by Walther Ploos van Amstel
In the era of e-commerce and climate change, sustainability in last-mile delivery is an important factor. More online shopping and more fast shipping mean more vehicles on the road with lower utilization, higher frequency of deliveries, and more stops per route. These conditions have a direct impact on the environmental footprint of last mile.
Unprecedented opportunities and challenges shape the future of mobility of people and the transportation of cargo. New technologies including vehicle and system automation, connected driving, and electric propulsion, as well as shared-economy based, information system supported and data-driven services, pose endless possibilities.
Since the first edition of the SUMP Guidelines was published in late 2013, it has acted as the main European reference document for urban transport and mobility practitioners involved in the development and implementation of Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs).
The collaboration between the French associations Aslog, Institut du Commerce et Club Déméter has launched a joint initiative called Voluntary Commitment for an Efficient Urban Logistics (E.VO.L.U.E). By bringing together their teams, mobilizing their members and the pooling of their work and data, the initiative aims at building bridges with the territories by proposing solutions …
Paris and London are Europe’s two megacities. Both experience poor air quality with systemic breaches of the NO2limit value. Policy initiatives have been taken to address this; some European-wide (e.g. Euro emission standards) and others local (e.g. Low Emission Zones). A study by Font et. al. evaluated trends in NOX, NO2 and particulate matter (PM10, …
During Digital Food, the new congress of Emerce and Foodlog, Albert Heijn gave a sneak preview of the latest innovation the Dutch supermarket is working on: a delivery robot. This summer, a robot is going to work for customers on the High Tech Campus Eindhoven (NL).
The German NCP project “Cargo Bike Depot: implementing of depots in inner cities” investigates the traffic-, logistic- and citizen-friendly implementation of load handling nodes for cargo bikes in urban areas. One component of the research is the investigation of the effect of high cargo bike traffic intensities induced by the transshipment nodes on city streets …
A new innovative facility in Tel Aviv is aiming to put the leading retailers of the world to shame with a new automated grocery delivery center that uses robots to provide product fulfillment way faster than human beings ever could. CommonSense Robotics, has done a lot of research and gotten a lot of things right …
This year the Mayor introduced the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ), where drivers of older, more polluting vehicles will now be charged to enter the congestion zone area at all times. This is part of a wider effort from the public and private sectors alike to tackle the issue of air and traffic pollution across …
Addressing the environmental and infrastructure challenges caused by the growth in e-commerce deliveries, Magway has won co-funding support from Innovate UK via its Emerging and Enabling Technologies competition. Magway is a “delivery utility”, delivering parcels between distribution centers and consolidation centers via underground pipelines similar to those used by water, gas and electricity companies.