by Walther Ploos van Amstel
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the relevance of goods delivery in urban areas. However, this activity often generates a negative environmental impact. Several technologies have been proposed in recent years to reduce it, thus forming a complex innovation landscape characterized by different levels of maturity and effects on the City Logistics (CL) system. This complexity …
The urban freight sector provides an essential service by delivering goods that shops, companies, and households require at a specific place and time. However, the growth of e-commerce and the dawn of on-demand logistics (after this ODL) have raised citizens’ expectations of logistics systems, further stressing them and increasing their operational and environmental costs. There …
While the number of deliveries has been increasing rapidly, infrastructure such as parking and building configurations has changed less quickly, given limited space and funds. This may lead to an imbalance between supply and demand, preventing the current resources from meeting the future needs of urban freight activities. A study by the Department of Civil …
A new paper by Mikael Kervall and Henrik Pålsson presents a systematic review covering 93 peer-reviewed journal articles. The study was designed to advance earlier research in this area by providing a system perspective on barriers to development in urban freight systems. The theoretical knowledge about these barriers was analyzed and synthesized, the relationships between …
Finding a sustainable mobility solution for the future is one of the most competitive challenges in the logistics and mobility sector. As a result, policymakers, researchers, and companies are working intensively to provide novel, environmentally friendly, and sustainable options. While autonomous car-sharing services have been introduced as a promising solution, an innovative alternative is the …
Growing urbanization, climate change, and the increasing use of home delivery require new ideas on how to solve transportation-related problems in urban areas. The cargo bike, once a common mode of transport, played a minor role in the last decades of motorization. Yet, the cargo bike is ideally suited for inner-city transportation. It is quiet, …
While cities focus on making logistics more and more environmentally sustainable by implementing “green deals,” the potential impact of the increase of cargo bikes remains unclear. A thesis by Groningen student Youri Meerstra investigates perceived safety that residents experience with a potential increase in cargo bikes, in this case, the residents of the inner city …
In a new dissertation Pauline van Beusekom has explored the phenomenon of logistic response to food safety incidents in food supply chains. As it is impossible to prevent all food safety incidents, food actors need to be prepared to design an effective logistic response for these incidents, as health, political and business risks can be …
Exposure to particulate matter can have serious consequences, including respiratory diseases and the aggravation of cardiovascular diseases. In the Netherlands, 9,000 people die prematurely yearly due to particulate matter exposure. Therefore, a different approach is needed if we want to win the battle against particulate matter and permanently improve air quality in the Netherlands. Based …
Over the last two years, Europe’s increases in online shopping and delivery show no signs of waning. As a result, parcel delivery vehicles make up one of the most significant heavy-duty vehicle segments by volume in Europe, recording a market share of 11% in 2020. Fortunately, their predictable schedules and relatively short routes make last-mile …