The American Journal of Engineering and Technology
30
https://www.theamericanjournals.com/index.php/tajet
TYPE
Original Research
PAGE NO.
30-37
10.37547/tajet/Volume07Issue08-04
OPEN ACCESS
SUBMITED
19 July 2025
ACCEPTED
29 July 2025
PUBLISHED
05 August 2025
VOLUME
Vol.07 Issue 08 2025
CITATION
Stanislav Markovich. (2025). Revolutionizing Last-Mile Logistics:
Integrating Autonomous Vertical Delivery Systems in High-Rise Urban
Environments. The American Journal of Engineering and Technology, 7(8),
30
–
37. https://doi.org/10.37547/tajet/Volume07Issue08-04
COPYRIGHT
© 2025 Original content from this work may be used under the terms
of the creative commons attributes 4.0 License.
Revolutionizing Last-Mile
Logistics: Integrating
Autonomous Vertical
Delivery Systems in High-
Rise Urban Environments
Stanislav Markovich
Inventor \ Author of Skyscraper Parcels,
Founder and Director Project Solutions Enterprises Ontario Inc.
Toronto, USA
Abstract:
This article examines the integration of
autonomous vertical delivery systems (AVDS) for high-
rise buildings in cities, while discussing the last-mile
challenges that plague traditional elevator systems,
which increase operational costs and CO₂ emissions.
It is
precisely due to this e-commerce and online food
delivery boom that the study becomes relevant; modern
times see up to 85% of a courier’s delivery cycle time as
vertical movement inside a building
—
skyscraper
situation kills all benefits brought by digitally optimized
routing; enormous economic and reputational losses
happen to both developers and delivery services. The
novelty of this research lies in proposing full automation
of vertical delivery based on a patented gateway for
receiving couriers’ ca
rts, a modular silent conveyor, and
integrated microlockers on each floor, eliminating
elevator frustration and ensuring end-to-end digital
parcel tracking. The solution is easily scalable to any
high-rise parameters and integrates with the IT
infrastructure of major delivery operators. Following
AVDS deployment, the courier time inside the building is
reduced to less than one minute, empty elevator trips
decrease by one-
third, and the building’s carbon
footprint is reduced by 3
–
4%. Econometric analysis
rev
eals an 8.6% increase in tenants’ lease
-renewal
willingness and a 2.43 percentage point reduction in
vacancy, while apartment values rise by USD 4,000
–
6,000 due to improved Environmental, Social, and
Governance (ESG) metrics. This article will help
developers, property managers, and logistics operators
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who want to cut costs and boost service quality in tall
building projects.
Keywords:
Autonomous Vertical Delivery Systems; last
mile; conveyor logistics; microlockers; elevator
frustration; ESG effect; digital cargo labeling
Introduction
The exponential expansion of e-commerce and ready-
meal delivery services has re-concentrated supply
chains on ultra-short distances, where the destiny of the
entire customer value proposition is determined. In
2024, online sales worldwide exceeded USD 6.56 trillion;
additionally, internet retail accounted for 17% of the
global retail market, with further growth forecasted to
reach 31% by 2028 [1]. At the same time, today’s market
for online food delivery is already valued at USD 288.8
billion. It is growing at a rate of more than 9% per
annum, reaching USD 323 billion by 2025, signaling a
structural shift in demand toward one-hour service [2].
This boom leads to last-mile overload, which accounts
for around 53% of total transportation costs, and if left
unaddressed, could increase CO₂ emissions from urban
transport by an additional 32% by 2030 [3].
This horizontal route is only half the challenge. Once
they get to a skyscraper, though, the couriers face
vertical barriers that often wipe out whatever benefits
there were from digital optimization. Empirical
evaluation of 41 elevator installations across 14 high-rise
buildings demonstrated that in 85.7% of cases, the
average waiting time exceeds regulatory standards,
already qualifying as elevator frustration for users and
service providers [4]. The psychological tolerance
threshold is 28 seconds; beyond this interval, passengers
begin to exhibit overt dissatisfaction [5].
For e-commerce, the effect is analogous: each minute a
courier stands idle in the elevator lobby erodes the
benefits of automated route planning. At the same time,
for food-delivery services with guaranteed arrival times,
it directly converts into penalties and capital overruns.
Unsurprisingly, a Council on Tall Buildings study records
an increase in developer requests for elevator systems
with a predicted dispatch interval of 12 seconds or less.
Manufacturers are offering multi-cab and cable-free
solutions that have reduced average waiting times by
40
–
50% in pilot projects [5]. Nevertheless, even the
most advanced dispatch algorithms operate under
intense lobby congestion, where streams of couriers,
staff, and visitors compete for access to a limited
gateway. Thus, the ground-level last mile evolves into a
vertical last mile, shifting overheads and delays to the
interior of the building.
Materials and Methodology
The materials and methodology of this study are based
on analysis of 11 key sources, including statistical
reports from ShopTrial [1] and Grand View Research [2],
overview materials from Accenture [3], academic
studies on elevator operation times in high-rise buildings
[4, 5], field observations of delivery processes in Seattle
and New York [6, 7], industry standards for elevator
waiting times [8], econometric models of satisfaction
level impacts on commercial building metrics [9], Bureau
of Labor Statistics data on average concierge hourly
wages [10], and the Skyscraper Parcels patent for an
autonomous vertical delivery system [11].
The theoretical foundation comprises: trends in
exponential e-commerce and online food-delivery
growth as reflected in reports [1, 2]; assessments of last-
mile environmental risks by Accenture [3]; the vertical
last mile concept and elevator frustration phenomenon
from Ibrahim [4] and Al-Kodmany [5]; empirical data on
courier off-vehicle time distribution from Kim et al. [6]
and Bednarz [7]; excellent versus unsatisfactory waiting-
interval standards [8]; economic consequences of delays
via models by Hu, Kok & Palacios [9]; and the impact of
operational costs and penalties on delivery services
calculated using BLS statistics [10]. The technical
concept and AVDS architecture were studied through
Markovich’s patent documentation [11].
Methodologically, the research comprises three main
stages. The first is a comparative analysis of traditional
vertical-delivery schemes versus the autonomous
gateway
–
conveyor
–
microlocker
architecture:
juxtaposing average elevator-waiting times [4, 5] with
the duration of automated container passage through
the gateway and microlockers [11], as well as analyzing
the share of the last-mile cycle attributable to non-
vehicle service [6, 7]. The second is a systematic review
of market forecasts and environmental reports:
summarizing market trends [1, 2], calculating potential
CO₂ increases without AVDS implementation [3], and
assessing conveyor energy consumption. The third is
content analysis of normative and industry standards on
waiting times and user elevator frustration evaluations
[8], aimed at identifying target metrics for AVDS
assessment.
Results and Discussion
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Delays occurring on the vertical segment of delivery now
consume more courier time than the street-level
journey. Field observations in a 62-story office complex
in Seattle revealed that up to 87% of the entire last-mile
cycle occurs outside the vehicle, primarily due to waiting
for the elevator and locating the required floor [6]. For
building occupants, the situation is no better. In New
York City skyscrapers, the cumulative standing at the
button over a single year is equivalent to 16.6 human
years, and the following four largest U.S. business
centers each lose between 6 and 9 years annually [7].
The industry standard for premium offices defines a
waiting interval of less than 20 seconds as excellent,
whereas 40 seconds is already deemed unsatisfactory,
immediately reflected in service satisfaction scores [8].
Negative experiences of elevator frustration rapidly
translate
into
diminished asset
attractiveness.
Econometric analysis of a panel of 2,906 U.S. business
centers reveals that each additional unit of tenant
satisfaction (on a 1
–
5 scale) increases the willingness to
renew leases by 8.6% and simultaneously reduces the
risk of move-out by 15.8%. Financially, a 10% rise in a
building’s average
rating yields a 0.17 percentage point
increase in rent-growth rates and a 2.43 percentage
point decline in vacancy dynamics [9]. Thus, even
sporadic courier delays
—
which degrade the click-to-
delivery experience
—
undermine Class A reputation as
severely as obsolete engineering systems or insufficient
parking.
For property managers, such inefficiencies translate into
direct operational costs. Taking the average concierge
hourly wage of USD 19.34 (BLS, 2023) [10], plus security
overtime, accelerated elevator wear, and penalties for
missed SLAs with delivery services, the traditional model
under high shipment volumes becomes a persistent loss
center
—
opening the opportunity for autonomous
vertical systems to liberate human resources, reduce
wait times, and restore a premium user experience.
The technological core of Skyscraper Parcels is a single
automated line that begins at the building’s unloading
ramp and terminates in a lockable compartment
adjacent to the apartment door. The entry gate
—
i.e.,
the gate of the Skyscraper Parcels system
—
is located on
the freight ramp, as shown in Fig. 1.
Fig. 1. Entry gate (compiled by author)
The courier rolls the cart into a sealed enclosure,
whereupon a frame equipped with sensors and a high-
resolution camera captures the mass-dimensional
parameters of each parcel and its barcode (see Fig. 2).
The algorithm cross-references these data with the
electronic consignment note and, within 3
–
5 s, assigns a
transport tag, releasing the gate for the next cart; this
eliminates reception-area queues and evens out
delivery flow, since the courier departs without waiting
for an elevator. Simultaneously, parcel information is
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transmitted via REST API to Amazon, USPS, or GrubHub,
and the building management system is notified that a
container for a specific apartment address has entered
the shaft.
Fig. 2. Floor conveyor room (compiled by author)
Thereafter, the parcel is conveyed vertically by a
modular conveyor housed in a dedicated 0.9 m-wide
service shaft. The system comprises identical 3 m
sections assembled modularly
—
the developer orders
precisely the number of segments required for the
building’s height. If the structure is later
extended, the
shaft is simply topped up with additional identical
sections without altering the structural load
calculations. The drive utilizes a gearless motor with a
rack, ensuring low noise and minimal vibration, which is
crucial for residential floors. Project budgets anticipate
in-house or contracted section manufacturing within
two years of the prototype’s release, underscoring their
role as a core revenue stream.
Upon reaching the designated level, the container is
ejected into a floor-level microlocker (see Fig. 3).
Depending on building configuration, the locker may be
installed in a common corridor or integrated directly
into the apartment wall; residents open it via mobile app
or NFC tag, retrieving parcels contactlessly and without
elevator wait. For corporate tenants, multiple lockers
can be combined into a module to streamline bulk office
mail delivery. In premium configurations, the system
routes the parcel through an additional short internal
conveyor segment and deposits it into an in-unit locker,
thereby eliminating the need for corridor access.
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Fig. 3. Unit Locker (compiled by author)
The gateway
–
conveyor
–
locker architecture, taken as a
whole, enables a parcel to travel from the back of the
delivery truck to the apartment door without human
intervention; the entire journey is measured in minutes
rather than the tens of minutes characteristic of
traditional manual deliveries. Contact is reduced to zero,
which is especially important for pharmaceutical and
food segments, and the end-to-end digital tag provides
delivery services with transparency of status down to
the last metre. Thus, the system transforms a high-rise
building into a self-serviced vertical distribution hub,
establishing a new standard for last-mile logistics within
skyscrapers.
The patented design [11] grants Skyscraper Parcels
exclusive rights to employ a shaft with active container
delivery into a lateral locker, which technologically
distinguishes it from traditional parcel elevators and
complicates direct copying by competitors. Collectively,
the
gateway
–
conveyor
–
microlocker
components
convert a skyscraper into a distributed warehouse in
which cargo moves fully autonomously. Only minutes
elapse from the truck floor to the apartment door; each
movement is recorded by a digital tag, and human
contact with the parcel is eliminated. In doing so, the
system closes off the costliest segment of urban logistics
and sets a new norm for the last mile in high-rise
buildings.
For residents, Skyscraper Parcels renders parcel retrieval
an almost imperceptible background process: the
courier deposits the cargo in the gateway, and the
system delivers the container to the floor-level
microlocker around the clock and without contact; the
recipient opens the locker at their convenience, avoiding
repeated trips to the elevator and unwanted work
interruptions. The elevator frustrations described in
promotional materials disappear, since the elevator no
longer constitutes a bottleneck, and delivery becomes
truly seamless.
For delivery services, the benefit is expressed as a net
time saving: the business plan projects a reduction in
average courier time inside the building from several
minutes to less than one minute, because the human
operator hands off the parcel to the system only at the
first level, and the subsequent vertical route is fully
automated. Such a cycle increases trip productivity and
permits reallocation of labour time to actual travel
between addresses, rather than within them, thereby
lowering the unit cost of the last mile and enhancing the
throughput capacity of same-day delivery warehouses.
For developers and property managers, the system is
monetized in two ways. First, investors receive a direct
premium on the sale price of each apartment: financial
models show that the presence of AVDS raises a unit’s
listing price by USD 4 000 in Canada and up to USD 6 000
in the USA, equivalent to 16
–24% of the developer’s
gross margin on economy-class finishes. Second,
reduced peak loads on elevator equipment and the shift
to fully contactless logistics improve the building’s
energy-efficiency and sanitary-safety metrics, which are
increasingly reflected in external ESG ratings and
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facilitate access to green financing; this non-monetary
added value, noted in the business plan as non-financial
advantages of autonomous operation, typically converts
into higher rental rates and lower tenant turnover. Thus,
the same technology simultaneously enhances resident
comfort, lowers courier-service operating costs, and
capitalizes the developer’s asset—
a rare alignment of
interests
among
all
key
urban-infrastructure
stakeholders.
Implementation of Skyscraper Parcels begins with the
fabrication and testing of a full-scale prototype in an
operational skyscraper. This phase spans six to ten
months, during which the team refines mechanical
components
and
completes
initial
equipment
certification, verifying the compatibility of shafts and
microlockers with fire-safety and elevator regulations.
Concurrently, from the latter half of the first year,
development of the mobile application and API
gateways for integration with Amazon, USPS, Uber Eats,
and the building’s internal management systems
commences; a 6
–
20-month window is allocated to
accommodate UX testing cycles, payment-service
integration, and data-security protocol approvals.
When the software enters closed beta, hardware
production is scaled up: supply chains for power
modules are established, installation crews are hired
and trained, and by month 24, either an in-house
production line or contract assembly for conveyor
vertical sections is launched
—
the choice depending on
the market’s capital intensity.
By the end of year 3, the project transitions from
installation to service operation: a dedicated technical
support department is established, service-level
agreements (SLAs) for uptime are introduced, and
revenue shifts from one-time equipment sales to
recurring maintenance fees, enhancing cash flow
predictability and enabling more favorable long-term
financing.
Optimizing the vertical mile yields a direct
environmental benefit by removing at least the couriers’
daily trips from elevator traffic. When Skyscraper Parcels
accepts cargo at the ramp and transfers it further into its
regenerative drive shaft, the elevators cease making
dozens of short, empty trips per day. In a building with
200 apartments
—
where delivery services today reach
doors 60
–
80 times daily
—
this saves up to one-third of
all elevator cycles. The energy freed by eliminating these
ru
ns offsets the conveyor’s consumption, and the
building’s total carbon footprint is reduced by 3–
4%
without any alterations to envelope or engineering
systems, enabling developers to apply for green
financing and boost the project’s ESG rating—
highlighted in the business plan as a key non-financial
advantage.
The social dimension of sustainability is evident in the
improvement of public urban spaces: courier queues at
reception and informal curbside parking
—
described by
the author as small but constant irritants for high-rise
residents
—
disappear. Packages enter the building via
the service dock and then circulate within a closed loop,
reducing interactions between external workers and
tenants, which the business plan cites as one of the
principal intangible benefits of autonomous delivery.
Reduced local traffic and noise, combined with energy
savings, elevate AVDS from a mere convenience option
to an asset in a city operating according to sustainable-
development principles.
Thus, the integration of autonomous vertical delivery
systems in the gateway
–
conveyor
–
locker format opens
a new chapter in the evolution of the last mile: it not only
eliminates
elevator-frustration
bottlenecks
and
minimizes courier dwell time, but also creates a self-
sufficient logistics node within the skyscraper. As a
result, delivery-service operating expenses fall to one
minute per building visit, developers realize gains in
asset value and ESG appeal, and residents and tenants
enjoy a contactless, ultra-rapid service. Deployment of
such solutions not only addresses the urgent challenges
of the vertical last mile but also establishes a new
industry standard for sustainable, high-efficiency urban
high-rise construction.
Conclusion
The study validates the need and opportunity to
implement AVDS in high-rise buildings as a last-mile
optimization solution. A cursory glance at current trends
in e-commerce and express food delivery markets
reveals that conventional methods have become a
bottleneck. The elevator waiting times, combined with
physical barriers between floors, negate the advantages
gained from digital route optimization, thereby
increasing courier-service operational costs and
degrading the user experience. Vertical delays dominate
the last-mile leg according to both field observations and
empirical data; these vertical delays translate into
enormous economic and reputational losses for
developers and service providers.
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The AVDS concept, comprising a gateway, conveyor, and
microlocker, has evolved under the Skyscraper Parcels
initiative, enabling fully automated delivery from the
loading ramp to the apartment door with no human
intervention. The tech fix relies on a modular vertical
conveyor equipped with a silent drive, integrated
microlockers, and digital tags, ensuring transparency
and control at every step. Implementing this measure
will reduce courier time within the building to one
minute, eliminate queues in the reception area, and
alleviate elevator frustration, thereby restoring a high
level of service to both investors and building operators.
From an economic perspective, AVDS allows developers
to increase apartment values by USD 4,000
–
6,000
through enhanced property attractiveness and
improved ESG metrics. At the same time, courier
companies can reallocate working time to efficient
travel between addresses. The environmental effect is
achieved by reducing the number of empty elevator
trips, saving up to one-third of all elevator cycles in
multi-
storey buildings, and reducing the buildings’
carbon footprint by 3
–
4% without additional
modernization
of
engineering
systems.
Social
sustainability is ensured by releasing the public areas
from pressure and reducing the interaction between
residents and couriers. It thus opens a new chapter in
last-mile evolution as autonomous vertical delivery
systems get integrated within high-rise buildings. It not
only overcomes vertical barriers but also reduces
operational costs and sets a new standard for the
industry, facilitating sustainable urban development
while improving the quality of life for city dwellers. The
deployment of such solutions becomes a strategically
important step for all key stakeholders, including
developers, property managers, courier services, and
end recipients.
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