by Walther Ploos van Amstel
Changing consumer behavior in Europe is accelerating e-commerce and the demand for city logistics. The kilometers driven by delivery vans increased by 111% between 2016 and 2020 in the Netherlands. While the growth of the city logistics sector enables a wide availability of on-demand delivery services for residents, businesses, and organizations, the sector also contributes …
At the Bloomberg Citylab conference in Amsterdam, I spoke with the mayor of Bogota (Colombia), Claudia López Hernández, about the challenges of megacities in city logistics. Surrounded by mountains, Bogota has transformed itself in recent decades from a city with poor infrastructure and significant safety and security problems to a more sustainable and liveable city. …
City logistics is under attack with more car-free residential areas, congested inner cities, and pedestrianized campuses. In the following years, logistics service providers must deliver more volume with fewer vehicles, safer and cleaner. Logistics service providers should plan city logistics routes carefully, considering local regulations, zero-emission zones, road closures, times windows, loading and unloading points, …
A research paper by Karolina Isaksson and Jens Alm aims to deepen the insights into specific policy and planning prerequisites that affect how bicycle logistics services can be initiated and established in urban environments. Empirical data consist of policy documents and qualitative interviews with bicycle logistics entrepreneurs and local policy actors from four Swedish municipalities, which …
Urban freight logistics currently have to deal with multiple unsustainable conditions. Physical Internet (PI) characteristics promise to make urban freight logistics more sustainable. The PI is a vision that could fundamentally change current logistics operations. Montreuil even thinks that “we face a revolution as radical as the Internet Revolution.” Ballot et al. define the PI …
Urban logistics is characterized by a high degree of freight flow fragmentation, the employment of various delivery methods, and the use of various vehicle capacities. Urban logistics is essential for inhabitants’ quality of life, both negatively and positively. It plays a prominent economic role with significant advantages for multiple stakeholders along complex, dynamic supply chains. …
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 …
Online retail channels increasingly shape consumers’ purchase behavior: we access a diversity of product types through web shops; employ both smartphones and digital screens in stores; navigate the retail space by browsing online; and order pantry items, fresh groceries as well as prepared foods to be delivered at our doorsteps. The profound impact of online …
The eCARe project is a process-based charging management concept for e-car logistics that began in 2021. Until now, research for electromobility has focused on component development or the creation of charging infrastructure for end customers. However, with increasing sales of e-vehicles and global production, there is a need for optimized logistics that take into account …
After months of exploring the topics of Sustainable URban Freight and Zero-Emission Zones for freight – also known as ZEZ-F, the SURF project – a joint effort of Environmental Defense Fund Europe and POLIS Network officially ended. The SURF Final Report is a testament to this exciting and rich adventure. Building upon the How-to Guide on Zero-Emission Zones for Freight, the project has provided cities with …