Bridging the Last Mile Gap in Qatar: Parcel Delivery Services

E-commerce is a twenty-first century nightmare for parcel delivery companies as the pace of e-commerce growth is exponentially increasing and outmatching the forecasted demand. In the last ten years, the ways of optimizing the last mile parcel delivery process have grabbed academics’ attention. Different innovative ideas and solutions have been proposed; some were applied and were successful and others are still under study. The successful e-commerce and last mile companies all originated from Europe and the United States of America—USA. However, the Middle East region is in the process of developing a logistics infrastructure and improving its traditional services. The aim of this research was to gather all the information related to the last mile that helps in having a holistic idea about the variables that impact the efficiency and effectiveness of the process. The information was gathered from a large review of the literature and the international best practices. In order to understand the local market and the local customers’ needs, semi-structured interviews and an online survey were conducted. The semi-structured interviews were with governmental parcel delivery company from the local market. The company provided an insight on the parcel delivery journey from the receival of the shipment until the delivery. In contrast, the online survey targeted the local customers from all segments and ages. The aim of the survey was to draw up an idea about the customers’ behavior and preferences, to measure their level of awareness on the services provided by the parcel delivery companies, and also to measure their level of satisfaction. Customers’ feedback and opinions on the last mile package delivery services in Qatar was collected to give a better vision on the gaps from the locals’ perspective. The outputs gathered from the literature review, case studies, local market analysis and customers study were used to form a set of enhancement suggestions for the last mile package delivery services companies in the State of Qatar. The proposed enhancements are divided into different phases of application to help in gradual growth. The outcome enhancements of this study can be applied in any Middle Eastern country that matches the culture of the State of Qatar.