by Walther Ploos van Amstel
The circular economy (CE) brings many opportunities but also many challenges for ports, cities, and their hinterland. The goal of a new paper is twofold. First, the researchers embrace the inherent uncertainty of the spatial impact of the CE on ports and cities. They employ scenario methodology to guide them in steering this uncertainty by …
Dutch Cycloon is stopping its parcel delivery service, resulting in 440 employees losing their jobs. The parcel market has been under pressure for some time. Cycloon says it can no longer compete in that market, pointing to rising costs due to inflation and competitors that could become more sustainable and grow faster. Cycloon (and its …
The Awaken Sleeping Assets Project is a unique collaboration of cities (Paris, Stockholm, Vienna, and Hamburg), industries, and research partners representing four different European countries (Austria, France, Germany, and Sweden). It aims to gather and process relevant information at the local level on obstacles, success factors, logistics parameters, framework conditions, and impacts of sustainable urban …
The ITF project ‘The Final Frontier of Urban Logistics‘ examines various options for tackling the final step in the logistics chain for parcels. Last-mile deliveries are critical, but how can parcels efficiently and securely travel from the delivery vehicle, package locker, or local drop-off location to the recipient’s front door? These very last meters are …
CodeZERO is a transformative three-year initiative to create sustainable, zero-emission, last-mile delivery and return e-commerce solutions. The mission is to make these solutions attractive and viable for retailers, logistics service providers, and consumers. However, this poses a significant challenge for retailers and logistics providers striving to meet these demands while minimizing environmental impact. To create a …
A new paper seeks to identify the most preferred sustainable last-mile delivery business models among e-customers and assess their environmental, economic, and social impacts. The authors surveyed to achieve this and utilized conjoint analysis, the Delphi method, and the MCDM: Promethee-Gaia. The findings reveal that price is the most critical factor influencing e-customers’ delivery methods. …
Last-mile delivery is crucial but often plagued by inefficiencies and high costs due to its complexity. Recent advancements in Edge AI or Edge Intelligence (EI) present promising solutions to these challenges. Edge Intelligence or Edge AI Edge Intelligence or Edge AI moves AI computing from the cloud to edge devices, where data is generated. This …
Despite being a significant component of urban traffic, service trips are often overlooked in academic literature. These trips are primarily undertaken to perform various services, with the transportation of necessary goods being an integral part of the process. As a result, professionals use commercial vehicles for these tasks. A recent paper employs a combination of …
In recent years, online shopping has been rapidly increasing. Optimizing the sorting processes in e-fulfillment centers, combined with direct parcel delivery from these centers to nearby customers, has not been widely studied quantitatively. The primary objective of a recent paper is to determine whether e-fulfillment centers can reduce parcel delivery costs: ‘To what extent is …
The proceedings of the 12th International Conference on City Logistics have been published. The conference focused on urban freight transport issues, models, evaluation methods, and planning approaches. The proceedings present 55 articles. The results of the conference were: Urban freight transport has become a significant issue in city planning due to challenges such as traffic …