case; but a customized solution slows productivity down and impedes standard policies for cities and the community; it will also be a problem for multinational companies. The proposal of this paper is to present a methodology to apply an assessment before choosing the mode of cargo delivery in the urban area of populous cities in developing countries, thinking from the end of the delivery chain to the beginning, also brings the application to a real case. The target is to create a process to choose between the conventional method, privileging the agility, short storage and small trucks (having the commercial issue as the main focus); or to use cargo consolidation, fewer stops, and larger trucks (having the logistic issue as the main focus).