by Walther Ploos van Amstel
A group of logistics experts from the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) and the European Supply Chain Forum proposes to have the bulk of the corona vaccines brought to people’s homes and administered in their familiar environment. A hundred trucks outfitted for refrigerated transport with four to ten ‘jabbers’ should suffice. This is not only …
As the impacts of COVID-19 have expanded from immediate healthcare needs to our societies and economies, the resiliency and inefficiencies of global, regional, and local food systems have the potential to become another major consequence of the pandemic. The World Economic Forum (WEF) looks at the urgent actions necessary to secure food systems.
The ALICE Urban Logistics Leadership Team presents actions to prevent an ecological second wave in the supply chain. Several supply chain patterns in place for the last decades are strongly questioned by the COVID-19 crisis. In the last few months, we are living an unprecedented and very fast transformation and transition of society and economy to new …
The significant reduction in vehicle journeys during the COVID-19 lockdown did not reduce the level of toxic fine particles in Scotland’s air, according to experts at the University of Stirling. Analysis of fine particulate air pollution (PM2.5) in the first month of restrictions found little change despite a 65 percent reduction in the number of …
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 …
As an online groceries company, Picnic saw an enormous increase in demand during the start of the Corona crisis. Picnic’s systems suddenly experienced traffic peaks of up to 10 to 20 times the pre-Corona peak traffic. Even though they build their systems for scalability, surges like these exposed unknown challenges. In the Picnic blog, Picnic’s Sander Mak …
Trevor Hoyle, Senior VP of Ground Operations of FedEx, blogs about the COVID-19 pandemic and the permanent, profound changes for society. Attitudes towards home working have changed. Some businesses are moving towards 100% home working. The role of technology will be more dominant, as modern communications have shown what is possible despite physical social distancing.
Walther Ploos van Amstel, a professor in city logistics at Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, looks back on the impact of COVID-19 on city logistics in Amsterdam. Total freight traffic went down 10 to 15 percent at the beginning of the lockdown, but in May 2020 was back at 2019 volumes. The major lesson learned during COVID-19: …
In the logistics sector, uncertainty about a rapid economic recovery dominates. Dutch ABN Amro is predicting about a 7 percent drop in freight volumes in 2020. Other analyzes predict a 10 to 20 percent drop. How do transport companies survive? The COVID-19 crisis has taught that it revolves around three things: data, data, and data.
COVID-19 is generating short-term disruptions and longer-term structural changes, with e-commerce experiencing soaring growth in categories like groceries and home care. Last-mile success will be tough, but getting it wrong could be catastrophic. Eric Hannon, Bernd Heid, Anja Huber, and Christoph Klink of McKinsey & Company present their vision in Automotive World.