Heleen Buldeo Rai

Heleen Buldeo Rai is a senior researcher at the Mobilise research group of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Supported by a fellowship from Research Foundation – Flanders, she specialises in e-commerce, urban logistics and sustainability. Heleen obtained a PhD in Business Economics at the MOBI research group of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in 2019 in Brussels, Belgium and carried out postdoctoral research at the Logistics City chair of the Université Gustave Eiffel between 2020 and 2022 in Paris, France. Her doctoral thesis is titled “Environmental sustainability of the last mile in omnichannel retail”. Heleen has authored several scientific publications and published a best practice guide on sustainable e-commerce supply chains in 2021. The book was awarded by Platform Innovation in Marketing in 2022. 

RESEARCH

Urban Logistics

Crowd Logistics

Proximity Logistics

E-Commerce

Omnichannel Retail

Sustainability

KEY PUBLICATIONS

Buldeo Rai, H., Kang, S., Sakai, T., Tejada, C., Yuan, Q. J., Conway, A., & Dablanc, L. (2022). ‘Proximity logistics’: Characterizing the development of logistics facilities in dense, mixed-use urban areas around the world. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 166, 41–61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2022.10.007

Buldeo Rai, H. (2021). The net environmental impact of online shopping, beyond the substitution bias. Journal of Transport Geography, 93, 103058. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2021.103058

Buldeo Rai, H., Verlinde, S., & Macharis, C. (2019). City logistics in an omnichannel environment. The case of Brussels. Case Studies on Transport Policy, 7(2), 310-317. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cstp.2019.02.002

Buldeo Rai, H., Verlinde, S., & Macharis, C. (2019). The “next day, free delivery” myth unravelled: Possibilities for sustainable last mile transport in an omnichannel environment. International Journal of Retail and Distribution Management, 47(1), 39-54. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJRDM-06-2018-0104

Buldeo Rai, H., Verlinde, S., & Macharis, C. (2018). Shipping outside the box. Environmental impact and stakeholder analysis of a crowd logistics platform in Belgium. Journal of Cleaner Production, 202, 806-816. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.08.210