Last Mile Vehicle Fleet Management in Humanitarian Operations

The need for humanitarian action is increasing and it is expected to rise significantly in the years to come. With most of their operations in emerging economies, international humanitarian organizations face serious challenges to deliver the right goods and services to the right people at the right time and at the right cost. Transportation, the second largest overhead cost to international humanitarian organizations after personnel, offers interesting research opportunities to improve operational efficiency. We study vehicle fleet management in humanitarian logistics focused on 4x4 vehicles, the most widely used asset in last mile distribution. By using a multiple case study research design, our field research studies the last mile fleet management model in four of the largest international humanitarian organizations, including the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the World Food Programme. Based on 40 interviews from humanitarian organizations and over 30 interviews from service providers, this research identifies the main factors affecting last mile fleet management and its impact on last mile distribution. One of the common issues affecting large international humanitarian organizations is vehicle replacement. The standard policy sets replacement of 4x4 vehicles every 5 years or 150,000 Km, whichever comes first. Using field data collected at the ICRC headquarters and national level we study the standard replacement policy. Our results suggest that the organization can make considerable savings by adjusting its replacement policy. Our pioneer field work contributes to establish the basis of research of fleet management in humanitarian operations.