Last-Mile Warehousing and Fulfillment Development in North Carolina: Safety, Traffic, and Quality of Life Impacts

Expansion of e-commerce, especially throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, has rapidly changed the way goods reach customers’ homes. As the volume of parcels has surged (from 15.4 billion in 2019 to 21.7 billion in 2021), e-commerce companies like Amazon continue to expand their logistics footprint to match demand by building warehousing and fulfillment centers. This development reflects an industry shift from a national distribution model to a regional model, which positions a wider array of goods closer to North Carolina’s population centers. While this shift enables faster, cheaper shipping of goods to customers, it entails substantial impacts on transportation patterns, infrastructure use, safety, and quality of life. For example, locating facilities closer to population centers means increased volumes of linehaul transport, delivery vans, and employee traffic in areas previously unaccustomed to these uses. Moreover, there is concern over illegal overnight truck parking on state roads, as these facilities attract trucks but do not provide overnight parking for trucking. This project will: a) examine current development approval processes for warehousing in North Carolina; and b) analyze and document the impacts that these developments are having on traffic volumes, safety, and quality of life. The research team addresses these goals specifically by examining emerging siting patterns, development/approval processes, traffic volume and crash data, and impacts on surrounding communities of fulfillment centers and delivery stations in North Carolina. Based on these impacts, the research team will provide guidance for future Traffic Impact Analysis (TIA) and approval processes for these facilities. These issues are of critical importance to the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) in several ways, but most crucially in that a) NCDOT is responsible for design and oversight of TIA on state roads, b) NCDOT is often called upon to fund extensive road infrastructure projects to support new fulfillment centers, c) NCDOT is financially and logistically responsible for maintaining road infrastructure that serves these centers, and d) improving traffic safety, including that related to commercial vehicles, is a key priority for NCDOT. Moreover, these goals have been recently highlighted in the context of freight in NCDOT’s Statewide Multimodal Freight Plan. These issues are also of critical importance to a broad spectrum of North Carolina communities. Rural communities are often chosen for siting due to cheap land and ease of approval processes, and can see radical transformations in traffic volumes, affecting safety, air quality, and nearby residents. Urban communities, meanwhile, are often the target markets for these last-mile facilities, and can thereby endure increased commercial traffic volumes, congestion, safety issues, and a documented increasing problem with illegal long haul truck parking. The research team's investigation will provide NCDOT, local municipalities, and other partners with insights to make future decisions about siting, as well as to design long term policy to accommodate the continued growth of e-commerce and the infrastructure that supports it.

    Language

    • English

    Project

    • Status: Active
    • Funding: $233,952.00
    • Contract Numbers:

      RP2025-13

    • Sponsor Organizations:

      North Carolina Department of Transportation

      Research and Development
      1549 Mail Service Center
      Raleigh, NC  United States  27699-1549
    • Managing Organizations:

      North Carolina Department of Transportation

      Research and Development
      1549 Mail Service Center
      Raleigh, NC  United States  27699-1549
    • Project Managers:

      Kim, Jay

    • Performing Organizations:

      University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

      UNC-CH New East Building
      Campus Box #3140
      Chapel Hill, North Carolina  United States  27599-3140
    • Principal Investigators:

      McDonald, Noreen

    • Start Date: 20240701
    • Expected Completion Date: 20251231
    • Actual Completion Date: 0
    • USDOT Program: Transportation, Planning, Research, and Development

    Subject/Index Terms

    Filing Info

    • Accession Number: 01942531
    • Record Type: Research project
    • Source Agency: North Carolina Department of Transportation
    • Contract Numbers: RP2025-13
    • Files: RIP, STATEDOT
    • Created Date: Jan 15 2025 4:11PM