by Walther Ploos van Amstel
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.
Due to housing plans in many European cities, there is less room for city logistics activities. The loss of light industrial areas in and around cities leads to major city logistics problems. How will we receive our parcels at home, how will restaurants, cafés, and shops be delivered?
In the last few years, the issue of the location of logistics activities emerged in the literature, in Europe, and in the US, especially from the perspective of logistics spatial dynamics as logistics sprawl. These issues of spatial dynamics question urban policies because they underline the lack of interest in freight in the planning process.