Category «Research»

LEAD – Low-Emission Adaptive last mile logistics through digital twins

The LEAD project will create Digital Twins of urban freight networks in six cities in TEN-T urban Nodes, namely Madrid (Spain), The Hague (the Netherlands), Budapest (Hungary), Lyon (France), Oslo (Norway), and Porto (Portugal). These will test and represent different innovative solutions for city logistics to address the requirements of the on-demand economy while aligning competing interests …

Designing a construction logistics control tower for city development

Construction logistics account for 35% of urban freight traffic and emissions in cities. With the growth in construction projects and the plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, better coordination of construction logistics for city development is necessary. TUDelft student Tom Tesselaar wrote his thesis about designing a construction logistics control tower for city development.

Characterizing urban last-mile distribution strategies in e-commerce markets

E-retailers and other companies participating in the e-commerce supply chain are developing a variety of strategies for last-mile e-commerce distribution in urban areas. These strategies must account for a number of elements of local context which can be particularly challenging in emerging markets. Urban last-mile distribution strategies that are specifically tailored to these markets are …

Research: a systematic literature review of urban freight network design

Urban reight network planning and the application of distribution innovations are popular fields of research on sustainable urban logistics. However, considerable research on freight network design lacks a comprehensive consideration of the application of distribution innovations. This observation implies that sustainable urban freight research appears highly fragmented in topics of network design and distribution innovations.

How did Amsterdam food entrepreneurs cope with the COVID-19 crisis

COVID-19 brought the hospitality industry to a standstill. As of early July, one in five Amsterdam (NL) restaurants, cafés, bars, and caterers could not afford to reopen and the industry’s yearly turnover is predicted to decline by over 30 percent. Dutch potato farmers found themselves with a surplus of one billion kilograms and meat producers with cold stores filled …

Electric light commercial vehicles: are they the sleeping giant of e-mobility?

Transport emissions need to be drastically decreased to put Europe on a path towards long-term climate neutrality. Commercial urban freight and last-mile delivery is expected to grow because of the rise of e-commerce. In this frame, electric light commercial vehicles (eLCVs) can be a promising low-emission solution. Literature holistically analyzing the potential of eLCVs as well as …

Research: do commercial vehicles cruise for parking?

Urban curb-space is a scarce resource that must satisfy the concurrent needs of an increasing number of users, including passenger, commercial, ride-hailing, and public transit vehicles. In particular, there is an increasing demand for curb-space for commercial vehicles to park, load/unload, and deliver goods as more people live in urban areas, order more things online, …

Research: exploring benefits of cargo bikes versus trucks for urban parcel deliveries

Urban deliveries are traditionally carried out with vans or trucks. These vehicles tend to face parking difficulties in dense urban areas, leading to traffic congestion. Smaller and nimbler vehicles by design, such as cargo-cycles, struggle to compete in distance range and carrying capacity. However, a system of cargo-cycles complemented with strategically located cargo-storing hubs can …