---
title: "Last-mile delivery research: papers and trends"
description: "From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “last-mile delivery” appeared in 752 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in operations research (595), AI (52) and economics (48)."
url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/last-mile-delivery
markdown_url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/last-mile-delivery.md
license: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)
share_text: "From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “last-mile delivery” appeared in 752 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in operations research (595), AI (52) and economics (48). (as of 2026-11-03)"
data_url: https://scholar4ai.com/data/rankings.json
updated: 2026-11-03T18:03:37+09:00
window: 2026-10-05 to 2026-11-03
source: OpenAlex (CC0)
---

# Papers on “last-mile delivery”

Research on “last-mile delivery” in the 480 tracked journals: papers per year and category, the journals, institutions and countries publishing it, the keywords studied with it and its most-cited papers. It is not among the most frequent keywords of the last 30 days, so this page has no list of its latest papers.

Back to the ranking: https://scholar4ai.com/rankings/keywords.md

## Key findings

- From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “last-mile delivery” appeared in 752 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in operations research (595), AI (52) and economics (48).
- 130 of them were published in 2025, against 22 in 2017.
- Since 2023, the institutions with the most of these papers were Hong Kong Polytechnic University (22), Eindhoven University of Technology (10) and Nanyang Technological University (10).
- The journals publishing most of them were Transportation Research Part E Logistics and Transportation Review (91), Computers & Industrial Engineering (51) and Transportation Research Part C Emerging Technologies (39).
- The most-cited of them is “Last-mile delivery concepts: a survey from an operational research perspective” (OR Spectrum, 2020), with 631 citations.

## Papers per year

*Papers per publication year and category*

| Category | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 (so far) |
|---|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|
| [Operations Research](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/operations-research.md) | 16 | 13 | 28 | 36 | 57 | 58 | 82 | 76 | 108 | 121 |
| [AI](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/ai.md) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 10 | 12 | 7 | 8 |
| [Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/economics.md) | 4 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 5 | 9 | 12 | 7 |
| [Marketing](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/marketing.md) | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 6 |
| [Information Systems](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/information-systems.md) | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 7 |
| [Management](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/management.md) | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| [Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/finance.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| [Statistics](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/statistics.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| All categories | 22 | 15 | 39 | 39 | 75 | 68 | 104 | 107 | 130 | 153 |

## Where the papers come from

*Journals with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Journal | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [Transportation Research Part E Logistics and Transportation Review](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/transportation-research-part-e-logistics-and-transportation-review.md) | 91 |
| 2 | [Computers & Industrial Engineering](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/computers-industrial-engineering.md) | 51 |
| 3 | [Transportation Research Part C Emerging Technologies](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/transportation-research-part-c-emerging-technologies.md) | 39 |
| 4 | [Research in Transportation Business & Management](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/research-in-transportation-business-management.md) | 33 |
| 5 | [European Journal of Operational Research](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/european-journal-of-operational-research.md) | 32 |
| 6 | [Expert Systems with Applications](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/expert-systems-with-applications.md) | 31 |
| 7 | [Computers & Operations Research](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/computers-operations-research.md) | 28 |
| 8 | [Research in Transportation Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/research-in-transportation-economics.md) | 23 |
| 9 | [Transportation Research Part A Policy and Practice](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/transportation-research-part-a-policy-and-practice.md) | 21 |
| 10 | [Annals of Operations Research](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/annals-of-operations-research.md) | 19 |

*Institutions with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Institution | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [Hong Kong Polytechnic University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/hong-kong-polytechnic-university.md) | 22 |
| 2 | [Eindhoven University of Technology](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/eindhoven-university-of-technology.md) | 10 |
| 3 | [Nanyang Technological University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/nanyang-technological-university.md) | 10 |
| 4 | [Tongji University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/tongji-university.md) | 10 |
| 5 | Centre interuniversitaire de recherche sur les réseaux d'entreprise, la logistique et le transport | 9 |
| 6 | [Delft University of Technology](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/delft-university-of-technology.md) | 9 |
| 7 | [Massachusetts Institute of Technology](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/massachusetts-institute-of-technology.md) | 9 |
| 8 | [Southwest Jiaotong University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/southwest-jiaotong-university.md) | 8 |
| 9 | [The University of Melbourne](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/the-university-of-melbourne.md) | 8 |
| 10 | Chung-Ang University | 7 |

*Countries with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Country | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | China | 132 |
| 2 | United States | 87 |
| 3 | Italy | 36 |
| 4 | Netherlands | 35 |
| 5 | United Kingdom | 34 |
| 6 | Canada | 28 |
| 7 | Germany | 28 |
| 8 | France | 28 |
| 9 | Hong Kong | 27 |
| 10 | Australia | 25 |

*Keywords with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Keyword | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [vehicle routing](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/vehicle-routing.md) | 69 |
| 2 | drone delivery | 66 |
| 3 | [mixed-integer linear programming](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/mixed-integer-linear-programming.md) | 54 |
| 4 | time windows | 53 |
| 5 | urban logistics | 51 |
| 6 | adaptive large neighborhood search | 47 |
| 7 | e-commerce logistics | 40 |
| 8 | parcel lockers | 33 |
| 9 | package delivery | 30 |

## Most-cited papers

*Most-cited papers since 2017*

| # | Citations | Per month | Title | Journal | Published | Authors |
|---:|---:|---:|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 631 | 8.6 | [Last-mile delivery concepts: a survey from an operational research perspective](https://doi.org/10.1007/s00291-020-00607-8) | [OR Spectrum](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/or-spectrum.md) | 2020-09-21 | Nils Boysen, Stefan Fedtke, Stefan Schwerdfeger |
| 2 | 627 | 5.9 | [On the min-cost Traveling Salesman Problem with Drone](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trc.2017.11.015) | [Transportation Research Part C Emerging Technologies](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/transportation-research-part-c-emerging-technologies.md) | 2017-12-22 | Quang Minh Ha, Yves Deville, Quang Dung Pham et al. |
| 3 | 579 | 6.2 | [The Multiple Flying Sidekicks Traveling Salesman Problem: Parcel Delivery with Multiple Drones](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trc.2019.11.003) | [Transportation Research Part C Emerging Technologies](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/transportation-research-part-c-emerging-technologies.md) | 2019-01-01 | Chase C. Murray, Ritwik Raj |
| 4 | 573 | 6.3 | [An adaptive large neighborhood search metaheuristic for the vehicle routing problem with drones](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trc.2019.02.018) | [Transportation Research Part C Emerging Technologies](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/transportation-research-part-c-emerging-technologies.md) | 2019-03-22 | David Sacramento, David Pisinger, Stefan Røpke |
| 5 | 530 | 7.2 | [Drone-aided routing: A literature review](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trc.2020.102762) | [Transportation Research Part C Emerging Technologies](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/transportation-research-part-c-emerging-technologies.md) | 2020-09-07 | Giusy Macrina, Luigi Di Puglia Pugliese, Francesca Guerriero et al. |

## Research ideas that follow this keyword

- [Parcel lockers and the last mile](https://scholar4ai.com/ideas/parcel-lockers-and-the-last-mile.md)
- [The cost curve of drone delivery](https://scholar4ai.com/ideas/cost-curve-of-drone-delivery.md)

## Cite this page

Scholar4AI. (2026). Papers on “last-mile delivery”. Journal and Conference Research Rankings. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/last-mile-delivery

```bibtex
@misc{scholar4ai-keywords-last-mile-delivery,
  author = {{Scholar4AI}},
  title = {Papers on “last-mile delivery”},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/last-mile-delivery}},
  urldate = {2026-11-03},
  note = {Journal and Conference Research Rankings; data from OpenAlex (CC0); licensed CC BY-NC 4.0}
}
```

License: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).