E-commerce Impacts on Oregon Household Level Deliveries, Trips, and VMT

Miguel Andres Figliozzi, Portland State University

Summary:

The last decade saw double-digit growth of e-commerce sales, both in the US and Oregon, which translates to more delivery vehicles on the roads to meet this demand. However, there is no observed data available to determine the net impacts on system use for this rapidly expanding sector. It is unknown what the total number of miles driven by delivery vehicles is, nor how e-commerce impacts household miles traveled. The lack of data in this area prompts several questions, including:  
• How much is being delivered? To what degree have household trips been replaced by deliveries? What is being delivered, food, goods, groceries, remote-work items, and how often?  
• What is the impact to VMT? Is there a net decrease in household travel due to reduced household trips or a net increase due to additional deliveries?  
• What are the Equity Impacts? To what extent is e-commerce expanding shopping opportunities to households with less accessibility to goods and services?  Is e-commerce expanding opportunity to lower income households, potential home-based businesses, are impacts different across rural, suburban, and urban areas?

Funder: Oregon Department of Transportation

Project Details

Project Type:
Research
Project Status:
In Progress
End Date:
September 15,2025
UTC Grant Cycle:
non-UTC project