BY DAVID MALONEY, EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
THE DC VELOCITY Q&A
thoughtleaders
For businesses that make city deliveries, the challenge isn’t so much the last mile
as the last 50 feet, starting with the battle for parking space. Barbara Ivanov
and her team at the Urban Freight Lab are looking for ways to ease the pain.
INTERVIEW WITH BARBARA IVANOV
WE’VE ALL HEARD THAT THE LAST MILE IS THE
most expensive part of the shipping process. That’s due to
the labor, time, and fuel required to move smaller quantities of items to multiple destinations compared with moving them in bulk.
But the most challenging, and typically most inefficient,
part of the process is the actual delivery itself—the final 50
feet, where the driver must park the vehicle and attempt to
deposit the package with its recipient. And nowhere is that
more challenging than in crowded urban environments,
where drivers must contend with limited street parking,
Is there a more efficient way to make these deliveries?
That is the question that Barbara Ivanov ponders each
day. An expert on urban goods delivery and public
freight systems, Ivanov is the director of the University of
Washington’s Urban Freight Lab, a group that’s investigat-
ing high-impact, low-cost solutions for businesses deliv-
ering goods in urban settings and cities trying to manage
limited street parking in areas where delivery trucks,
bicycles, pedestrians, and cars must all coexist. She talk-
ed recently with DC VELOCITY Editorial Director David
Solving the final 50 feet
