by Walther Ploos van Amstel
At the global City Logistics Conference, Professor Joubert presented the results of a study on electric truck deployment for a company in South Africa. Based on models on emissions, costs, charging requirements, customer orders, and routes, he arrived at a mixed fleet with one-third diesel trucks and two-thirds electric trucks as the best solution. The …
There are persistent misunderstandings about the effect of local zero-emission zones on air quality. Clean air is cited as the argument for introducing these zones. But that argument is not as strong as it seems. Clean air is better for our health Yes, clean air is better for our health. Future generations will live longer, …
Implementing circular urban supply chains is a significant economic transformation that can only work if coordination decisions are solved between the actors involved. What are the research challenges in circular urban supply chains? Creating regional ecosystems On the one hand, this requires the implementation of efficient urban collection technologies, where waste collection companies collaborate with manufacturers, …
Car accessibility as a privilege is no longer a given in cities. Inner cities and residential areas are becoming car-free. Residents, visitors, and business owners must deal with it. Car-free is the new normal. Does that also create opportunities for creative companies? Almost two-thirds of Amsterdammers favor fewer car routes through the city and more …
In response to changing consumer markets, retailers are moving to an “omnichannel model,” combining inventory in the physical store with a webshop and home delivery and installation. Delivering and installing heavier products at consumers’ homes is a specialty in the home delivery market like furniture, white goods, and electronics delivery. Dutch web stores deliver consumers …
Professionals refer to the ‘theory’ of disappearing traffic in the recent debate about major traffic interventions. After traffic interventions, traffic magically evaporates. What do we know about this theory? A study (by Cairns, Hass-Klau, and Goodwin from 1998) sought to identify possible case studies of circumstances where road space had been reallocated, whether due to …
New research by lobby group Transport and Environment debunks carmakers’ claims that Euro 7 standards won’t significantly improve the quality. The truck industry organization ACEA says: ‘Significant progress has been made in the EU on reducing air pollution from vehicles, under the current Euro 6/VI standards. Euro 7 is unlikely to make much more of …
Cities are setting up pilots to make parts of their cities car-free. How do we prevent businesses from falling 3:0 behind right from the start? The Amsterdam Weesperstraat is closed to car traffic for six weeks. It is a pilot to see how the city can become car-free. What can the business community do now …
Genuine innovations in city logistics are about sharing. Sharing capacities, vehicles, data, energy, and people. That should start happening in zero-emission city hubs, local neighborhood hubs, and with waterborne transport. Simple, right? But, those innovations often stumble over the distribution of joys and burdens. The public-private revenue models behind them are not obvious (and profitable). …
