by Walther Ploos van Amstel
Driverless cars have captured imaginations for decades, but the past few years have seen the technology move from dream toward reality. More formally known as autonomous vehicles, these self-driving cars and trucks have the potential to transform not only personal mobility but transportation and delivery as well.
Technology is driving a heightened level of innovation in product and service offerings in the last mile parcel delivery market, and is transforming the way delivery providers interact with their customers. Customers have ever-increasing demands for delivery to be flexible, visible and fast all at a low price.
McKinsey’s latest research reveals that eTrucks could account for 15% of global truck sales by 2030, with favorable segments like urban light duty trucks reaching sales as high as 25 to 35% in China and Europe. This is based on adoption curve scenario modeling for the US, China, and Europe and incorporates the trends of three …
Commercial traffic clogs city streets, contributes to pollution, and drives up the cost of doing business. But there are many ways to do better. Last year, McKinsey and Bloomberg New Energy Finance published An integrated perspective on the future of mobility, which outlined four trends that are rapidly changing passenger transport: electrification, autonomy, connectivity, and sharing.
Urban living labs have become a popular phenomenon. The Living Lab approach would provide real life research with its multiple stakeholders in a co-innovating inclusive setting, crucial in creating metropolitan solutions with impact, that will be adopted smoothly and swiftly by all involved, and thus help achieve prosperous living environments that are more liveable, sustainable, …
With the emergence of e-commerce in grocery retail, the food supply chain faces new challenges. In a new paper Shenle Pan et. al. of MINES ParisTech focus on such a challenge regarding the successful delivery of on line grocery orders.
Customer involvement is regarded as a new way to increase last mile efficiency. Improved delivery designs call for customer involvement although it is not clear how customers can be involved and what the consequences are for organizations and customers involved in the last mile.
Regulatory policies aim at reducing the negative effects of urban freight transportation, especially those related to traffic, emissions and noise. Nonetheless, stakeholders in city logistics often have divergent objectives, which lead to difficulties upon defining the best possible choices regarding regulation. A new paper on HoReCa deliveries in Paris by MINES ParisTech presents a multi-agent …
Several indicators have been established to monitor and evaluate the sustainability of cities. Urban freight and related transportation activities are under represented in these established frameworks despite the substantial negative impact of urban freight on the environment, society and economy. The result is the lack of an understanding of freight flows’ impact on the liveability of …
Many narrow or crowded downtown streets operate informally as shared streets during rush hour or at lunchtime, but are not regulated as such. A commercial shared street environment should be considered in places where pedestrian activity is high and vehicle volumes are either low or discouraged. Commercial shared streets can be designed for narrow or …