Does courier gender matter? Exploring mode choice behaviour for E-groceries crowd-shipping in developing economies

TL;DR

This study investigates how gender influences mode choice and detour behavior among occasional couriers in crowd-shipping for online groceries in Kharkiv, Ukraine, revealing gender-specific preferences and sensitivities in route adjustments.

Contribution

It provides novel insights into gender heterogeneity in crowd-shipping mode choice behavior using behavioral surveys and discrete choice modeling in a developing economy context.

Findings

Women accept lower pay for CS services.

Women make longer detours by car and metro.

Men are willing to detour more when biking or walking.

Abstract

This paper examines the mode choice behaviour of people who may act as occasional couriers to provide crowd-shipping (CS) deliveries. Given its recent increase in popularity, online grocery services have become the main market for crowd-shipping deliveries' provider. The study included a behavioural survey, PTV Visum simulations and discrete choice behaviour modelling based on random utility maximization theory. Mode choice behaviour was examined by considering the gender heterogeneity of the occasional couriers in a multimodal urban transport network. The behavioural dataset was collected in the city of Kharkiv, Ukraine, at the beginning of 2021. The results indicated that women were willing to provide CS service with 8% less remuneration than men. Women were also more likely to make 10% longer detours by car and metro than men, while male couriers were willing to implement 25% longer detours when travelling by bike or walking. Considering the integration of CS detours into the couriers' routine trip chains, women couriers were more likely to attach the CS trip to the work-shopping trip chain whilst men would use the home-home evening time trip chain. The estimated marginal probability effect indicated a higher detour time sensitivity with respect to expected profit and the relative detour costs of the couriers.