by Walther Ploos van Amstel
What if the neighbors came to deliver your parcels from now on? It was a hilarious idea from the Dutch TV program Koefnoen in 2016. Okko and Eus walk with their wagon through the neighborhood, delivering parcels. With all the car-free plans, there may be a future in community shipping as a sustainable option for …
At the Global City Logistics Conference 2023, Professor Joubert presented the results of a study on electric truck deployment for a company in South Africa. The results show that electrifying an entire fleet may not be viable initially, suggesting a hybrid fleet as a more practical intervention in the foreseeable future. Based on models on …
There are persistent misunderstandings about the effect of local zero-emission zones on air quality. Clean air is cited as the argument for introducing these zones. But that argument is not as strong as it seems. Clean air is better for our health Yes, clean air is better for our health. Future generations will live longer, …
Car accessibility as a privilege is no longer a given in cities. Inner cities and residential areas are becoming car-free. Residents, visitors, and business owners must deal with it. Car-free is the new normal. Does that also create opportunities for creative companies? Almost two-thirds of Amsterdammers favor fewer car routes through the city and more …
In response to changing consumer markets, retailers are moving to an “omnichannel model,” combining inventory in the physical store with a webshop and home delivery and installation. Delivering and installing heavier products at consumers’ homes is a specialty in the home delivery market like furniture, white goods, and electronics delivery. Dutch web stores deliver consumers …
Small transport companies that want to go electric will never succeed. But should we want them to? That was an exciting question at a workshop on grid congestion with companies offering renewable energy. The Dutch National Charging Infrastructure Agenda has found numerous solutions to grid congestion. However, those measures cost money and require scarce materials …
A lot of bullshit is written about air quality and traffic. But, unfortunately, lazy media blindly take over the screaming press releases about the hundreds of thousands of deaths without delving into the different types of air pollution and the causes; fake news. A new report by the lobby organization CleanCities on traffic and NO2 …
City logistics must be organized more sustainably and eventually decarbonize. To this end, the focus is mainly on electrification as a technical measure, whereby electric equivalents eventually substitute conventional vehicles. There are, however, numerous decarbonization strategies for city logistics, some of which aim to reduce the number of vehicle movements by changing demand, more collaboration …
Supply chains, city logistics, and freight transport have been pressured to improve productivity, quality, and sustainability. But unfortunately, conventional practice methods cannot respond to this industry’s ever-growing challenges and needs. The development of contemporary city logistics education has the utmost importance. New methods/technologies have emerged to respond to this issue, making urban freight logistics a …
In developing (circular) city logistics innovations, we often discuss creating ecosystems to address the systemic questions involving multiple stakeholders in these value chains. For example, recently, we posted about how ecosystems differ from and relate to supply chains. Innovating firms often need to rely on other actors in their innovation ecosystem to achieve a complex …