Chapter 20: New Trends in the Sustainable Development of Logistics Systems During the Impact of COVID-19

During the development of socio-economic systems with a certain periodicity, there arise crises initiated by the impact of political, financial, economic, epidemiological, and other nature events. Over the past few years, the global community faced the spreading and destabilizing effects of COVID-19 on all areas of life, business, production, commercial and non-commercial structures, and public administration. The chapter attempts to reveal and interpret current trends in the development of socio-economic and transport and logistics systems within COVID-19, revealing the reasons that characterize the emergence of imbalances in economic and transport and logistics systems. Within the framework of the studied topic, the chapter substantiates the necessity of forming forecast values for the sustainable functioning of supply chains, considering the possibility of interpreting the forecast in several variations. The basis for the formation of forecast values of development in the future is the fact that the value and volume of online commerce are already increasing every year. The unprecedented surge in online sales associated directly with the COVID-19 pandemic has brought volumes closer to the futures indicators of 2025. According to expert opinion, electronic sales have every chance to absorb 80% of the market by 2030. The research used classical methods of scientific knowledge, including system analysis, synthesis, graphical interpretation of the given data, comparative analysis, and abstraction. The summarizing part of the research substantiates the author’s opinion on the formation of areas of sustainable operation of logistics companies in the medium term. It is necessary to invest in the development of IT technologies and transport and storage infrastructure of logistic complexes and form optimal paths of transport processes. Logistics companies that will adhere to these recommendations should make clear scripted forecasts in several development options, considering the emergence of crisis and force majeure situations. One of the conclusions of the research is the fact that competition within the framework of global logistics systems, which has expanded to all levels of their organization up to the local one, determines the main success parameters in today’s business, not only the quality and value of the product but, to a greater extent, the time parameters of logistics services, the rapid development of last-mile logistics, and the optimization of intermodal and multimodal operations.