by Walther Ploos van Amstel
Across Europe there are examples of existing tram networks being used to attract businesses to use the network for urban freight transport. Could this extension help make a success of trams in other cities in the years ahead? The Guardian reports about a number of European initiatives in Dresden (D) and Saint-Étienne (F). These cities using …
A new set of competitors, on-demand urban delivery providers, has recently entered the B2C delivery market. These start-ups, including Deliveroo and Foodora in Europe, as well as DoorDash and Postmates in the United States, offer a different form of service: they integrate demand aggregation via their own mobile platforms with dedicated in-house operations to enable …
DHL Express has extended its City Hub concept for environmentally-friendly urban deliveries to The Hague (NL) with a new pilot involving electric vehicles. This pilot will also deploy Deutsche Post DHL Group’s StreetScooter electric delivery van in the global DHL Express delivery network for the first time. The City Hub concept was first launched in March 2017 in …
The advent of new technologies in last mile deliveries is about to cause a disruption in the traditional business model applied in city logistics. In this context, identifying new business and operations models and vehicles that could be applied for last mile deliveries in urban areas becomes crucial
The light commercial vehicle, or delivery van, is the workhorse of both companies and the self-employed in the Dutch economy. And with good reason: it is a multifunctional and flexible mode of transport and compared to (smaller) trucks and cars it is also cheap to buy and use. Moreover, a ‘lighter’ drivers license B is sufficient to …
Growth in e-commerce has led to increasing use of light goods vehicles for parcel deliveries in urban areas. A new paper by UK researchers provides an insight into the reasons behind this growth and the resulting effort required to meet the exacting parcel services offered by e-retailers which often lead to poor vehicle utilisation in the …
Since the amount and complexity of urban shipments is increasing drastically, cities are facing new challenges such as illegal parking and more emissions. Common logistic practices need to be reconsidered by all participants to foster smarter urban logistic solutions.
Passenger car occupancy has been falling for years. Partly empty vehicles on our road networks decrease passenger transport sustainability but also contain an opportunity for freight transport. Within crowd logistics, delivery operations are carried out by using passengers’ excess capacity on journeys that are already taking place, resulting in economic, social and environmental benefits.
Walmart says it has begun testing using store employees to make last mile deliveries for online orders. The idea is an expansion on Walmart’s recently launched 2-day shipping program, which lets customers order from over 2 million online items for fast delivery without an annual membership. Walmart said it realized the same trucks could just as easily …
Urban consolidation centres (UCC) are a popular measure in city logistics, which aims at rationalizing delivery trips in an urban area. However, although their environmental benefits have been extensively addressed and documented, many of the implementation cases fail to reach sufficient participation and demonstrate a viable business model. Milena Janjevic from Université Libre de Bruxelles did …