Concepts

Last Mile

Also Known As Last kilometer

Logistics Concept

Citation Formats

General Reference

Transport Atlas. "Last Mile." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://dev-transport.interactiveatlas.org/concepts/last-mile.

APA Style

Transport Atlas. (n.d.). Last Mile. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://dev-transport.interactiveatlas.org/concepts/last-mile

BibTeX

@misc{transportatlas-last-mile,
  author = {Transport Atlas},
  title = {Last Mile},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://dev-transport.interactiveatlas.org/concepts/last-mile},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

The final leg of a journey moving passengers or goods from a transportation hub to the final destination, disproportionately expensive and inefficient relative to the line haul portion. The term was borrowed from telecommunications, where connecting individual homes to the main network posed the analogous difficulty.

Facts

Core Concern

The outsized cost and inefficiency of the final delivery leg 1

Cross-Tradition Connections

Part Of

Logistics

Sources

1. Wikipedia: Last Mile (Transportation)

WikipediaUsage in distribution networks

Quote, Usage in distribution networks

This last leg of the supply chain is often less efficient, comprising up to 53% of the total cost to move goods.

View the Source

1. Wikipedia: Last Mile (Transportation)

WikipediaHistory

Quote, History

'Last mile' was originally used in the telecommunications industry to describe the difficulty of connecting end users' homes and businesses to the main telecommunication network.

View the Source

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